Cultivating Critical Cosmopolitanism in Chinese EFL Education: A Practitioner Inquiry on Multilingual Literacy Practices

This practitioner inquiry investigates how multilingual literacy practices foster critical cosmopolitanism in Chinese EFL education. Grounded in a critical cosmopolitan framework, the study examines how instructional practices such as Socratic seminars, project-based inquiries, and multimodal texts enable undergraduate students to engage critically with global and local socio-political issues. Drawing on qualitative data from classroom observations, student-produced artifacts, and reflective journals, the findings reveal that these pedagogical strategies cultivate empathy, perspective-taking, and a growing commitment to social justice. Integrating global perspectives and multilingual resources into the EFL curriculum enhances not only learners’ linguistic proficiency but also their sense of collective responsibility, intercultural awareness, and ethical engagement across difference. By exploring how students navigate linguistic, cultural, and ideological intersections in a globalized yet locally situated learning context, this study highlights the transformative potential of critical cosmopolitan pedagogies. It demonstrates how multilingual literacy practices can simultaneously support language development and foster socio-political consciousness in EFL classrooms.