Top Spanish Textbooks for Beginners

Looking for a textbook that will help you learn Spanish at your own pace? These are the ones I can recommend!

1. Aula internacional Plus 1 – English Edition

Aula is my top favorite Spanish textbook. I love its content, aesthetics and approach to teaching Spanish to beginners.

It includes:

• a focus on vocabulary for each unit

• grammar recaps and exercises

• communicative practice through mini-tasks

• 9 videos that offer students social and cultural insights

• extra grammar and practice activities at the end of the book

• extra explanations and the conjugations of all verb tenses covered in the textbook

Who can use it? The book was designed to be used by adults.

Where can you buy it? You can get it from Amazon or Difusión, a publishing house based in Spain.

2. Students’ Basic Grammar of Spanish. English Edition

This is a self-study grammar book I love! It offers clear, precise and thorough explanations of topics that students of Spanish usually find difficult to understand.

Do you, too, think that Spanish pronouns are hard? This book will help you understand how to use lo, la, los, las, me, te, se, nos, etc, in the most simple and clear way.

It includes:

• more than 300 exercises classified according to different levels

• more than 400 illustrations that grammar points easy to understand

• examples of real Spanish conversations

• an answer key

• regular and irregular conjugated verbs

• an easy-to-use thematic index

Who can use it? This book was designed for adults.

Where can you buy it? You can get both, the English and Spanish version from Amazon.

3. Talk Spanish 1

The recordings of this book are realistically quick and need to be listened to a number of times by absolute beginners. Am I saying that I don’t like the recordings of this book? Not at all! I like to use resources like this in my lessons to help my students get accustomed to real Spanish.

The aim of this book is to get students talking in a relatively short amount of time. If you are learning Spanish from scratch and would like to learn Spanish vocabulary and grammar related to business, traveling or shopping, this could be a good choice for you.

It includes:

• simple grammar explanations

• activities that support various topics (traveling, shopping, doing business)

• 2 Audio CDs

Who can use it? This book was designed for adults.

Where can you buy it? You can get it from Amazon and Pearson, if you are in the UK.

4. Reporteros internacionales 1 – Libro del alumno

Looking for a book to teach your teen Spanish? This will be the right option for you if you know some Spanish.

This is the book I use with my young learners. Though I think this is a great Spanish textbook for teens, it is completely in Spanish.

It includes:

• conversations starring young ones from Spain and Latin America

• work sequences that are completed with an entertaining final project

• numerous playful activities that encourage young ones to use the language they are learning

• readings that expose young ones to the cultural reality of the Hispanic world

• fun mind maps

• a section dedicated to study and learning strategies

Who can use it? This book was designed for teens (13-17).

Where can you buy it? You can get it from Amazon and Difusión. 

These are the books I can recommend for now, but I as continue buying more, I will update this list.

Note: All Amazon links on this page are affiliate links, so I’ll make some pocket money if you buy. (You get everything at the normal price though.)