Translated vs. Tailored Textbooks – A Comparison of How Two EFL Textbook Series Teach Grammar to Swedish-Speaking Upper Secondary Students in Finland

Along with the new National Core Curriculum (NCC) that was implemented into Finnish upper secondary schools in 2021, Swedish-speaking Finns have for the first time been presented with an English-teaching textbook series that is specifically targeted towards them: Voices and Echoes. The previous textbooks that have been used in Swedish-speaking upper secondary schools have been translations from Finnish versions. The aim of this thesis was to examine how a tailored textbook (Voices and Echoes) compares to a translated one (New Profiles) in terms of teaching grammar to a specific target-audience. Swedish as a language is closely related to English, as opposed to Finnish, which ideally should mean that language teaching materials take these differences into consideration. This study utilizes both qualitative and quantitative methods in order to compare the differences between the two separate textbook series published by Schildts & Söderströms: New Profiles and Voices and Echoes. Textbook analysis was conducted on the levels of production and content. Author interviews were used to gain insights into the creative process of the tailored Voices and Echoes textbook series and to find out in what ways the authors attempted to focus on the target audience. Both quantitative and qualitative textbook analysis was used to examine in what ways, if any, the textbooks differ from each other in terms of teaching grammar. The main findings of this study are that Swedish-speaking Finns are not explicitly more in focus in Voices and Echoes compared to New Profiles. Both textbook series, whether translated or tailored, take the target audience into consideration and specifically provide tips meant for them. Other findings in this study include that Voices and Echoes has significantly more grammar exercises than New Profiles does and that it is much more consistent in its method for teaching grammar in each of its sections. The implication of this study is that a textbook (New Profiles), which was originally made for another target audience (Finnish-speaking Finns), can be altered enough to consider a new target group (Swedish-speaking Finns) just as much as a textbook that has been tailor-made for them. It should be noted, however, that this only refers to a textbook that has undergone extensive alterations, which New Profiles arguably has. In other words, if the textbook that was analyzed for this study (New Profiles) had been a direct translation from the Finnish version, the results would have undoubtedly been different, as it could not have taken the target audience into consideration in the same way