Scientific Language Research Articles

University foreign language teachers` views on classroom management for science students in Russia and China

Introduction. The relevance of the study is determined by a considerable growth of cooperation between Russian and Chinese universities and increasing academic mobility involving both teachers and students of the two countries. The aim if the study is to find out and analyze how university foreign language teachers of non-language students in two different countries understand and implement generally shared theoretical and practical assumptions concerning foreign language teaching and learning in their local contexts. Materials and methods. 60 respondents (university foreign language teachers of science students from Russia and China) participated in the study. The teachers filled out a questionnaire that included both open- ended and close-ended (multiple choice) questions. Results. The outcomes of the study reveal that the teachers are familiar with the main models and approaches to foreign language education. They seem to have a very close understanding of the characteristics of the modern university foreign language classroom. All 100% of the participants demonstrated their knowledge of leading models and approaches to foreign language teaching, with 93% of teachers from Russia and 60% of teachers from China being familiar with the ESP model, which is the most well-known in both countries. The STEAM teaching model turned out to be the least known in both countries, with 33% of Chinese teachers and 47% of respondents from Russia being familiar with it. Nevertheless, the choice of the didactic tools that they use differs due to the influence of external factors and national educational traditions (specific approaches to control arrangement, number of the students in the classroom, students` learning preferences, etc.). Conclusion. The authors attempted to identify a few world major tendencies in university foreign language science student education and explored how they are practically implemented in particular universities with foreign language teachers in two different countries. The outcomes revealed a certain gap between theoretical assumptions and everyday practices in professional foreign language education in both countries. Thus, the authors approached the issue under discussion from a different perspective and confirmed the effects of teacher national traditions on their practices. As exchange programs and partnership networks in the field of education, science and technology between Russian and Chinese universities are becoming wide spread, the demand for experts in teaching languages in both countries is growing immensely. These experts, representing universities from both sides, need to find a common language concerning their teaching approaches, strategies, and didactic tools. The study outcomes can be one of the steps in this area. In addition, they can be used in the teachers` in-service training.

Figures of Older Individuals and Perceptions of Old Age in Greek and Roman Mythology

The contributions of mythical older adult figures to today’s vocabulary and literature were studied by assessing the perception of aging in the axis of older adult characters in Greek and Roman mythology. The narratives about older individuals and old age were studied using the “discourse analysis” approach, and the profound effects of ideas and perceptions in mythology today were explored. Aside from those shown as physically collapsed, unhappy, and dirty, as in the Geras example, Greek and Roman mythology is rich in images of aged people; there are also individuals such as Mentor, Silenus, and Chiron who are regarded to be knowledgeable, skilled, and experienced wise men. Furthermore, characters like Tithonus, Proteus, and Mentor, whose traits inspired and contributed terminologically to numerous fields such as medicine, nursing, psychology, and educational sciences, are crucial in illustrating mythology’s contributions to the modern age. Older adult characters in Greek and Roman mythology, such as Tiresias and Sbyl, rose to prominence due to their prophetic powers, demonstrating the link between old age and prophetic ability. In Greek and Roman mythology, older adult characters exhibit a wide range of complex qualities. For this reason, the older adults figures and discourse in Greek and Roman mythology contributed significantly to the studies of aging and scientific literature and revealed the origins of the aging perception in several ways. Examining this mythical discourse reveals its contributions to scientific language and the traces left in social memory.

Enhancing Science Competence: Evaluating the Effects of Peer Instruction and Conceptual Questions on Theoretical, Axiological, and Applied Knowledge in Physics Education

This study evaluates the impact of the Peer Instruction method combined with Conceptual Questions on students’ science competence in physics. The research focused on three components of science competence: theoretical knowledge, axiological knowledge, and applied knowledge. Implemented over the 2023-2024 academic year in three 7th-grade classes, the method showed significant improvements in students’ theoretical knowledge and applied knowledge, particularly in solving problem situations and scientific language use. Axiological knowledge, including metacognition and attitude toward physics, improved moderately. Data analysis, including Shapiro-Wilk and Wilcoxon Paired Samples tests, indicated substantial enhancements in academic success and conceptual understanding. The study concludes that Peer Instruction effectively enhances science competence, though challenges remain in evaluating the application of definitions and measurement units. This approach promotes active learning and collaborative problem-solving, beneficial for comprehensive science education.

