Intercultural citizenship and the internationalisation of higher education: the role of English language teaching

Abstract

Abstract The expanding internationalisation of higher education (HE) has resulted in the inte rcultural dimensions becoming a core aim of many institutions. This is frequently represented though the concept of intercultural or global citizenship with students expected to engage with academic, professional and social communities across multiple scales from the local to the global. The language though which both the internationalisation of HE and intercultural citizenships is expected to take place is often English, or more precisely ELF, epically in English medium education (EME). Therefore, given this key role for English, English language teaching (ELT) provides an ideal setting for developing intercultural citizenship education. However, at present, this is an under-researched area. To address this gap, this collection of short papers provides a snap shot of current thinking and research form ELF perspectives. We include reports on the development of intercultural citizenship through study abroad for university students from China, Japan and Thailand; the role of intercultural citizenship in pre-service teacher education in Turkey; and a discussion of the relationship between intercultural citizenship, identity, symbolic power and language in the ELT and EMI classroom.