Fostering global citizenship in EFL students through telecollaboration

Abstract Global citizenship is considered a crucial competency for English language learners given the status of English as the global lingua franca. Nonetheless, while much research continues to concentrate on language learning, relatively little attention has been paid to how to develop global citizenship among English language learners. This study examines the global citizenship development of university EFL students who participated in transnational collaborations using English. Sixteen Chinese university students participated in the telecollaboration project with international peers addressing global challenges. The findings demonstrate that participants actively engaged with global issues of mutual interest and collaboratively explored how to creatively address them within their communities. The study further reveals such lingua franca transnational telecollaboration facilitated heightened global awareness, increased civic agency, and the development of a transnational identity. This study offers practical insights into how to effectively facilitate transnational telecollaboration to cultivate global citizenship of students.