LITON CHAKRABORTY MITHUN (BANGABANDHU SHEIKH MUJIBUR RAHMAN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY)

FOSTERING GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROOM: TEACHING GLOBAL ISSUES : GLOBAL ISSUES IN LANGUAGE EDUCATION

Different English language courses (GED and non-GED) are offered to undergraduate students in Bangladeshi universities for enhancing their language skills. Courses titled such as English Language Skills, Functional English, Basic English, Communicative English, English for Specific/Special Purposes, Advanced Composition are designed to help students majoring in English or other subjects obtain grammatical aptitude and language proficiency. One key objective of these courses is enabling students to apply language skills for mainly academic purposes. Although these courses remain focussed on language proficiency, they can be harnessed to allow students to foster global citizenship. By incorporating global issues such as global warming, climate change, environmental crisis, terrorism, international sports, wars and conflicts, peace initiatives, these courses can provide grounds for critical and affective engagement with real life events. This will not only help them experiment with language but also expand their worldview. In a highly networked and globalized world today, there is no alternative to increasing students’ intercultural competence and cosmopolitan outlook. English language courses have the potential to create articulate individuals with a global mindset and liberal attitude. Hence, it is imperative for course instructors in Bangladesh to design course contents and set lesson plans by including global issue-based contents. This qualitative paper contends that Bangladeshi English language courses at undergraduate level should incorporate global education so that they can develop as responsible, visionary, peace-loving, and problem-solving global citizens. By drawing upon educator's suggestions obtained via interviews, it discusses how a globally-oriented pedagogy can be implemented in a Bangladeshi context.

Liton Chakraborty Mithun is Lecturer of English at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University (BSMRSTU), Gopalganj, Bangladesh. Previously, he taught at Central Women's University, Dhaka. He obtained his BA (Hons) and MA (Lit) degrees from the Department of English, University of Dhaka. He wrote Literary Rainbow (2022).