Education for Sustainable Development: Potential via Foreign Language Teaching and Learning

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to discuss the potential for education towards sustainable development (further on – SD) via of foreign language teaching and learning (for specific purposes). The 5 SD developing competencies model is being analysed. As SD education plays a significant role in helping students think more critically about their choices in nearly every aspect of their lives, in this particular research it was important to adopt an educational research perspective to course/curriculum development in FLs. Detailed description includes the justification of course design, learning objectives (including ESD-related goals—materials, activities, and instructional approaches, among other aspects). Students’ opinions (in a format of a questionnaire) were collected in order to get insights on awareness, abilities, perceptions, language, sustainability-related goals, etc. The results of the empiric study indicate that the students, in their own opinion, are more likely to learn better the language and be able to use it effectively while studying SD. The opinions may result from the educational process: when they learn a language through SD, they are using a variety of different methods of learning strategies and competencies, which help them to learn the language more effectively. Findings in the areas of both competencies and pedagogies for SD education strongly imply the benefits of integrative, active, collaborative, and applied approaches to curriculum development and teaching (FLTL) for Specific purposes (SP).