Analysis of beginning second language textbooks for German, Swedish, English, and Finnish looked at the readability of the contents. Finnish and English texts are examined more closely here as illustrations of the problems found in all four languages. Specific passages are cited and discussed; two are appended. A general framework of text linguistics was used for the analysis, focusing on grammatical and thematic coherence, textual theme, and communicative function. It is concluded that the texts are, in general, artificial and unnecessarily difficult for the language learner. A suggestion for avoiding these problems is to use authentic texts or to construct texts so that linguistic and pragmatic functions are combined. A brief bibliography is included. (MSE)