Introduction
Embrace the idea of seeing the world from a combination of macro and micro perspectives. From the macro view, the world is very different even three years ago. The impact from Covid-19 pandemic to ChatGPT, be it bad or good, all made us truly experience the real insight of the famous old saying: “No man is an island.” Whereas from the micro view, humanity is one thing that has been there waiting for us to carry out and beyond. No doubt, it is human nature to pursue a better life. What can be done to uplift our lives, not only just one or two but all of us, should be our lifelong quest. When reading through the history, we can see that making an individual’s life better is not too hard, but bringing the whole world to a better future without leaving anyone behind has always been a challenge. Moreover, as technology advances and provides so much convenience in our life, the damage that we made to our earth has backfired, in the form of more frequent natural disasters.
The units in Better Future: Cultural Literacy and SDGs Incorporated are aiming at helping learners equip themselves with the skillful language to express their thoughts and life activities and even think beyond. Other than being able to communicate in English in a more competent way, thinking humanely is one of the responsibilities we should shoulder as a global citizen. Issues such as the boundaries between self-indulgence and environmental conservation, resource allocation, and others are among the awareness that we are trying to raise. To make the learning process fun and effective, each unit contains five components designed to serve different purposes.
Fun Facts—This section with interesting facts or anecdotes introduces the topic will make learners want to know more.
Gear Up—Phrases and collocations are presented in this section to prepare learners for the following listening and speaking skills.
Real World Listening—Well-developed listening passages related to the theme get learners ready for real-life conversations.
Conversation—A topic-based dialogue with two sets of cues facilitates multiple drill practices to enhance the register of the sentence patterns.
Wrap Up—Review questions and more statistics are provided to evaluate learners academic as well as presentation skills.
This book helps learners build up English skills to express themselves and foster caringness at the same time. Aiming at restoring humanity in the classroom, sustainable development goals from the United Nations are incorporated in the book to bring your teaching to next level.