Global Citizenship Education in EFL Teaching

With the development of new information technology revolution and the globalization in various fields of the economy and society, our world is changing much faster and becoming smaller and smaller, each individual has become active on a world level. Thus, to live in our global village, the development of the global citizenship awareness is increasing important.

Global citizenship education gives students the knowledge, understanding, skills and values, and it engages the students develop skills of critical thinking, intercultural communication and conflict resolution. Global citizenship education encourages students to care about the earth and recognize our responsibilities towards each other both in our own society and beyond it.

Developing global citizenship through English language teaching is important and necessary. Globalisation is deeply intertwined with the spread of English. The English language as an international language in the global world plays an important role in developing global citizenship. Learning English can enhance the development of global citizenship. Global citizenship has become one of the most important issues for English language teachers in the world. Through global citizenship activities in the English language class, English teachers can develop students’ global citizenship awareness. English language teachers are in a unique position to promote the ideal of global citizenship.

More and more countries and regions have embarked on education initiatives for global citizenship in schools, such as Great Britain, France, the United States, and Hong Kong. Outline of Basic Curriculum Reform was issued in 2001 in China. It says, “Education has to face modernization, face the world and face the future.” “Face the world” can be recognized by developing global awareness.

In recent years, many researchers in China have been concerned to develop citizenship education in school; many works and articles were published and concerned with the study of citizenship education. But there is little research into global citizenship education. Global citizenship education is a new area in China. Chinese scholars have made good achievements in the study of intercultural communication in foreign language education. But Looking at global citizenship education within the field of English language education is a new step.