Key pathways toward developing more ecoliterate individuals: a harmonious discourse analysis perspective

Abstract This article explores key pathways to improve the Chinese people’s ecological literacy (ecoliteracy) in ecolinguistics, and uses the framework of harmonious discourse analysis (HDA) to show how those pathways work. First, by reviewing HDA and ecoliteracy, we clarified the feasibility of their combined study. Then, a questionnaire was conducted among the inhabitants of one of China’s most ecologically advanced cities, and the key pathways to improving ecoliteracy were determined. The results showed that there were eight factors that were considered to encourage the people to be more ecoliterate, falling into the categories of education, participation in activities, and documents and publicity. We also reviewed a variety of cases and demonstrated the significance of these pathways for ecoliteracy using the framework of HDA. We found that an ecoliterate individual can guide ecological practice better by following the general assumption of human-orientedness and the principles of conscience, proximity, and regulation. These results provide new ways for ecologists and linguists to explore ecological issues, not only broadening the linguistic pathways of ecoliteracy, but also enriching the content of HDA.