Teaching Sustainable Development Goals in the English Classroom

Abstract

Traditionally, education has been confined to classrooms and textbooks, giving students few opportunities to explore, analyse, understand, and solve real-world problems in authentic contexts. Classroom assignments did not focus on real-life tasks, and consequently, learners failed to integrate life issues with classroom learning. Emphasis on twenty-first-century skills created a paradigm shift in the teaching-learning process. The United Nations has established seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that require global implementation by 2030. The planet has been ravaged by man over the centuries and requires urgent healing if we want to bequeath a healthy world for posterity. ‘UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development: A Roadmap’ is an urgent call for action to prepare learners to win this ‘battle of our lives’, as the UN Secretary General calls it. Education for Sustainable Development cannot be implemented in totality, at least immediately, in all the schools; it would be worthwhile to explore if sustainability themes, goals, and values can be integrated with existing subjects. The English language provides ideal pathways to do this, as it lends itself well to such integration. Can English language learning contribute to ‘Education for Sustainable Development’? How is the English language classroom best suited to promote sustainable development? This research paper attemptsto answer these questions and also concludes by givingpractical examples that integrate the LSRW skills with the SDGs.