Shallow Environmentalism: A Preliminary Eco-Critical Discourse Analysis of Secondary School English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Texts in China

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 232-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Xiong
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-57
Author(s):  
Héctor Javier Caro ◽  
Diana Andrea Caro

The use of textbooks in the EFL classroom is a trend that shapes the way language teachers teach and how students learn. Teachers design and use a great deal of materials for teaching and developing foreign language skills, but in terms of culture, they usually prefer to trust publishing houses for the cultural content included in their textbooks. What we do not know is that most of these textbooks promote hegemony and standardization of cultures under the conscious or unconscious ideology of the colonization of being. Teachers need to learn how to analyze and unveil the hidden mechanisms of colonization that are portrayed in some textbooks, a process which can be carried out through the use of Critical Discourse Analysis.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amjjad Sulaimani

This study explores gender representation in an international English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbook that has been specifically adapted for the Saudi Arabian context. It aims to investigate gender frequencies in conversations in three dimensions: gender relations, subject positions, and contents. The quantitative data were analysed using critical discourse analysis (CDA) as a model. The results indicate that the textbook is biased in terms of gender. Women are underrepresented in the textbook. They have been totally excluded from half of the units in the textbook. Also, the equal relations between the two genders are limited to friendship. Although both genders are positioned in the same subjects and contents, women are less frequently characterised than men.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-33
Author(s):  
Abduljalil Nasr Hazaea

This paper reports some findings on the development of critical intercultural awareness among English-as-a-foreign-language students in the context of a critical reading enrichment course for students in the preparatory year at a Saudi university. The critical reading class aimed to increase levels of critical intercultural awareness among the participants when they decoded and encoded an intercultural text. A qualitative action research design was used. The teacher-researcher equipped the participants with tools from critical discourse analysis for analyzing intercultural texts. After that, they were asked to work on an assignment by reading a text about a dinner invitation and then writing creatively on that topic. The study data were collected from these reflective writings in the participants’ portfolios. The teacher-researcher also used tools of critical discourse analysis to analyze the collected data. It was found that the participants demonstrated a balanced intercultural awareness associated with the discourse of food diversity. They also effectively appreciated cultures of the self and others and demonstrated appropriate intercultural knowledge of the self and others. Furthermore, they acquired the intercultural skills of relating to intercultural texts, as well as analyzing and interpreting them. The study suggests the effectiveness of critical discourse analysis as a teaching and learning strategy to increase critical intercultural awareness among English-as-a-foreign-language students.


Author(s):  
Karin Adriane Henschel Pobbe RAMOS

ABSTRACT Based on the principles of autonomy and reciprocity, Teletandem connects language teaching with technology, by furthering interaction between college students aiming at providing a virtual context for language teaching and learning. A system of beliefs and values can emerge in this fruitful environment and such emergence can directly affect the process. This study aims to investigate the belief system, which emerges out of Teletandem mediation sessions, and to discuss its implications for the teaching of Portuguese as a foreign language from the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis.


Author(s):  
Ulrika Tornberg

Abstract The purpose of this text is to describe and problematize possible didactic consequences for the communicative aspects of foreign language teaching and learning that the contemporary discussion at both national and transnational levels about ”knowledge” and ”accountability” in education may lead to. This discussion concerns, among other issues,  various standardized measurements of pupils achievements and increasing demands on schools and teachers to deliver measurable and comparable results.   What, then, counts as ”knowledge” in foreign language teaching and learning practices today? By undertaking a critical discourse analysis (Fairclough 1989) of the maybe most important transnational steering instrument for language teaching and learning practices in contemporary Europe, i.e.,The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Teaching,Learning and Assessment (CEFR) (2001) at least some answers to this questions may be clarified:  The discourse of ”knowledge” in foreign language teaching and learning as expressed in CEFR is described by means of a typology of decontextualized  ”competences” and ”skills”, cathegorized  in specific domains  and reference levels. One of the consequences for the communicative aspects of foreign language teaching and learning practices may be that a former democracy-oriented discussion about the aims and meaning of language communication in an increasingly heterogeneous and plurilingual world is lost.   Key words: Communicative aspects of foreign language teaching and learning practices, ”Knowledge”, ”Accountability”, ”Competences and Skills”, CEFR, critical discourse analysis.


Envigogika ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Kubrická ◽  
Zdeněk Hromádka

The paper deals with the environmental content in an English foreign language textbook Time to Talk. The purpose of the text is to classify environmental elements in the textbook in the context of Czech curricular documents for environmental education and analyse the presentation of this content. The potential ideological message and the degree of manipulativeness of the environmental content is described by selected techniques of critical discourse analysis and the concept of open and closed text. In total 4 texts and 19 tasks are analysed. The results of the analysis imply that the textbook can be used in teaching the cross-curricular topic environmental education as it is related to the key topics of Czech curricular documents. Special attention is paid to ideological elements in closed texts where the environmental content is presented as unquestionable and presupposes the reader ́s passive cooperation.


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