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International Journal of New Developments in Education, 2026, 8(1); doi: 10.25236/IJNDE.2026.080106.

The Presentation of Nature in Secondary School English Textbooks from an Ecolinguistic Perspective — A Case Study of the PEP Grade Seven English Textbooks

Author(s)

Yao Jia

Corresponding Author:
Yao Jia
Affiliation(s)

College of Foreign Languages, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, Zhejiang, China

Abstract

Ecological education has become increasingly important due to the rising ecological crises, among which language textbooks play a significant role. This study, based on the ecological transitivity system proposed by He, conducts an ecolinguistic analysis of nature discourse in Grade Seven English textbooks published by the People’s Education Press (PEP). The study aims to explore the images of nature presented in the textbooks and to uncover the underlying ecological awareness. The findings reveal the construction of five types of images of nature, namely nature as a source of human aesthetic pleasure, nature as an object of scientific inquiry, nature as an object of observation, personified nature, and nature as a victim, each conveying distinct ecological characteristics. The images of nature generally align with the ecological civilisation principles emphasised in contemporary Chinese environmental discourse; however, the distribution of different types also reveals a certain degree of anthropocentrism.

Keywords

Ecolinguistic transitivity; Images of nature; English textbooks

Cite This Paper

Yao Jia. The Presentation of Nature in Secondary School English Textbooks from an Ecolinguistic Perspective — A Case Study of the PEP Grade Seven English Textbooks. International Journal of New Developments in Education (2026), Vol. 8, Issue 1: 32-37. https://doi.org/10.25236/IJNDE.2026.080106.

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