If ever there was an appropriate time to reassess models of instructional delivery for language learning, that time is now. The coronavirus pandemic has led to a public health crisis, countless grieving families, and to a social order and private lives turned upside down. Many have lost their livelihoods, as businesses and governments struggle to cope with radically altered economies. The pandemic has not affected everyone uniformly, exposing sharp socioeconomic differences in access to health services/childcare and in working conditions/employment opportunities. Added to that are developments in the US, with repercussions worldwide, which have exposed in dramatic fashion the unequal social and political status of black and brown populations. These developments have resulted in upheavals in education. Teachers at all levels have suddenly found themselves thrust into teaching online. It looks increasingly likely that the widespread switch to distance learning is not a one-time occurrence but rather the new normal, especially in higher education. For second language educators, there are obvious issues at the micro level of implementation of remote instructional delivery that need to be considered. In this article the author outlines fruitful directions towards an instructional model that is primarily online, socially inclusive, and invites students to become engaged global citizens. This aligns with Levine's "human ecological" approach to language pedagogy in which he sees "implementable change at the micro level as a means of ultimately affecting change at the meso and macro levels of context" (Levine, 2020 p. 45). No model of language learning will be universal in its applicability, but the author believes there is an opportunity now to leverage new widespread experiences with online learning along with ongoing social concerns and activism to create the basis for a learning environment that holds the promise of being responsible and transformative at the individual and societal levels.