The Dictionary of Musical Terminology (1930) as an Artifact of Culture of the First Third of the 20th Century and a Historical Source of Modern Musical and Lexicographic Research

One of the first Ukrainian music dictionaries is analyzed in the article. Such books have marked collectively the formation of musical lexicography as a separate section of Ukrainian musicology. This is A Dictionary of Musical Terminology, prepared and published by the Institute of Ukrainian Scientific Language of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (1930). The article is aimed at the to understanding of the mentioned work as the monument of science, through which the content of Ukrainian musical culture of the first third of the 20th century is read – the state of its structure, contacts and typological kinship with contemporary European trends and achievements in music and musicology, peculiarities of one’s own musicological tradition, etc. At the same time, the chosen text is analyzed as a historical source of modern musical and lexicographical studies. The specified special analisys of this outstanding monument of Ukrainian musicology has not been carried out before. This determines the novelty of the submited research. The following methods are used in the work: phenomenological – in the differentiated study of various aspects of the lexical content of the Dictionary of Musical Terminology in its synchronous and diachronic connections with the processes of the development of culture and science; historical – in the interpretation of the chosen musicological text as an artifact of culture of the first third of the 20th century; new historicism in the intertextual analysis and reinterpretation of the analyzed text as well as relevant textual and contextual interactions taking into account the current state of Ukrainian musical lexicography. The conclusions of the conducted research are related to the understanding of the importance of the analyzed Dictionary of Musical Terminology for modern musical and lexicographic research, the unity of the history of Ukrainian musicological science.

Between 1939 and 1941 An Evaluation on C.H.P. Conference Series and Social Darwinism Within the Framework of Efforts to Transform Society

This study attempts to analyze the “C.H.P. Conferences Series” organized by the leading academics of the period acrossthe country at a time when the codes of the Republic of Turkey were being rewritten from the perspective of Social Darwinism, one of the dominant paradigms of the period. The study focuses primarily on the intellectual currents that shaped the C.H.P. Conferences. Social Darwinism, which became a dominant paradigm in the West in the period between the two world wars, left its mark on the relevant period, although it was applied in different ways in various countries. In Hitler’s Germany, in particular, it became state policy and the whole of society was sought to be shaped by this idea. In Germany and other countries, science was used as a legitimizing basis. Eugenics, the most popular concept of Social Darwinism, sterilized people, banned interracial marriages and reduced and defined human biology. In Turkey, the newly established regime and its elites turned towards the West, saw it as a target and tried to build their society accordingly. This situation was idealized as “contemporary civilization”. In the three-year period between 1939 and 1941, a group of leading academics of the period launched a mobilization under the name “C.H.P. Conferences Series” in order to accustom society to their ideas and ideals. In these conferences, it can be seen that an attempt was made to explain all aspects of social life to the participants within the framework of the evolutionary paradigm, the scientific language of the time, and its main extension, Social Darwinism. In this study, after first presenting the various reflections of the relevant paradigm in the West, the works that were later published in twenty-four fascicles were subjected to a qualitative analysis within the concepts of social Darwinism and the relationship between them was tried to be revealed. In this way, the direction of social change in the Single Party Period is attempted to be understood.

'Some parts of the consent form are written using complex scientific language’: community perspectives on informed consent for research with pregnant and lactating mothers in Uganda

