In 2008 President Sarkozy stated that Arabic, a language that ‘expresses great civilizational and spiritual values’, is the ‘language of the future’ (Brussels Journal).In 2007, the Prince of Wales argued for greater engagement with the Muslim world to promote tolerance and understanding between the Islamic and Western Worlds.Recently, the German business newspaper ‘Handelsblatt’ argued that a basic command of Arabic is necessary for European businesspeople to gain the respect of the increasing number of Arab business partners. An awareness of these needs and a desire to support community cohesion by counteracting stereotypes associated with Islam and the Arabic-speaking world is the basis for the proposed project which aims to promote language learning in the contexts of global citizenship and employability. The partners propose to: - develop a pedagogically innovative, learner-activating online course of standard Arabic for beginners - design and programme a user-friendly interface with a transparent navigation system and clearly organised learning process - create an internet portal with a Web2 environment enabling users to register, create profiles and interact with each other - integrate a strong element of intercultural learning and understanding - provide a conception which will explain the underlying cognitive-constructivist methodological approach, including the syllabus and the structure of the course - base the course on the stipulations of the Common European Framework for Languages - guide learners towards a recognized language learning level, CEF, Level A1 - pay respect to and strengthen the linguistic diversity of the EU by making the course available in a number of mother language versions, including LWUTLs, so that learners need not rely on English- develop the software so that further mother language versions can be added easily and efficiently. The project will impact on the needs of businesspeople, pupils, students, tourists.