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Empowering Language Learners: Critical Approaches to SDGs

  In an increasingly interconnected world, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer a powerful framework for addressing global challenges. They provide a shared language for discussing crucial topics like fairness, planetary protection, and equitable access to education. However, in our urgency to integrate them, are we sometimes missing a deeper opportunity? This article proposes moving beyond a superficial "checklist" approach to the SDGs in language teaching, particularly for those in subsidiary language courses who might feel time-constrained. By embracing a more critical and relational pedagogy, we can transform SDG engagement from a managerial task into a truly transformative learning experience, empowering students to become critical thinkers, not just well-behaved global citizens. This approach aligns with calls from post-development thinkers like Arturo Escobar (2018), who urge us to question the "one-size-fits-all" Western idea of progress often em...
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STARTING OFF

A gentle but firm start helps to frame the rhythm you want your students to pick up. We can take things easily, but at the same time transmit the idea that language learning needs action and group or pair work from the start. For those students unfamiliar with this type of subject is important to have early indications of what the work will involve.

Modelling the type of work that we would expect them to do in their own time will help them to consider strategies and make decisions as for how much time they will need to put in for different skills to develop.

In this teaching session, there is a listening comprehension activity. This involves a native speaker, and it is not particularly easy, but it does help to send the message that language learning needs time and dedication. These are two things that some students in Higher Education, taking Spanish as an optional module, sometimes underestimate.

The resources could be covered in a 1-hour session. Having more time would help.
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