BackgroundAppropriate language use is essential to ensure inclusion of diverse populations in research. We aimed to identify possible language-related barriers regarding the informed consent process and propose interventions to improve clarity and understanding of pregnant and breastfeeding women participating in research.MethodsA cross-sectional qualitative study employing focus group discussions (FGD) was conducted in Uganda from August 2023 to September 2023, involving a diverse group of stakeholders from the community, including community members, research participants, and Community Advisory Board members. 19 FGD comprised adult participants representing at least six different mother tongues (Luganda, Acholi, Runyankole, Runyoro, Lugbara and English). An inductive thematic approach was utilized for data analysis using NVivo version 12 software to identify language factors that influence informed consent. A series of community validation workshops ensured concurrence.ResultsAt the individual level, language barriers, and low levels of literacy contributed to poor comprehension, thus hindering ability to achieve genuine informed consent. At the health facility level, participants reported that there was use of inappropriate, unclear language including inaccurate translations, with poor and complicated grammar in some consent forms. Participants reported that complex medical terminologies are difficult to translate to local languages. Community members highlighted that social/cultural norms in language use affected cultural perceptions of informed consent. To enhance understanding for individuals without education in science, participants suggested simplification of terminologies and avoidance of complex medical jargon. Researchers should identify participants’ preferred languages and communicate in those languages whenever possible. If researchers are not fluent, trained interpreters should be identified. Informed consent documents must be translated into local languages to ensure participants comprehend the study’s purpose, procedures, risks, and benefits. Involving community members during development and translation of these documents can provide valuable insights into local dialects and culturally specific concepts, ensuring that study tools like surveys and consent forms are accurate and respectful.ConclusionLanguage barriers influence the informed consent process within communities in Uganda. These can potentially be resolved at individual, health system and community levels. Consideration of locally understandable terms in community-facing study documentation is likely to enhance understanding and could improve research participation, although further studies are needed to assess these. The use of appropriate language ensures that informed consent is genuine in keeping with principles of Good Clinical Practice, and developing a research communication strategy should be part of inclusive research design.

The Analisis Keterampilan Komunikasi Ilmiah Siswa SMA melalui Pembelajaran Project Based Learning pada Materi Energi Alternatif

Scientific communication skills are included in the 21st century skills, where this skill refers to an individual's ability to communicate clearly in orally and writing. To determine student’s scientific communication skills, we needed applied learning activities who support this skill and one of them is Project Based Learning learning model. Project based learning is a learning strategy that empowers students to gain new knowledge and understanding. The aim of this research is to analyze scientific communication skills for senior high school students' on alternative energy material. This research is a quantitative descriptive research with a case method design. This research was placed at SMAN 1 Jember in the odd semester of the 2023/2024 academic year. The data collection method used is through tests, observation and documentation. Research data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.The result of this research is known that students' scientific communication skills are included in the quite good category. The best indicator of scientific communication skills is the use of scientific language terms with an achievement of 80%, while the indicators of composing scientific topics, conveying natural phenomena specifically and representing findings or evidence have an achievement of 60%. When observations were made, students had carried out their roles well. Teachers guide and motivate students and students are active and enthusiastic when learning takes place.

The educational value of using bi-lingual instructional practice in students’ Writing Skills in Entomology Course at KUE

This paper reports on small-scale action research conducted with students in the final year of their degree at Kotebe University of Education. We had identified a problem whereby students majoring in Biology tended to express their content knowledge in the form of lists rather than in coherent sentences and complete paragraphs. We consequently designed an intervention that explicitly guided the students to compose short pieces of academic writing within four scientific genres: description, comparison, components and classification. The intervention was evaluated using pre- and post-tests and a student focus group discussion involving around one third of the class. The results showed that after six weeks, all the students were able to write coherent, well-organized paragraphs using appropriate scientific language. Students attributed their improvement to the formative feedback they received throughout the six-week intervention. This small-scale study suggests that cross-curricular language support has considerable potential for developing pre-service teachers’ writing skills. However, realizing this potential requires collaboration between language and other subject teachers. We relate the findings to previous research in Tanzania, which focused on developing pre-service teachers’ pedagogic skills for supporting learners through language transition. The policy implications of using home language (in this case Amharic) as the medium of instruction in higher education institutions where English is the language of instruction should be considered for science teachers. We conclude by arguing for a joined-up approach to teacher education for multilingual education systems and suggest some priorities for further research.

Scientific language versus the academic variety of language, language for academic purposes, academic language

While the Polish scientific language has been shaping since the 16th century, the study of the so-called academic language in Polish language glottodidactics only began in the last decade, albeit its origins can be traced back to works on the didactics of foreign languages for professional and specialist purposes. Academic language emerges at the intersection of general Polish and its scientific communicative-stylistic variety as its specific thematic and situational variant. It should be subdivided into the thematic variant (the so-called academic variety of language) and the situational variant (the so-called language for academic purposes). For foreigners to master it is a three-stage and long-term process. The aim of teaching Polish academic language as a foreign language is to prepare learners to consciously function in the life of academic communiries and to partake in the tasks of the humanities and other disciplines of science.

