An Analysis of Grammatical Content in Teaching Materials Used by High School Spanish Teachers in Northeastern Thailand

Abstract

The increasing popularity of the Spanish language at the secondary and high school levels, particularly in the Northeast of Thailand, has been notable over the past decade. Currently, eight schools offer Spanish either as a full program or as elective courses. As Spanish is one of the most recent additions to the high school curriculum, the selection of teaching materials varies significantly due to the absence of standardized textbooks, specifically for Thai high school students. This study seeks to analyze the alignment of grammatical content in these teaching materials, using the A1-level grammatical topics outlined in the Plan Curricular del Instituto Cervantes (PCIC) as a reference framework. The findings indicate that none of the schools fully covered all the grammatical content prescribed by the PCIC. Notably, schools offering Spanish as a program included fewer grammatical content in their materials, whereas schools offering Spanish as an elective course demonstrated higher levels of content completion. It is, therefore, recommended that Spanish teachers at the high school level develop teaching materials that comprehensively cover the grammatical content specified by the PCIC. Ideally, teachers should collaborate in create a textbook that meets the A1 standard, thereby establishing a new benchmark for the teaching of Spanish in Thailand.