Environmental discourse in Brazilian English-as-a-foreign-language textbooks: socio-discursive practices and their implications for developing students’ critical environmental literacy

Abstract

This article reports on a study that investigated the extent to which the discourse used to approach environmental issues in English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) textbooks in Brazilian public secondary schools helps students develop critical environmental literacy. We focused our discourse analysis on the outside materials incorporated into the content of the textbooks. To inform our discourse analysis, we drew on theories of discourse genres, discursive affordances and entextualisation. The primary conclusion we take from the study is that Brazilian textbook designers integrate outside materials to enhance the content of textbooks, and while this is a commendable aim, these outside materials are unsuitable for helping students develop critical environmental literacy. Although the textbooks may potentially succeed in cultivating a ‘shallow’ form of environmentalism that raises students’ eco-awareness, they appear to fall short of providing an educational experience that would be appropriate for fostering students’ criitical envir onmental literacy, and thereby preparing and motivating them to act in their daily lives in ways that further environmental sustainability.

Keywords:

• Critical environmental literacy
• environmental education
• teaching of English as a Foreign Language
• Brazilian EFL textbooks
• discourse genres

Acknowledgements

This article was produced as part of the research project ‘Social and Discursive Practices about the Environment in Globalized Times: Implications and Perspectives for Education in a Foreign Language’, registered at the State University of Londrina (Londrina, Brazil), no. 10171. Thanks to Graham Smart for accepting the invitation to co-author this article and for his understanding of genre studies and environmental education.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this article.

Notes

1 Programa Nacional do Livro Didático (PNLD) is a program organized by the Brazilian Ministry of Education.

2 The term ‘outside materials’ refers to textual materials, incorporated into the textbooks, that are intended to supplement pedagogical activities and instructions produced by the textbook designers.

3 Taken here as “textual and spoken interactions about the environment” (Novikau 2016, 3).

4 Translated from Portuguese and edited by the authors. The original text in Portuguese is available at http://www.dominiopublico.gov.br/download/texto/me001647.pdf - Page 29

5 The ‘media sphere’ comprises a diverse range of genres, including photo blogs, blogs, homepages, and emails, used for purposes such as selling and marketing.

6 An editorial and graphic project initiated for pedagogic purposes in PNLD Notice, 2017.

7 Parana. State Secretary of Education. Curriculum Guidelines for Portuguese Language in Basic Education. Curitiba, 2009.

8 Available at https://www.shutterstock.com

9 As defined by Goldman, Yavetz, and Pe’er (2014) an environmentally literate person is “one who possess[es] the values, attitudes, and skills that enable knowledge to be converted into action” (page 5).

10 Available at https://www.peta.org/

11 Available at https://www.worldwildlife.org/

12 “The concept of shallow environmentalism, taken as [an approach that] reacts to ecological destruction by addressing immediate physical symptoms (such as acid rain or depletion of the ozone layer), but refuses to address the underlying cultural, political and psychological causes” (Stibbe 2004, 243).

Additional information

Funding

We thank the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) for funding our work during the period of March 1, 2016, to February 28, 2019, through a research productivity (PQ2) grant to the first author, no. 308754/2015-8.

Notes on contributors

Vera Lúcia Lopes Cristovão

Vera Lúcia Lopes Cristovão is an Associate Professor at State University of Londrina (UEL) and a researcher for the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).

Bruno Sanches

Bruno Sanches a graduate student in the language studies postgraduate programme—PPGEL at the State University of Londrina (UEL); English language and literature teaching degree from UEL.

Graham Smart

Graham Smart is an Associate Professor at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.