Aquatic ecology-based conservation discourses in philology education for language and environmental literacy

Abstract

The ecological crisis, which is slowly growing in freshwater and coastal ecosystems, has heightened the need for interdisciplinary teaching strategies that integrate environmental science with the humanities. However, philology training does not necessarily relate to ecological facts, limiting students' environmental literacy and criticality toward the environmental conservation discourses implicit in language and literature. This paper explores how conservation discourses grounded in aquatic ecology can be integrated into philology language curricula to improve linguistic competence and environmental knowledge. A quantitative and qualitative design was selected to target 48 undergraduate students and 4 faculty members within a curriculum-based case study. These included eco-critical analysis of texts, discourse mapping of water issues in classical and modern literature, and project-based learning focused on local water bodies. Environmental literacy, discourse analysis ability, and conservation attitudes were evaluated using pre-intervention and post-intervention tests, with standardized rubrics used to assess the intervention's impact and a Likert scale used to assess the intervention's impact. Findings also showed a 34% increase in environmental literacy (52.3 to 70.1), a 28% boost in analytical language proficiency, and a 41% increase in student participation in community-based conservation dialogues. Paired t-tests were used to analyze the data, with a significant difference at p < 0.01. Qualitative responses also demonstrated the improved interpretive qualities of ecological accounts and greater attachment to water ecology. The results show that incorporating the discourses of aquatic ecology into philological studies not only enhances linguistic proficiency but also fosters responsible environmental citizenship. The study concludes that the interdisciplinary curriculum model may play an objectively important role in ensuring sustainable literacy practices and, in the long run, in developing conservation-oriented views among students in the humanities.