Approaches to alcohol in textbooksmfor teaching foreign languages for beginners. An investigation of English, Spanish, Russian and Polish textbooks
Approaches to alcohol in textbooksmfor teaching foreign languages for beginners. An investigation of English, Spanish, Russian and Polish textbooks

Summary/Abstract: This study discusses different approaches to alcohol in textbooks for teaching foreign languages (English, Spanish, Russian, Polish) on a beginner level (A1). In a broader context, the article deals with the cultural content and evaluation of foreign language course books. At the outset, the materials for foreign language teaching have been investigated with a frame of content analysis, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative analysis reveals that alcohol occurs in varying levels in the textbooks – from complete absence in some to 118 references in one textbook. Alcohol appears in Polish and Russian textbooks to a greater extent than in English and Spanish. Moreover, the paper suggests that the common feature of the books is a higher tolerance towards beer and wine than to spirits. In the second part of the study, based on the qualitative descriptions, three approaches towards presenting alcohol in the course books are discussed: tabooing, cautionary treatment and an affirmative approach. Additionally, this study discusses that in Slavic course books alcohol might also be introduced because of linguistic reasons (grammatical and phonetic).

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