The treatment of ecological issues in ELT coursebooks

Abstract

This article reports a study examining the presence of environmental issues in ELT coursebooks published since 1990. Seventeen randomly-selected coursebooks were analysed in order to find the percentage of activities related to environmental issues. Such activities were then examined to establish whether they involved participation in environmental protection. The results are discussed in light of teaching methodology and United Nations environmental education objectives. 1. Awareness of environmental problems. 2. Basic understanding of the environment and its problems, and human beings' role in relation to the environment. 3. Attitude of concern for environmental problems. 4. Skills in overcoming environmental problems. 5. Ability to evaluate proposed solutions to environmental problems. 6. Participation in solving environmental problems. We undertook the current study to investigate the treatment of environmental concerns in second language learning materials. Environmental education is conceived as being crosscurricular because the environment relates to all areas of study (Ghafoor-Ghaznawi 1993). Thus, language education, including second language education, has a role to play in helping people to learn about and participate in environmental protection. Indeed, ELT coursebooks and other ELT materials have for many years included environmental themes, such as recycling, alternative energy, and humane treatment of animals. In fact, a small number of ELT coursebooks are devoted exclusively to the environment (e.g. Brown and Butterworth 1998). The inclusion of environmental issues in ELT coursebooks fits well with the trend in communicative language teaching towards theme-based and content-based instruction. Students, in at least some cases, seem to welcome environmental content. For instance, a preference for the inclusion of environmental topics was expressed by young adult East Asian students surveyed by Richards (1995) in preparation for writing a coursebook series. Despite efforts towards environmental protection and some areas of improvement, we humans continue to devastate the planet at an increasing rate. Orr (1992: 3) puts this more concretely, and the distressing picture he painted nearly a decade ago is even more pressing now: If today is a typical day on planet earth, humans will add fifteen million tons of carbon to the atmosphere, destroy 115 square miles of tropical rain forest, create 72 square miles of desert, eliminate between forty to one hundred species, erode seventy one million tons of topsoil, add twenty-seven hundred tons of CFCs to the atmosphere, and increase their population by 263,000.

Examining the Perceptions of English Instructors Regarding the Incorporation of Global Citizenship Education into ELT

“…However, global citizenship education is considered to be too wide-ranging to cover a single course or unit, and can also be integrated as a common area of connection within the scope of many disciplines, including ELT. Concordantly, it seems possible to mention an increasing awareness in the literature which integrate global (citizenship) education with ELT (Arıkan, 2009;Cates 1997;2000;2002;Chowdhury, 2013;Dyer & Bushell 1996;Erfani, 2012;Focho, 2010;Gürsoy, 2010;Jacobs & Cates, 1999;Jacobs & Goatly 2000;Hauschild et al, 2012;Hosack, 2012;2011;Kruger, 2012;Omidvar & Sukumar, 2013;Pramata & Yuliati, 2016;Sağlam & Gürsoy, 2010;Serrano, 2008;Yakovchuk, 2004;Yamashiro & McLaughlin, 1999). While some of these studies emphasize how global issues will provide meaningful content for language lessons, others underline the tasks of language teachers in teaching for a better world.…”

“…It would not be wrong to say that one of the areas in which global citizenship education can be effectively implemented is foreign language programs.Indeed, in recent years, many educators in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT) around the world have touched on the importance of global (citizenship) education for English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) (Arıkan, 2009;Cates 1997;2000;Chowdhury, 2013;Dyer & Bushell 1996;Erfani, 2012;Focho, 2010;Gürsoy, 2010;Gürsoy & Sağlam, 2011;Jacobs & Cates, 1999;Jacobs & Goatly 2000;Kruger, 2012;Omidvar & Sukumar, 2013;Sağlam & Gürsoy, 2010;Serrano, 2008;Yakovchuk, 2004;Yamashiro & McLaughlin, 1999).…”

Shallow Environmentalism: A Preliminary Eco-Critical Discourse Analysis of Secondary School English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Texts in China

“…If education is to be seen as a transformative social practice linking the school practice and the wider world, then the language of textbooks is a useful site for inquiry. In language education, there has been a surge of scholarly interest in global issues and language teaching (Block & Cameron, 2002) especially given environmental and ecological issues have become established as popular topics in language teaching materials (see Goatly, 2000;Haig, 2003;Jacobs & Goatly, 2000;Stibbe, 2004).…”

“…In a survey of the treatment of environmental issues in 17 international English language teaching (ELT) textbooks, Jacobs and Goatly (2000) found a general lack of curriculum activities or prompts designed to encourage student participation in environmental protection or other forms of participatory action. The discursive aspect of environmental content in textbooks was raised as a subject for further study.…”

Environmental Education Across Cultures: Beyond the Discourse of Shallow Environmentalism

“…Recently, textbooks covering environmental issues have become extremely popular in EFL teaching, and the vital importance of the topic makes it even more necessary to analyse the ideologies the books are based on with respect to cultural imperialism and intercultural communication. Jacobs and Goatly (2000) welcome the incorporation of environmental education into English language education, but criticise the teaching materials for not explicitly encouraging participation in environmental protection. There is, however, a more profound level on which ecological education in Japan can be criticised, for what many students are learning in their English classes is not the ecological sensitivity of Chiyo, nor the deep ecology of the west, but shallow environmentalism.…”