Eco-pedagogical content's impact on EFL learners' environmental attitudes and behaviors: A structural equation modeling study

Abstract

Increasing scholarly attention has been directed to integrating environmental issues into educational contexts across academic disciplines. Within this context, foreign language classrooms offer valuable opportunities to incorporate environmental content into language learning. This study examines the impact of integrating environmental issues into English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instruction on students' environmental attitudes and behaviors. The study involved 562 EFL learners. A quantitative research design was adopted, and three hypotheses were tested using Structural Equation Modeling. The proposed model assumes that the presence of environmental issues in language instruction positively influences environmental attitudes and environmental behavior, and that environmental attitudes also positively affect environmental behavior. The findings reveal that the inclusion of environmental topics into EFL instruction significantly strengthens students' environmental attitudes and behaviors, both directly and indirectly. In addition, gender-based analyses indicate that female students scored significantly higher across all three scales. Similarly, students who had previously taken a course related to environmental issues exhibited significantly higher levels of environmentally responsible behavior compared to those who had not. Overall, these findings emphasize the potential of foreign language classrooms to function as interdisciplinary spaces that foster environmental awareness, positive attitudes, and environmentally responsible behaviors.