Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Texts Of American Elementary Science Textbook

Textbooks,as the most fundamental texts of the curriculum,have received much attention from the researchers.Traditional textbook researches have focused more on the superficial structure of texts and the analysis of their literal meanings,neglecting the deeper connections between textbook discourse and the society.Critical Discourse Analysis,grounded in the underlying connections between texts and social structures,can reveal the ideology and power relations implicit in textbook discourse,thereby enhancing the understanding of the social functions of textbooks.Based on the theoretical foundation of Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics,this study adopts Fairclough’s Three-Dimensional Model and uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to conduct a Critical Discourse Analysis of the texts of the American elementary science textbook Science Fusion(grades 1-5)with the help of Ant Conc and UAM Corpus Tool research tools.This study examines the linguistic characteristics of American elementary science textbook and the interaction with the stakeholders,in an attempt to reveal the scientific literacy as reflected in the textbook and to analyze the ideology and power relations embedded in it.The findings of the study show that,at the textual level,the texts of Science Fusion contains a selection of different processes,including the use of a large number of material and relational processes to convey scientific knowledge,and a proportion of mental and verbal processes to demonstrate the textbook’s attention to students’ subjective feelings and communication skills.In the choice of mood,the textbook uses a large number of declaratives to present scientific knowledge and objective facts,as well as a certain number of imperatives and interrogatives to demonstrate their authority,and to expand students’ minds and enhance the interaction with them.In terms of the modality,mainly low and medium valued modal auxiliary verbs are used,focusing on presenting the uncertainty that exists in scientific research and creating more possibilities for students to engage in thinking.At the level of discourse practice,Science Fusion is edited and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,a leading education company in America,following the direction of educational development and educational guidelines of the USA,and has gained widespread attention and been widely used.The textbook offers a scaffolding learning framework that facilitates students to better receive and understand the information in the textbook,and to construct a systematic body of knowledge and develop a scientific inquiry mindset under the guidance of the teacher.At the level of social practice,Science Fusion reflects the student-centred philosophy of education and constructs the order of discourse of equal relationship between the textbook and students.At the same time,the textbook reflects the hegemonic ideology and diplomatic interventionist thinking of the United States,which is bound to have a profound impact on the values and ideology of the students.This study strives to enrich the application and exploration of CDA in the field of textbook research,and to provide a certain reference and inspiration for the compilation and implementation of science textbooks in China.