Exploring Global Citizenship in English Language Teaching : Insights from Undergraduate Students in Japan

With English having the largest number of speakers worldwide, the integration of global citizenship education (GCE) into English Language Teaching (ELT) was inevitable. By testing students’ beliefs and values, GCE enhances their critical thinking, cultural sensitivity, social accountability, and linguistic proficiency, giving them confidence to weigh in on worldly topics. With this in mind, a brand-new global issues and current events course was built using a global citizenship framework as part of a newly launched Global Engagement Program at Kansai Gaidai University. Through a qualitative analysis of student feedback gathered via an end-ofcourse survey, this case study examines 70 undergraduate students’ perspectives on the very first implementation of the course, indicating positive perceptions of course design, materials, assessments, and the instructor’s approach. Results also support content and language integrated learning (CLIL) as effective in GCE. The study concludes by advocating for GCE as a transformative approach in ELT.