It is known that the interest of the Spanish language has increased a lot during the last few years and today Spanish is one of the most popular languages in the Swedish upper secondary school. However, it is not only in Sweden that Spanish has increased in popularity as a second language, but in other countries as well. As a result of this growing interest of studying the Spanish language, there is a diversity of different teaching methods and materials to choose from. Consequently, organizing and planning lessons could become a difficult task for teachers. Some say that teachers of foreign languages tend to depend too much on textbooks and that they should work more independently and be more creative when planning their lessons. This is, however, an assignment that takes a lot of time, something that there is a lack of in many schools today. Therefore, having good textbooks could result in better lessons as well as function as a security for inexperienced teachers. This is the reason why I like to bring out the role of good textbooks in the teaching of foreign languages, especially for new, inexperienced teachers. Yet, in order to find the most usable textbook, it is essential to compare and contrast different books before using choosing one of them. Thus, in this paper I have examined and analysed two different textbooks in Spanish in relation to the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Furthermore, as the textbooks are produced in two different countries, I have also examined the books from a national point of view. The study shows that the two books, Caminando de nuevo and Esespañol, have many similarities, for example concerning the context and the attitude towards second language acquisition. However, there are some dissimilarities as well, such as the way of practising the different language skills. Nationally viewing, the study shows that both textbooks use the communicative method of language teaching. The difference, however, is that the Spanish textbook, Esespañol, makes it possible for the teacher to work more freely than the Swedish one does.