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Home > HCAS > HCAS_PUBS > HCAS_JOURNALS > TQR Home > TQR > Vol. 30 > No. 9 (2025)

 

Abstract

Addressing river pollution and understanding the role of children in environmental conservation are essential for maintaining ecosystem health and sustainability. This study used positive discourse analysis to explore children's discourse about river pollution in Pasuruan, East Java, Indonesia. Data were collected using walk-and talk ethnographic interviews with 15 children aged 7 to 11 years. The findings reveal that these children employed five discursive strategies: (1) nomination: metaphor, comparison, and cultural practices; (2) predication: positive attitude in the forms of disposition and behavior; (3) argumentation: contrast and parallelism; (4) perspectivisation, involving a type of religious representation that includes references to the Creator, the Prophet, and hadith; and (5) intensification and mitigation: mood choice and expression of surprise. These strategies serve as persuasive tools implicitly communicated to various stakeholders to promote a culture of sustainable living. If implemented, they would provide clean water, locations for biodiversity exploration, and safe recreational areas. However, these findings cannot be generalized. Future research could expand upon this work by utilizing the list of questions developed in this study to focus on children from various age groups who may have different perspectives and cultural approaches to river pollution.

Keywords

children’s discourse, ecological discourse, positive attitude, walk-and-talk, river pollution, positive discourse analysis

Author Bio(s)

Bambang Prastio is a lecturer in the Department of Indonesian Literature at the Faculty of Literature, Universitas Negeri Malang. His research focuses on integrating appraisal theory with ecolinguistics to analyze discourses related to forestry, environmental challenges, and Applied linguistics. He can be contacted via email bambang.prastio.fs@um.ac.id

Ahsani Maulidina is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Indonesian Literature, Faculty of Literature, Universitas Negeri Malang. Her research focuses on psycholinguistics and conversation analysis within the context of environmental discourse. She can be contacted via email ahsani.maulidina.2102119@students.um.ac.id.

Agung Rinaldy Malik is a doctoral student in the Department of Indonesian Literature at the Faculty of Literature, Universitas Negeri Malang. His research focuses on language learning, typically exploring the communicative competence of young people from various perspectives. He can be contacted via email agung.rinaldy.2102119@students.um.ac.id

Achmad Tantowi Azis is a doctoral student in the Department of Indonesian Literature at the Faculty of Literature, Universitas Negeri Malang. His research focuses on literature learning, typically exploring the creativity and competence of young people in writing. He can be contacted via email achmad.tantowi.2102119@students.um.ac.id

Publication Date

9-27-2025

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2025.7592

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