Text Types and Analysis in German Coursebooks for Young People

The biological, mental and social developments of young individuals differ from those of children and adult target audiences. Therefore, the importance of using materials which will attract young individuals’ attention according to their learning styles is evident. In this context, it is inevitable for current German coursebooks which are published for young people to include topics and texts according to their interests. One of the most attention grabbing and motivating tools in German coursebooks used in foreign language teaching for young people is the texts present in these books. The purpose of this study is to analyse the types of texts and their contents in two up-to-date beginner level German coursebooks used in international areas. For this purpose, it is examined in this study to what degree the texts used in the German coursebooks affect young people’s interests and needs. To obtain the findings of the study, the document analysis technique, which is one of the qualitative research methods, was used for the text types and their analysis for both books. As a result of the study, it was found that pragmatic texts were intensively used in both German coursebooks. It is determined that getting to know the daily life in the target language, attracting young people’s attention with different contents, reflecting the richness of the contemporary language, encouraging the target audience towards action-oriented tendencies and obtaining cultural knowledge are among the purposes of using pragmatic texts in the mentioned German coursebooks