Environmental education in foreign language learning? Examination of the contents of EFL books in the light of ecocritical theory and its assumptions

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31261/TPDJP.2022.31.01

Keywords:

ecocriticism, environmental awareness, environmental ethics, climate change, critical pedagogy

Abstract

The article is aimed at providing the theoretical background for the foreign language (ESL) environmental education, which is sought in the early manifestations of the environmental movement, as well as presenting the main assumptions of ecological criticism as a benchmark for the educational practice whose major objective is to instil environmental awareness in students at the time of the climate crisis. The second part of the paper includes an analysis of environmental contents in Polish schoolbooks used in the ESL classroom at intermediate and advanced levels. The authors’ decisions regarding the presentation of ecological topics and climate change issues are then investigated in terms of its compliance with ecocritical claims and its support of activist and emancipatory attitudes. The analysis seeks to indicate the best methods and ways of pursuing critical environmental pedagogy which would be able to rise to the challenges of the Anthropocene.

Author Biography

Alina Mitek-Dziemba, University of Silesia in Katowice

Alina Mitek-Dziemba – PhD, Assistant Professor in the Institute of Literary Studies at the University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland, and a translator of the works of neopragmatist philosophers (Richard Shusterman, Richard Rorty) into Polish; an author of books and articles exploring the intersections of philosophy, aesthetics and comparative literature. In 2011 she published the book Literatura i filozofia w poszukiwaniu sztuki życia. Nietzsche, Wilde, Shusterman [Literature and Philosophy in Pursuit of the Art of Living: Nietzsche, Wilde, Shusterman] (in Polish). She also co-edited the anthology Drzewo Poznania. Postsekularyzm w przekładach i komentarzach [The Tree of Knowledge. Post-Secularism in Translations and Commentary] (published 2012, co-editor Piotr Bogalecki) and two bilingual collections of essays (in Polish and English): Więzi wspólnoty. Literatura – religia – komparatystyka / The Ties of Community. Literature, Religion, Comparative Studies (2013) and Polytropos. Na drogach Tadeusza Sławka / Polytropos. Tracing Tadeusz Sławek’s Routes (2016). In her research she focuses on the fields of comparative literature, ecocriticism, environmental aesthetics, animal studies, pragmatist-minded somaesthetics and post-secular thinking. As a member of the Animal Studies Lab at the University of Silesia and Vice-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Zoophilologica. Polish Journal of Animal Studies, she is also engaged in organizing talks and conferences on the topic of animal rights and environmental changes.

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Published

2022-11-09

How to Cite

Mitek-Dziemba, A. (2022). Environmental education in foreign language learning? Examination of the contents of EFL books in the light of ecocritical theory and its assumptions. Z Teorii I Praktyki Dydaktycznej Języka Polskiego, 31, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.31261/TPDJP.2022.31.01

Issue

Vol. 31 (2022): Humanities education during climate crisis

Section

Language Education

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