STEM Language Literacy Learning in Engineering Education in Kazakhstan

The mastery of STEM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics) language literacy is essential for both engineering students and professionals as it enables effective communication using technical terminology and facilitates problem-solving, research, and innovation within the field. However, STEM language proficiency remains an area of improvement within Kazakhstan’s engineering education system. Our research focused on enhancing STEM language literacy learning for Bachelor of Engineering students in Kazakhstan, with a specific emphasis on leveraging digital technologies to support their learning. Our paper outlines the outcomes of the research project titled ‘Enhancing Scientific and Professional Language Learning for Engineering Students in Kazakhstan through Digital Technologies’, conducted at the Saginov Technical University (STU) in Kazakhstan and supported by the Science Committee of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Grant No. AP19678460). This project holds significant promise for advancing engineering education in the country. Throughout this project, our team examined best practices for STEM literacy learning in engineering education globally. We also utilised a comprehensive SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) to identify effective approaches for STEM literacy learning and the successful integration of digital technologies. Ultimately, we developed a framework for enhancing STEM language literacy in engineering education at universities in Kazakhstan.

Home-school relationship in the context of reception of newly arrived emergent bilingual pupils. A comparative and exploratory study between Hamburg (Germany) and Franche-Comté (France).

This Franco-German exploratory and comparative study, rooted in the tradition of interdisciplinary qualitative empirical research (at the crossroads of sociology, language sciences and education sciences), aims at analysing and questioning the representations of the different actors concerning the reception of newly arrived allophone pupils and the home-school relationship in Germany (Gomolla 2009) and France (Asdih 2012, Lasne et al. 2021, Périer 2021), in two specific regions: Hamburg (Germany) and Franche-Comté (France), and in particular in pre-school/kindergarten and primary schools. We rely on various semi-structured interviews with families and educational actors in school in the German and French contexts. In this paper we seek to understand and compare the different relationships (home/school) according to the actors in the two research fields and question, among other things, the importance of the national field with its specific history in relation to welcoming policies and the promotion of the home-school relationship. The results will help to whether and how cooperation between school and newly arrived families can facilitate families’ transition to a new school culture.

The Historical Development and Role of Turkology Centers in the Central Balkans and Their Impact on Teaching Turkish as a Foreign Language

Turkish has always been a matter of curiosity and need outside the borders of the Republic of Turkey. Turkology, which investigates Turk- ishness, the Turkish language and dialects, as well as Turkish culture, civilization, and history, started to develop as a discipline in 19th-century Europe before quickly gaining prevalence. The study of Turkish as a scientific language in the Balkan geography started after the Ottoman Empire had withdrawn from these lands. The first Turkology center in the Balkan geography was established at the University of Belgrade, and the primary purpose behind its establishment was the Serbs’ need to know Turkish to be able to understand their own language and cul- ture. After Belgrade, Turkology centers were opened in other Balkan cities such as Sarajevo and Skopje, and various studies were also being carried out. This study aims to reveal the establishment and historical development of Turkology as a branch of science in the central Balkan countries. Alongside the Turkology centers, the study also discusses the history of teaching Turkish as a foreign language (TTFL) in this region by using qualitative research methods. Based on the obtained data, two main reasons are seen to have emerged for Turkology studies to begin in central Balkan countries. The first has been concluded as the need for the Turkish language to carry out more detailed studies on their language and culture. The second is the presence of the indigenous Turkish people living in North Macedonia and Kosovo.

Evolution and revolution in language and linguistics

Abstract The first issue of Nota BeNe explores the phenomena of evolution and revolution in language science and in language use. Linguistics has evolved over time, making it the versatile discipline it is today, and the field should continue to remain open to new perspectives and critically consider old habits and new approaches. Revolution, peaceful or violent, may emerge when it comes to questions of language, power and identity. The four thematic contributions in this volume discuss questions of evolution and revolution from different angles: by investigating attitudes on language change expressed in Austrian newspapers, by considering Francophone Belgian pupils’ performances in a popular national dictation contest, by unravelling the various denominations used in different domains to refer collectively to Canada’s First Nations, and by discussing to what extent a Dynamic Approach to language could be a more beneficial approach than the commonly adopted static perspective.

Distributional Semantics: Meaning Through Culture and Interaction.

