Environmental awareness exposure through English language teaching: An analysis of middle school EFL textbooks in Bangladesh

Abstract

This article seeks to study the effectiveness of environmental awareness among middle school students in Bangladesh and proposes possible ways to develop environmental awareness through language classes among school-going students. It assesses middle school English textbooks of grades 6, 7, and 8 under the National Curriculum Textbook Board to evaluate the presence of environmental content and its effectiveness among the middle school students of Bangladesh. How do these textbooks help teach about the environment in terms of their content, given that teaching a second language includes both content-based and context-based lessons? Moreover, if environmental awareness is introduced and familiarized in language classes, it could reinforce environmental knowledge among students and develop their linguistic ability in L2 or foreign language. Through this research, we observe that the English as Foreign Language textbooks of middle schools display a moderate proportion of social issues, including environmental awareness at the national and global levels. However, compared with the surmounting crisis Bangladesh is going through, the textbooks could emphasize a few more recently faced ecological issues such as plastic pollution and air pollution. © 2024 Common Ground Research Networks. All rights reserved.