Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Communicative English for Chinese Learners (Integrated Course) From the Perspective of Ecosophy

Abstract

Textbooks may reflect a certain ecosophy through the linguistic elements of the content that significantly influences students’ values. This analysis selected 88 discourses from the reading sections of Communicative English for Chinese Learners (Integrated Course), from Books 1 to 4, designed for undergraduate English majors. Based on Systemic Functional Linguistics, the title and the illustration of the reading sections are analyzed to ascertain whether the ideology they reflect is in accord with the ecosophy, that is, the harmonious coexistence of humans, nature, and the development of society. After conducting a textual analysis, all multimodal discourses that can reflect clear ecosophy conform to this idea. Concerning illustrations, seven of them are at variance with the ecosophy. As for the analysis of the logico-semantic relations between image and text, only three discourses are found at variance with the ecosophy, but in actual pedagogical context, these three discourses aim to arouse the thinking of the audience about people’s inappropriate conduct and arouse their ecological consciousness.