Eco-lexicons in ELT: analyzing environmental narratives through critical discourse analysis

This study employs Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine the environmental narratives presented in the chapter “Love Your Environment” from an English Language Teaching (ELT) textbook for Grade 11. Through a detailed linguistic analysis, the research focuses on the eco-lexicons, grammatical structures, and discursive strategies used to convey environmental ideologies. The study reveals that the chapter constructs a discourse of individual responsibility, primarily emphasizing personal actions like waste management and recycling while neglecting systemic factors such as corporate or governmental roles in environmental degradation. The use of evaluative adjectives, modal verbs, and passive constructions further reinforces a neoliberal environmental ideology that frames environmental problems as solvable through personal behavior. The findings suggest that while the textbook promotes environmental awareness, it limits students’ understanding of the broader, interconnected nature of environmental issues, potentially impeding the development of critical ecological literacy. This research contributes to the growing field of ecolinguistics and highlights the need for ELT materials to adopt a more holistic and critical approach to environmental education.