Ecodidactic Perspectives on English Language, Literatures and Cultures

In contrast to the still widespread notion that it is only or largely education in the sciences that can create awareness of environmental problems and foster the knowledge and skills needed to protect and improve the environment, the essays collected in this volume demonstrate that education in the fields of foreign language teaching, literary and cultural studies can and must contribute to these efforts as well. Acknowledging that the current environmental crisis in its various local, regional and global manifestations is, in fact, a cultural crisis, they clarify the role of the formative power of language and texts when it comes to the creation of an environmentally sensitive and knowledgable sense of self. They all start from the general premise that both language learning and a critical engagement with various types of texts - texts transmitted by different media, in oral, print and, more recently, electronic form, in literature, in the arts, in music, in television programmes and in film - mean an active production of knowledge. They show that it is important to make sure that students gain an understanding of how language functions in representing and shaping natural and social realities and of how texts function as important factors in the processes of creating our knowledge about the natural world and about the political, economic, and ethical dimensions of the interaction between human and non-human nature.