An Analysis of State Adopted Foreign Language Textbooks Used in First‐ and Third‐Year High School Spanish Classes

Abstract

ABSTRACT: At all stages and levels of foreign language instruction, teachers and students rely heavily on the core textbook. Research, however, has neglected the systematic evaluation and description of these texts. Using the Annehurst Curriculum Classification System as a tool for classifying, describing, and analyzing first‐ and third‐year high school Spanish textbooks, this study provides information about the curriculum characteristics of these textbooks and determines what differences exist among the texts evaluated. The characteristics or dimensions are: experience, intelligence, motivation, emotion/personality, creativity, sociability, verbal expression, and auditory, visual, and motor perception. Results of this study indicate that these textbooks are consistently “deficient” on nearly all of the dimensions examined. Similarity of characteristics among first‐ and third‐year Spanish textbooks suggests that the broad spectrum of cognitive and affective needs inherent in learners is not being met.