Evaluation of the Opportunities for Sustainability Education Through Content-Based Learning in Online German Classes in Ecuador

Abstract

This paper proposes to reflect on online German class as vehicle for sustainability education and evaluates the (up to now unused) opportunities language classes offer. In the last decades, modern methodology for foreign language acquisition like the communicative approach has become increasingly popular to develop linguistic abilities, focusing on content-based instruction. Standardizing documents like the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference, 2001) are mainly based on this methodology and define fundamental competences (reading, listening, writing, speaking) and sub-competences e.g. reading a newspaper article, writing a personal letter, hold a formal conversation etc. The contents on the contrary are not defined, which allows language class to have a variety of topics that can be chosen by the teacher/tutor. The selection process of the material is, however, key to the success of the project. Foreign language learning can thus be a vehicle to education of specific topics, and hence suitable for sustainability education. The exemplified units are from a lower level (A2) and a middle level (B2). The proposed concept can be a blueprint for other language classes that decide to include sustainability education.

What difference does one course make? Assessing the impact of content-based instruction on students’ sustainability literacy

“…However, although she published her experiences and guidelines for designing the course, she did not assess the impact of student learning at the end of the course. Another review involved evaluating the opportunities for using an online German class as a vehicle for sustainability education in Ecuador, through content-based instruction (Schneider, 2017). This paper proposes adjusting the content of an online class and offering activities that will promote sustainability in a developing economy such as Ecuador.…”

“…However, despite the abundance of interest in using CBI to increase students' awareness of certain topics and concepts, there is still a lack of research in assessing the impact of CBI on sustainability literacy. There are a few case studies, several reports of individual attempts and class practices to implement CBI in EFL classes to familiarize students with sustainability concepts (Vorholt, 2018;Schneider, 2017), and the empirical studies tend to focus on assessing teachers' perspectives on teaching sustainability to their students (Shah et al, 2022;Maijala et al, 2023). Additionally, studies assessing the impact of CBI on students' sustainability literacy with an experimental research design are very rare in the literature.…”

Learner’s Attitude towards Effectiveness of Teaching Methodologies and Challenges of Foreign Language Learning in Jordan

“…The responses varied according to their needs, but many of them aspire to work in the embassy of Spain and that of any country in Latin America in Jordan or abroad. Some of them stressed that they wanted to continue studying and specialize in political sciences, so knowing and acquiring two foreign languages will help them compete and start a career efficiently (Schneider 2017).…”