-3.png)
Sometimes teaching can become tired. Thankfully, as we’ve just started the school year, we’re all fresh with enthusiasm and ready to try new ideas.
The old textbook routine — grammar lesson, vocabulary practice, maybe a roleplay at the end if time allows — isn’t exactly cutting it anymore. We all know our classrooms can be more than that.
What if we could explore global issues, develop empathy, and practise the skills our students need as citizens of the 21st century — using English as our vehicle?
That’s where the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) come in. While their efficacy on a global scale has been debated, on a micro scale and in the classroom, they are celebrated by educators worldwide.
This global framework of 17 goals — from ending poverty and ensuring quality education, to promoting clean water, gender equality, and climate action — is a ready-made springboard for purposeful, project-based learning (PBL).
It gives our students something real to talk about, something that goes far beyond the textbook.
Why Bring the SDGs into the English Classroom?
For many teachers, project-based learning sounds great in theory but hard to manage in practice. The SDGs change that. They provide clear, relatable themes that can anchor projects, no matter the level or age of your learners.
-
For young learners, SDG-inspired projects can be simple: looking after a class plant, conducting a litter pick, or making posters about saving water.
-
For teenagers, the projects grow in scope: debating gender equality, creating awareness campaigns about plastic, or designing solutions for school waste.
-
For adults, the connection is immediate: real-world English for presentations, reports, and discussions around issues that matter to their own communities.
The beauty of using the SDGs is that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. The goals give you a global framework that can be scaled up or down depending on your classroom — and as they’re now 11 years old, many students already recognize them.
What Are the Benefits?
1. Meaningful Communication
Too often, language tasks feel artificial. Students practise dialogues about hotel bookings or describe fictional holiday plans. Useful, sometimes — but not exactly inspiring.
When you bring in the SDGs, suddenly the communication has purpose. Students aren’t just learning conditionals; they’re using them to imagine solutions to food waste.
“If I were a millionaire, I would buy…” can go out the window. Why not switch that up?
“If I planted a million trees, the world would…”
Students aren’t only practising persuasive writing or writing a letter to an English-speaking friend to talk about their weekend (where are we going with that question? 1994?). They’re drafting a letter to their local council about recycling.
The language becomes a means to an end, not the end itself.
2. Student Agency
At its heart, project-based learning is about giving students more ownership.
With SDG projects, learners decide what matters to them. Maybe one group wants to tackle clean water, while another focuses on mental health (of which, sadly, there isn’t a huge amount in the SDGs).
Each group researches, discusses, and presents in English — building not only language skills but also collaboration and critical thinking.
Teachers shift from being the source of all knowledge to facilitators of exploration.
This agency makes students more motivated, and the quality of the English they produce often improves because they actually care about the outcome.
3. Connection to Values
Language teaching has always been more than grammar and vocabulary. Every lesson carries values: respect, listening, curiosity.
By working on SDG-themed projects, these values come to the surface.
Students begin to connect English with responsibility. They learn the vocabulary of empathy —
How would you feel if…?
What can we do to help…?
They practise intercultural awareness by comparing local challenges with global perspectives.
And they see that small actions — a poster, a presentation, a clean-up — can make a difference.
Examples of SDG-Inspired Projects
To make this concrete, here are a few ideas you could try in your classroom:
-
SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being): Students design a campaign for healthy school lunches, producing posters, menus, and short presentations in English.
-
SDG 5 (Gender Equality): Students research inspirational women in their community and create short biographies or video interviews in English.
-
SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation): Groups calculate the hidden water footprint of common products (jeans, burgers, bottles) and present findings with infographics.
-
SDG 13 (Climate Action): Students plan a “green week” at school, writing announcements, designing activities, and documenting results in English.
These projects don’t need to be complicated or time-consuming. Even short, low-prep activities can spark powerful conversations.
A Step Towards Global Citizenship
At its best, English teaching is not just about language — it’s about helping students take their place in the world.
By bringing the SDGs into our classrooms, we offer more than a grammar syllabus.
We give learners the chance to use English as a tool for change:
to think critically, act responsibly, and imagine a better future.
The SDGs make project-based learning accessible, practical, and inspiring.
They remind us that every classroom — whether in Oman, Osaka, Ouagadougou, or Oslo — can be a place where global citizenship takes root.
About the author:
Harry Waters wears many hats, both literally and figuratively. He's a multi-award-winning teacher trainer, a teacher, writer, climate activist, podcast host and a TEDx speaker. His journey into sustainability-driven education culminated in the inception of Renewable English, a platform merging language learning with environmental consciousness.
