Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores educational learnings from the corona experience and points out the role global citizenship might play in the future. It outlines how the pandemic accelerated changes in existing conceptions of language, language use and language learning and lays out how they have – once again – changed the ultimate goals of Foreign Language Education. The chapter describes the terms global citizenship, civic identity, citizenship and cosmopolitanism, exploring key challenges, debates and potential issues for teachers in the classroom. It explores the potential of service learning when integrated into foreign language education and the potential for developing the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors associated with global citizenship. The chapter explains the positive effects of service learning yet also notes a lack of implementation within foreign language education.