Mastering how to convey meanings using language is perhaps the main challenge facing any language learner. However, satisfactory accounts of how this is achieved, and even of what it is for a linguistic item to have meaning, are hard to come by. Nick Chater was one of the pioneers involved in the early development of one of the most successful methodologies within the cognitive science of language for discovering meaning: distributional semantics. In this article, we review this approach and discuss its successes and shortcomings in capturing semantic phenomena. In particular, we discuss what we dub the "distributional paradox:" how can models that do not implement essential dimensions of human semantic processing, such as sensorimotor grounding, capture so many meaning-related phenomena? We conclude by providing a preliminary answer, arguing that distributional models capture the statistical scaffolding of human language acquisition that allows for communication, which, in line with Nick Chater's more recent ideas, has been shaped by the features of human cognition on the timescale of cultural evolution.

Tracy Alan Hall (2022). Velar fronting in German dialects: a study in synchronic and diachronic phonology. Number 3 in Open Germanic Linguistics. Berlin: Language Science Press. Pp. xx + 896.

Tracy Alan Hall (2022). Velar fronting in German dialects: a study in synchronic and diachronic phonology. Number 3 in Open Germanic Linguistics. Berlin: Language Science Press. Pp. xx + 896.

Evgeny Bronislavovich Pashukanis as a legal theorist

The article analyzes the work of the famous Russian legal scientist, academician E. B. Pashukanis, whose name is most directly connected with the formation of the Soviet theory of state and law, the solution of important issues of doctrinal support for state building in the 1920s – 1930s and the formation of the Soviet legal system. The focus of this study is on the main problems of the content, nature and focus of E. B. Pashukanis’ legal views, the place of his exchange theory of law in the history of political and legal thought. From a methodological point of view, it is important to use modern historiographical approaches to illuminating and analyzing the history of political and legal thought, which allows us to show the specifics of the legal views of an outstanding Soviet lawyer not only as a moment of formation and development of the Soviet theory of states and law, but also from the perspective of continuity and novelty relative to predecessors and contemporaries, in the light of foreign sources, clarification semantic characteristics of scientific language in his works. Along with the methodological aspects, the novelty of the study also lies in the significant clarification of some basic provisions of E. B. Pashukanis’ legal ideas, related, in particular, to the idea of the “extinction of law” in the conditions of the victorious proletarian revolution and the construction of a socialist society, focusing on the theoretical and cognitive techniques of German lawyers of the second half of the XIX century.

Phrasal frequency and literacy as predictors of individual differences in on-line processing and comprehension of English complex NP subject-verb agreement

We present experimental evidence suggesting that frequency and literacy predict online processing and comprehension of subject-verb agreement constructions by adult native speakers of English. We measured participants’ eye fixations, reaction times, and response accuracy in a forced-choice task using audio-visual eye-tracking paradigm. Participants completed a battery of tasks, inc. the Literacy Rating Scale (Tarone et al., Literacy and Second Language Oracy-Oxford Applied Linguistics, Oxford University Press, 2013), Agreement Judgement Task (e.g., Veenstra et al., Frontiers in Psychology 5:783, 2014). The AJT involved matching an auditorily presented subject phrase to one of two images of easily distinguishable colours presented on a computer screen (e.g., stars, circles). Participants heard 42 test sentences, counterbalanced across the three types: Type 1 (e.g., ‘The stars with the circles are blue’), Type 2 (e.g., ‘The star with the circles is blue’) and Type 3 (e.g., ‘The star with the circles are blue’*. Type 1 and Type 2 constructions are considerably more frequent in writing than in speech (Miller et al., Spontaneous spoken language: Syntax and discourse, Oxford University Press on Demand, 1998) with Type 2 producing more attraction errors (Bock et al., Cognitive Psychology 43:83–128, 2001; Becker, L., & Dąbrowska, E. (2020). Does experience with written language influence grammaticality intuitions? UK Cognitive Linguistics Conference: University of Birmingham [conference presentation].). Data were analysed with linear mixed effects models and generalised additive models. Results show lower literacy participants took longer to process sentential cues and made more attraction errors. These findings support usage-based research showing frequency and experience effects on online comprehension of canonical and non-canonical constructions (Farmer, T. A., Misyak, J. B., & Christiansen, M. H. (2012). Individual differences in sentence processing. In Cambridge handbook of psycholinguistics (pp. 353-364)., Street, Language Sciences 59:192–203, 2017), detection and production of agreement attraction errors (Becker, L., & Dąbrowska, E. (2020). Does experience with written language influence grammaticality intuitions? UK Cognitive Linguistics Conference: University of Birmingham [conference presentation].) and demonstrate how linguistic and attentional processes interact (Tomlin and Myachykov, Attention and salience, Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, 2015). They also complement corpus-based studies by providing evidence that native speakers are sensitive to observed distributions (Miller et al., Spontaneous spoken language: Syntax and discourse, Oxford University Press on Demand, 1998).

