Constructing the global citizen: An ELF perspective
Building on research on identity (e.g. Norton, 2013) intercultural communicative competence (e.g. Byram, 2008) and English as a lingua franca (e.g. Dewey, 2012) this article examines how the notion of a global citizen was constructed in a school based ethnographic study involving students from Asia who were recipients of a Singapore government scholarship. Identity construction in this English medium school was traced across four levels national, school, classroom, and group interactions in order to analyze the ways in which global citizenship was realized. Findings from the multiple data sets revealed that while a skewed interpretation of the global citizen was conceived at the school and classroom level, group interactions among students yielded promising indicators of how intercultural communication as mediated through English as a lingua franca could help produce students who are open minded and work actively to build relationships with others. The article closes with a discussion of possibilities for designing pedagogy to develop global citizenship education.