Awareness of Text Structure: Is There a Match Between Readers and Authors of Second Language Texts?

The purpose of this study was to investigate the types of rhetorical structures that beginning‐level Spanish students encounter in their textbook reading materials. The intent was to determine if there was a match between the types of structures that English‐speaking students are most typically able to demonstrate awareness of and the the types of structures used by authors of reading materials found in Spanish textbooks. Also considered in the investigation was the issue of authentic texts and how they were the same or different than texts specifically written for textbook purposes. Finally, an analysis of words used to signal text patterns was done both for the authentic passages as well as those that were artificially constructed. Fifteen textbooks used to teach Spanish as a foreign language were selected randomly for inclusion in the study and from those 15 books, 39 passages were analyzed.