Let’s Go Eco: A Positive Discourse Analysis of English Reading Materials in High School Textbooks Based on the Attitude System

Abstract

This paper examines the reading materials of high school English textbooks through the lens of the attitude system and a positive discourse analysis methodology. It seeks to (1) analyze the distribution of attitude resources and ecological discourse orientations in the learning materialsto clarify the ecological values embedded in them; (2) assess high school students’ understanding of ecological discourses and their level of ecological consciousness; and (3) evaluate the features and limitations of the reading texts in cultivating the ecological consciousness of students, identify problems, and explore solutions to help young people develop a proper ecological perspective. To achieve these objectives, the present study chose the corpus of high school English textbooks (Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press Edition), which was classified into four topic groups and utilized the UAM Corpus Tool to analyze the texts within the systemic context. A questionnaire survey was then administered among high school students using this edition of English textbooks, and data analysis was conducted using the SoJump platform. The findings suggest that the majority of the textbooks’ attitudinal resources were appreciation, followed by judgment and affect. Beneficial discourse accounted for the highest proportion, followed by ambivalent and destructive discourse. High school students were able to identify beneficial discourse, but they struggled to differentiate between ambivalent and destructive discourses and had negative attitudes towards environmental practices. The results can provide textbook writers and classroom teachers with a more objective and comprehensive understanding of the ecological content in textbooks and facilitate the development of ecological consciousness among students.

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