Literacy development in EFL textbooks in Madrid’s primary schools

Abstract

Research indicates that Spanish schools tend to focus on literacy in a narrow sense, as in the mechanics of reading and writing with a focus on text at the word and sentence level, while the idea of literacy on an international scale includes “the ability to use reading and writing skills in order to produce, understand, interpret and critically evaluate multimodal texts” (European Commission, 2012: 13). This study seeks to examine whether textbooks for English as a Foreign Language used in the fourth grade in Madrid take the more traditional approach to literacy or a broader one that involves the consideration of genre characteristics and work at the text level. A questionnaire was formulated to examine the reading and writing activities of four EFL textbooks. The results suggest that the books present a more narrow view of the concept of literacy.

 Key words: literacy, textbooks, English as a foreign language, primary education, bilingual education