Teaching language and teaching peace are linked because both are bridges to a better world. What do people want most in Daegu, Delhi, and Denver or in Busan, Berlin, and Buenos Aires? What is the greatest hope in Gwangju, Guatemala City, and Gaza or in Mokpo, Manchester, and Mumbai? All over the world, we need and hope for peace. Rebecca Oxford defines peace as harmony and explains that it has at least three broad purposes: (a) to calm our minds and hearts, and give us a sense of well-being (inner peace, or peace with oneself); (b) to develop friendship, loving appreciation, and social justice in relationships with individuals, groups, countries, and cultures (social peace); and (c) to care for and enjoy Mother Nature’s wildlife, water, land, sky, and planets, and realize that nature supports our very lives (ecological peace). In short, peace involves caring for ourselves, others, and our environment.

How can we do this? Martin Luther King, Jr. said that peace requires working productively to harmonize conflicting perspectives, while Elise Boulding stated that peace demands imagination and love each day. Purposes and methods of peace are part of Oxford’s Language of Peace Approach (LPA). The LPA helps teachers integrate peace activities into teaching EFL or other languages, resulting in students’ greater language practice and competence, increased interest in peace, and stronger peacebuilding abilities. Teachers can benefit by developing their own peacebuilding skills while teaching students! Rebecca illustrates ways to weave inner peace, social peace, and ecological peace into language education, thus creating bridges to a better world. For instance, inner peace can be fostered by affirmations, mindfulness, deep breathing, and listening to music. Social peace depends, in part, on basic verbal communication strategies, nonverbal communication tools, and a simple, nonviolent communication process. Ecological peace is aided by forgetting responsibilities for a moment, walking outside, noticing colors of nature through the Rainbow Walk, and writing about how nature takes care of us and how we can take care of nature (Oxford, Olivero, Harrison, and Gregersen, 2021). The session closes with words from and pictures of important peace role models from many cultures – people who have built bridges to a better world through peace and through language. This session also offers insights to people who are not teaching but are seeking ways to bring peace more fully into their hearts, their relationships, and the environment. All of us can be peacebuilders.