Educational Materials for the SDGs
Welcome to our site, which contains English teaching and learning materials for the SDGs! Our goal with this website is to provide instructors with information about using SDG- and human rights-based lessons in EFL classrooms in Japan. Although our work focuses on university students, we hope that it will be adaptable and useful to teachers across many levels and contexts. Although our website continues to grow, you can already find several resources here. One of the foundational materials linked on this site is Version 1.1 of the SDGs Service List, along with accompanying educational materials, including electronic vocabulary cards and sample articles for use with EFL students. This vocabulary includes some of the most important vocabulary items that students need to know when reading materials related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We also offer sample units, supplementary materials, including interviews with professionals, and research articles discussing the use of these resources. The website is still being updated, so please check back regularly. If you are involved in human rights activities and would like to share your work, or if you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us. Thank you for your interest!
Robert Sheridan, Kindai University
Kathryn Tanaka, University of Hyogo
Robert Swier, Kindai University
Version 1.1 of the SDGs Service List: Vocabulary for Society and Sustainability
SDGs Service List ver. 1.1 (Google Spreadsheet)
SDGs Service List Quizlet Study Sets and Games
Unit Materials for Lessons
Unit 3: Labor Issues Affecting Children and Youth
Interviews with Professionals
iNow (Interview with a Volunteer)
Association for Aid and Relief Japan
Unit Materials Based on Interviews with Professionals
Sheridan, R., & Tanaka, K. M. (2023). Version 1.1 of the SDGs Service List: Vocabulary for society and sustainability. Osaka JALT Journal, 10, 19-24. Available at: https://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/462558/28595261/1684882893147/Sheridan+and+Tanaka+2023.pdf?token=OiWjJx4ElcPqYWutN7pEA7Hv7%2Bo%3D
Sheridan, R. & Tanaka, K. M. (2024). Global issues in local contexts: Japanese university EFL learners' reactions to the development of relevant and engaging SDGS materials. Teaching English as a Second Language Electronic Journal (TESL-EJ), 28(1). https://doi.org/10.55593/ej.28109a4
Sheridan, R., & Tanaka, K. M. (2025). Localizing the Global Goals: The Impact of Domestic Human Rights Issues on Japanese EFL Students’ Engagement with the SDGs. Journal of NELTA, 30(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.3126/nelta.v30i1.87799
Sheridan, R., & Tanaka, K.M. (2026). Bridging global goals and local contexts: Advancing equity and human rights in university classrooms. Journal of International Students, 16(2), 199-226. https://doi.org/10.32674/28zzev43
Sheridan, R. (2026). Vocabulary Learning Through Word Cards, Collaborative Activities, and Assessment Techniques. LEARN Journal: Language Education and Acquisition Research Network, 19(1), 272–291. https://doi.org/10.70730/YXWY7839
About the Creation of the SDGs Service List
During the creation of these resources, the researchers collected a 1.13-million-word corpus of materials about the SDGs published online from September 2015 until the end of July 2022.
After the corpus was created, AntWordProfiler (Anthony, 2022), a tool for profiling the lexical difficulty and complexity of texts, was used to profile the contents of the corpus. Parameters were set to categorize the words of the corpus as either ‘in list,’ ‘out,’ or proper nouns. ‘In list’ words were defined as the 1st - 20,000th most frequent words of English, and ‘out’ words were items that appeared above the 20,000th most frequent word. All proper nouns and the majority of ‘out’ words were eliminated from the output list. There were some important exceptions, however. ‘Out’ words such as SDG(s), microplastic, statelessness, and policymaking, for example, were kept because of their importance when discussing topics related to the SDGs. All of the ‘in list’ items that appeared in the corpus 50 times or more were also kept for consideration. Finally, the authors went through the remaining ‘in list’ items. After deliberation, 24 words that appeared outside the parameter of 50 occurrences, but were deemed necessary for creating educational materials because of their immediate relevance to the SDGs, were included. The output for the frequency and rank of the vocabulary items can be found on the second worksheet tab of this Excel file.
Finally, the parts of speech (POS) were added next to each vocabulary item on the service list. Definitions were not added to the service list itself; however, the 600-word SDGs Service List was divided into 15 bands of 40 vocabulary items, and electronic study sets were created on Quizlet. Instead of just listing the most common meaning and/or part of speech of each word, which many vocabulary service lists do, words with multiple meanings and/or parts of speech were investigated within the context of this corpus. Based on their usage in the corpus, appropriate definitions were selected from the definitions automatically generated by Quizlet, after which the lead researcher manually added additional part(s) of speech. After completing the study sets, the definitions were again revisited by the authors, and revisions were made when necessary.
We would like to thank Dr. Rob Waring of Notre Dame Seishin University for his valuable guidance, advice, feedback, and patience. Without him, this project would not have been possible.