From “helping peers succeed” to “struggling to develop research questions”: factors that contribute to and detract from science identity in undergraduate learning assistants

Science identity impacts undergraduates’ persistence in their science courses and careers. Here, we investigated science identity in learning assistants, undergraduate peer educators who provide academic and social support in science courses. Understanding learning assistants’ science identities has particular value because of their dual role as science students and peer educators. While previous research has investigated disciplinary identity among physics learning assistants, we extend that work by investigating science identity among students who served as learning assistants in six different science courses, seeking to understand the ways in which they characterize their science identity and the experiences they describe as important in its development. Analysis of twelve interviews revealed three distinct groups of learning assistants: those with lower, intermediate, and high science identities. Recognition by important others, research experiences, and constrictive definitions of science were salient for science identity across all groups, while other experiences had varied salience. Notably, learning assistants with lower science identity described learning to use scientific language as critical for identity development, while learning assistants with the highest science identity found helping others to be an important contributor. Surprisingly, learning assistants with intermediate science identity cited uncertainty about their ability to develop research projects as important for determining their science identity. To communicate the variation in and factors relevant to science identity among learning assistants, we have developed three personas that can serve as tools to help programs and instructors develop robust support for learning assistants’ science identity.

Sense‐Making Through Hybrid Talk: High‐Achieving Secondary Students' Language Use during Practical Work

ABSTRACTThis study contributes to discussions on facilitating students' sense‐making in science by analyzing the utterances of high‐achieving students in dialogues during practical work and identifying characteristics of their language use and learning processes. The context of the study is a general science course at an upper secondary school in Norway. During four lessons, students from two classes conducted three exercises in electrochemistry. Data consist of video recordings from group work and whole‐class dialogues, students' written explanations, and their grades in science. Using the Bakhtinian concept of hybrid constructions (i.e., utterances including both vernacular and scientific elements), we analyze dialogues about scientific concepts and possible explanations for observations made during practical work. The analysis focuses on mixed‐ability groups that include one or two high‐achieving students. These students' successful learning processes enable the identification of language use that is part of sense‐making dialogues. We found that all students participating in dialogues used a mixture of vernacular talk, hybrid constructions, and scientific language during their learning processes. The content of scientific explanations proposed by high‐achieving students initially tended to be correct but superficial. The content then became more complex and hybrid and displayed errors and inaccuracies when students discussed detailed explanatory mechanisms, and finally, it became complex and largely correct. The results indicate that the high‐achieving students' use of hybrid constructions during practical work was beneficial for their learning. We discuss challenges related to creating situations in science teaching that encourage all students to engage in hybrid talk during sense‐making dialogues.

Addressing the Anthropocene from the Global South: integrating paleoecology, archaeology and traditional knowledge for COP engagement

The triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss necessitates more holistic, comprehensive, and integrated public policy approaches. Within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, this crisis highlights significant conflicts over forms of knowledge and conceptualization, affecting how international policies are formed. Indigenous knowledge systems have become increasingly acknowledged for their vital role in addressing the challenges of the Anthropocene. Conferences of the Parties institutions like the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change emphasize the critical, although not always recognized, importance of Indigenous territories, which contain eighty percent of the world’s biodiversity. Here, we show that research in paleoecology, archaeology and history demonstrates the long-term significance of traditional knowledge and Indigenous land management practices for contemporary ecosystem dynamics. Drawing from these varied studies and perspectives also reveal the socio-economic inequalities resulting from centuries of European colonialism. We showcase three case studies on; (i) pastoralism in eastern Africa, (ii) natural resource management in southeast Asia and (iii) adaptation to sea level rise in the Caribbean, which touch upon highly diverse human resilience strategies across space and time. Despite efforts at the COP28 to accelerate climate action and incorporate diverse knowledge systems, significant challenges remain. The need for a pluralistic knowledge, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, blending scientific language with artistic and narrative forms, is proposed as critical for fostering effective communication and developing more effective and equitable solutions for global environmental governance.