When we start a language, one of the main commitments we have is the choosing a language textbook. For the most part, you will mainly need one book or book series to get from total beginner to intermediate. Of course, a grammar textbook will never get you to advanced; that’s a path you have to forge on your own. However, you really only have to learn sentence structure and grammar fundamentals once. You can get another book later, but the first way you learn will stick for you for a very long time in your language learning journey. As such, we need to bring special attention to how we are making those choices.
Determine your goals
Before choosing a language textbook, you need to lay out your goals of learning. Are you trying to understand every detail of grammar? Are you trying to finish the fundamentals as fast as possible? Are you looking for a simple explanation to the basics?
You need to be aware of your needs and wants before even looking at any books. In my experience, diving into what textbooks are available before you know what you need is dangerous. Like any market, the textbook market wants to pull you in and make you believe their book is made for you. Rather, you should go into the research process knowing which keywords are deal-breakers and which keywords are critical for your learning.
Do research
Now that you have decided your goals, you can handle the torrent of books available. If you are learning a rarer language, you might have a limited selection, which I have written about before. If you are learning a popular L2 language like Spanish, Chinese, or French, there will be more books than you could ever need. You need to know when to stop considering a book.
See what other learners are saying. Searching “language textbook” on Amazon is not enough.
What is the language learning community online saying? Which books do they use? What does the local language school use? What do major universities use to teach this language? What do foreigners in your target language’s country use?
I have a resource page where I recommend the books I use for my languages. Since I am just one person, you ought to get other opinions, but this could be a start for you.
At this stage, take in as much information as possible about who is using what. Then, you can think of other considerations to narrow your selection even more.
Consider: The Price
Your budget might limit your choices. Like all things in life, you get what you pay for. Expensive books sometimes mean high-quality.
However, this is not entirely true because of a significant factor: educational institutions. In my experience, whatever high schools or colleges touch becomes massively expensive. I recently wanted to revisit my high school French textbook. As it is so basic and massively produced, I wrongfully assumed it would be accessible. The reality is that it cost more than $100, which is ridiculous because it was such an average French textbook.
Just the mere fact that major institutions made contracts with this publisher meant that individual customers would have to pay astronomical prices for a copy without a contract. When choosing, you need to take into account if these prices are inflated because they have been massively produced for schools.
Consider: Its Level of Complexity
Some learners want simple explanations. They don’t want to hear complex terminology about how intransitive active verbs interact with the ablative plural nouns; they just want to know where to put what word. There are books for these kinds of learners. Usually, they will advertise themselves for “beginners,” or “made easy.”
On the other hand, some learners want to learn things as accurately as possible. They don’t want childish explanations using a barely legible romanization system unusable outside of this book. There are books for these learners who want complexity and are not afraid of grammatical terms. These book usually advertise themselves as “comprehensive” or “EVERYTHING about [your language]” so you can pick them out of the crowd easier.
Consider: Its Popularity
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. If other learners are using it, it might be good. It might make sense to use that resource that everyone else is using despite your immediate negative reaction. If a successful language learner used that textbook you are eyeing, it might be worth it. Perhaps the rare book you are considering doesn’t have anyone praising it because it isn’t that good.
Of course, this is not guaranteed. It merely should be an indicator to take the book into consideration. It’s entirely possible that other learners’ goals do not match with yours. For example, if you are learning Spanish, maybe the book you picked does not match the style of Spanish you want. Maybe your Chinese book can be great for mainland Chinese, but if you only look at Taiwanese or Singaporean resources, that mainland book might not prepare you for some special changes of those other varieties.
Consider: The Intended Audience of the Book
When I’m looking through the long list of books, I know seeing the word “in 60 days” is an instant disqualification. In my experience, language books that want to convince me to buy it by what a small time commitment this book will be has never been good. The explanations were pathetically small or they tried to use a non-standard transliteration for people who don’t want to learn the writing system. I’m sure those books were useful for someone, but not for me. I am a learner that needs a deep explanation and refuses to take the shortcut.
I can never say that a book is terrible. I can only say that I am not the intended audience of a book. The writers need to consider whether their audience only knows one language, whether they have enough time, whether they have linguistic education, among other things. Not every book will be made for you. Your goal is to find the one that is.
Stick to the textbook
You can be choosing a language textbook all day and try to get the best one, but at the end of the day if you do not use the book, you will not learn. Once I receive a new book, I want to wring that book out of every bit of information before moving onto another one. Language learners sometimes tend to collect books and not use them, opting to praise the “aesthetic” of a new book. This is a total waste of time if your goal is to learn.
If you don’t open that book, all your considerations and work mean nothing.
If you want to hear more about my language learning journey, you can watch my YouTube channel.
For more language learning tips, you can read more on my blog.
Keep on learning and good luck finding a textbook!
