Xu, Murong: The Implementation of Global Citizenship Education in English for Academic Purposes Courses (working title)

With the rapid development of globalization and the understanding of English as lingua franca, global citizenship education has gained increasing attention as an approach in English language teaching. The educational value of language teaching can be achieved by having learners engage in discussions around global issues both relevant to their own nation states and other countries using intercultural communication skills, while improving their linguistic competence and taking actions beyond classrooms (Byram & Wagner, 2018). Hence, language education has the potential to cultivate learners who possess transcultural communicative competence and take on active roles both locally and globally when content with real-world relevance is brought into the classroom.
The proposed study will look into the practice of global citizenship specifically in the context of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in higher education. Considering the increase in transnational communication and collaboration in academia, EAP classes are where intercultural encounters happen and offer valuable opportunities for the development of critical thinking, discourse competence, etc. Unfortunately, there has been no substantial discussion bringing together global citizenship education and EAP. This study will therefore explore how EAP course design can contribute to global citizenship through examining teaching objectives, pedagogical strategies, as well as the instrumental and educational learning outcomes in EAP classroom practice.