A Comparative Study Of Ecological Discourse Of Primary School Language Textbooks In China,the United States,Singapore And India

With economic development and scientific and technological progress,people's living standards have been improved.However,we have also begun to face increasingly prominent global ecological problems.Given the concern for ecology,countries throughout the world are trying to preserve the environment and achieve sustainable development through system construction,industrial structure adjustments and civic awareness cultivation.However,differences exist in ideology,ecological status,national policies and development stages,so the ecological values reflected in measures and results also differ.At the individual level,only when citizens have proper ecological awareness can they make behavioral choices conducive to the development of the ecosystem.Education is instrumental in the formation and development of people's awareness.As an important carrier of educational content,textbook should bear the responsibility of cultivating students' ecological awareness.However,the existing research on the value orientation of textbooks is deficient in terms of language textbooks and ecological value orientation.The relevant studies focus more on a single dimension,and there are few comparative studies of multi-national textbooks in Ecological Discourse Analysis.Accordingly,from the perspective of ecolinguistics,based on the ecosophy of "Diversity and Harmony,Interaction and Co-existence",and taking the natural texts in the mainstream language textbooks in China,the United States,Singapore,and India as research data,this study aims to solve the following three research questions:(1)In the meso dimension,at the level of theme,how are the textbooks set in terms of the object and attribute agenda,and what are the similarities and differences in their ecological characteristics and orientations among the four countries?(2)In the micro dimension,at the level of lexico-grammar,how does the textbook discourse represent the natural ecology,and what are the similarities and differences in the ecological characteristics and orientations of their representation methods?(3)In the macro dimension,what similarities and differences in ecological values are transmitted to students by the textbook discourse,and why?To answer these research questions,this study was conducted along the research path of"theory-analysis-action" in Ecological Discourse Analysis.Firstly,to compare the ecological characteristics and orientations of themes in textbooks,the Agenda-setting theory is expanded to classify and count the objects and attributes involved in the main texts according to the ecological category and ecological literacy.In doing so,it compares the tendency,entry point and attitude orientation of textbooks in guiding students to consider nature.Then,to compare the ecological characteristics and orientations of discourse representation in textbooks,the Transitivity System and Evaluation System are refined from the perspective of ecolinguistics.With the help of UAM CorpusTool,process types,participant roles,circumstantial roles and evaluation resources of clauses are annotated and counted,thus facilitating a comparison of the tendency,entry point and attitude orientation of textbook discourse in representing nature.On this foundation,it reveals the similarities and differences in ecological values of the textbook discourse in the four countries.Finally,an attempt is made to explain the causes of the similarities and differences at the natural and social levels,thus providing enlightenment for our Chinese textbook discourse.The major findings indicate that,in terms of theme and discourse representation,similarities and differences in the ecological characteristics and orientations of the four countries' textbook discourse reflect ecological values,including the tendency,dimension and attitude orientation of considering nature.Firstly,the attention tendency includes the degree and emphasis.The former is reflected by the proportion of the natural texts,the degree of the diversity and interaction of the texts' objects;whereas the latter is reflected by object setting and the representation of discourse on nature as the leader or participant involved in the experiential activities.The attention tendency can affect the infrastructure of students' ecological values.The similarities are as follows:the textbooks of four countries all address and attach importance to nature;the tendency shown in the attention to biology is greater than that shown to the environment,animals are of a higher order than plants,and the earth environment and landscape are regarded more highly than the cosmic environment.The differences are as follows:Chinese textbooks give the greatest and most balanced attention to nature,emphasizing the impact of nature on people,but ignoring geological changes and natural resources.American textbooks include a greater emphasis on nature,but the objects are less diverse;further,greater consideration is given to the influence of man on nature.Singaporean textbooks devote the least attention to nature,but it receives the greater object diversity and more balanced attention.Indian textbooks focus less on nature but consider the impact of nature on people.Secondly,the attention dimension is reflected by the setting of text attributes and distribution of experiential categories represented by the discourse.It can affect the way students understand and think about nature.The similarities are as follows:they all mainly take knowledge and consciousness as the text attributes,reflecting the emphasis on students'accumulation of ecological knowledge and emotional expression;and the material process dominated by nature indicates the subjective initiative in its own survival and interaction with other elements,from which the relationship between human and nature is established in the material world.The differences are as follows:compared with Chinese,American and Singaporean textbooks that focus on representing the attributes of nature through the relational process,Indian prefers to represent the initiative and directness of nature in transmitting information through the mental process,by which the communication and interaction between human and nature is promoted in the mental world.Finally,the attitude orientation is reflected by the setting of text attributes and specific representation of discourse on experiential and evaluative meanings.It can affect students'attitudes and behavior choices regarding nature.The similarities are as follows:they all shape the natural image with essential natural attributes through pure-natural texts.Specifically,nature is shaped as the image of natural balance maintainer,information transmitter,"perpetrator" and the marginal,which reflect nature and its relationship with other natural elements;as well as the image of the protected,the dominated and "product",reflecting the relationship between human and nature.Overall,the four countries' textbook discourse represents eco-beneficial in terms of text attributes and discourse representation,thus presenting a dynamic balance between human and nature.The differences are as follows:combined with the ecological strength,the eco-beneficial degree from strong to weak at the level of text attributes is reflected in American,Singaporean,Chinese and Indian textbooks,and at the level of discourse representation is reflected in Chinese,Singaporean,American and Indian textbooks.The reasons for the aforementioned similarities and differences are reflected at both the natural and social levels:similarities and differences in attention tendency are mainly affected by the geographical situation and national macro policies;similarities and differences in attention dimension are mainly affected by the view of nature and educational and talent training objectives;and similarities and differences in attitude orientation are mainly affected by the view of nature,ecological status and national macro policies.The contributions of this study are as follows:(1)At the theoretical level,it expands and integrates the theoretical framework suitable for Ecological Textbook Discourse Analysis,and enriches the research objects and methods of Ecological Discourse Analysis.Then,the combination of ecolinguistics and educational research,on the one hand,promotes the integration and development of ecolinguistics,on the other hand,it injects a new perspective into educational research,and provides linguistic support for the research on the value orientation of textbooks.(2)At the practical level,it provides enlightenment for improving our primary school Chinese textbooks.Regarding the textbook compilation,we can improve the compilation principles and requirements,arrange the selection of texts reasonably,and improve eco-beneficial degree of rewriting texts.Regarding the use of textbooks,teachers can grasp the theme of the texts macroscopically and guide students to properly understand nature images.Regarding the textbook evaluation,we can construct the relevant evaluation standard of ecological values and apply effective evaluation methods,ensuring that the cultivation of students' values in textbooks can be implemented.