Now that AP® World Language and Culture teachers have accessed the new 2026 Course and Exam Descriptions (CEDs) and have seen the Project Manual (Appendix to each), hopefully everyone has a better idea of how the course and the exam are changing. If you weren’t able to attend my first webinar where I guided teachers to unpack the changes, you can view it here.
We know that the most significant changes involve the exam, notably the introduction of a Course Project that leads to the two new exam speaking tasks for all six AP® World Language and Culture courses. While there are changes in the thematic units and instructional contexts, along with the course skills, our fundamental goal remains unchanged: developing students’ real-world communicative proficiency through meaningful, authentic cultural content.
In this blog, I want to step back and consider what these changes truly mean for our work as AP® World Language and Culture educators. As we plan for 2026–2027, the challenge—and the opportunity—is to continue nurturing enduring skills in communication and culture while thoughtfully integrating the new course and exam expectations.
As such, we need to consider changes in thematic units and instructional contexts, which guide the content of our instruction. Some thematic unit names remain unchanged, including Families and Communities, Contemporary Life, and Science and Technology. Others have been renamed, such as Art and Creativity, which replaces Beauty and Aesthetics (now an instructional context), and Global Contexts, which replaces Global Challenges. We also have a totally new thematic unit, Language and Culture. But we must note that instructional contexts have been adjusted or changed across all thematic units, and all are now shared across languages, no differences.
The following comparison illustrates the thematic unit Families and Communities as an example. Although AP® Spanish and French differ in recommended contexts in the 2024 CED, note that instructional contexts are aligned in the new 2026 CEDs:
Vista’s Approach to Support Teachers and Align Content
Let’s focus on Vista’s Temas and Thèmes, tried and true AP® Spanish and French programs that teachers can continue using with purpose and confidence (until the new 2028 editions are ready for the 2027–2028 school year). Both programs are organized by thematic units, each with contextualized lessons based on authentic texts, a key element of the AP® framework. Through a scaffolded approach, students gain valuable thematic experiences and build all 2026 CED Skill Categories, strengthening communication and cultural understanding.
Of course, clear alignment to the new thematic units and instructional contexts is essential for effective planning for 2026-2027. With that in mind, Vista has mapped the authentic texts in Temas (3e, 2024) and Thèmes (2e, 2022)—including print, audio, supplemental online audio, and video resources, all grounded in cultural topics—to the updated framework, through crosswalk documents, helping Temas and Thèmes teachers to align content to the new 2026 CED themes and instructional contexts.
This screenshot illustrates a section of the crosswalk correlations from Temas 2024 to the NEW 2026 CED Thematic Units and Instructional Contexts, followed by examples:
Examples:
As you can see, the reading “El docente del año de la escuela rural Nº 29 de Rivera” in Tema 1, Contexto 1 (Las familias y las comunidades; Las comunidades educativas) now aligns with La vida contemporánea and the new instructional context La educación y las carreras.
Notice how the En fragmentos: más práctica audio from Tema 1, Contexto 2 (Las familias y las comunidades; Las redes sociales), “Los jóvenes continúan liderando el uso de Internet,” now aligns with La ciencia y la tecnología and the new instructional context, Tecnología personal y comunicación.
Likewise, here is a screenshot of a section of the crosswalk correlations for Thèmes 2022 to the NEW 2026 CED Thematic Units and Instructional Contexts with examples:
Examples:
As you can see, the audio “Comment instaurer de bons rapports entre parents et enfants?,” from Thème 1, Contexte 3 (La famille et la communauté; Les rapports sociaux) now aligns with La famille et la communauté and the new instructional context Les relations familiales.
You can also see how the reading, “La cérémonie du thé,” in Thème 1, Contexto 4 (La famille et la communauté; Les coutumes), now aligns with the new theme of La langue et la culture and its instructional context of Les coutumes et les fêtes.
With both Temas and Thèmes correlations, keep in mind that texts usually touch upon more than one theme and context. Example: the reading from Temas 2024, T1 C2 Lectura 1 | Abuelas chilenas en Internet, relates to the revised context of Social Interactions and Relationships (Families and Communities), but it can also relate to Entertainment and Media (Contemporary Life), Personal Technology and Communication (Science and Technology), and Global Communication (Global Contexts). So, students are often experiencing multiple instruction contexts in one text.
General Recommendations
If you are reading this blog and use other materials for AP® French and/or Spanish, or teach other AP® world languages, consider creating a crosswalk of the texts and lessons you use, seeing how they fit the revised themes and instructional contexts. This is an important step to planning for next year.
As the College Board states in FAQS, “Yes. Textbooks published in the last 10 years will adequately address the revised course material.” Teachers just need to continue to ensure that students receive ample exposure to all themes and instructional contexts, while also providing well-designed, scaffolded lessons that offer continuous opportunities to build experience and proficiency in every skill category assessed on the May exam:
|
Skill Category |
Description |
|
Skill Category 1 |
Interpretive Communication: Comprehend written texts, audio, and visualizations of data |
|
Skill Category 2 |
Interpersonal and Presentational Communication: Speak and write in interpersonal and presentational contexts |
|
Skill Category 3 |
Cultural Understanding: Demonstrate cultural understanding |
To accomplish this, I recommend that pacing allows for all thematic units, as well as time to complete the Course Project, for which the College Board requires 15 class periods of 45 minutes (or the equivalent for block schedule courses). Each unit can be anywhere from 18-21 days or more, depending on students’ needs, prior learning experiences, integrating the Course Project as part of the theme(s), and the like.
So go forward confidently, knowing that you have effective materials to address the revised 2026 AP® Course and Exam Descriptions, with new editions of Temas and Thèmes coming for 2027-28. Also remember that when it comes to the exam changes, Vista will have new editions of the AP® Spanish and French exam preparation worktexts for 2026-27 classes.
For more on the topic of planning, please join me for Webinar #2, Planning for Continued AP® Success: Best Practices, Strategies, and Resources, of the Vista AP® Webinar Series, on April 14. Teachers get access to the crosswalk documents discussed above as part of this webinar.
By Parthena Draggett
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To support teachers preparing current students for the current AP® exam, which is not changing for this May, watch this Webinar, recorded last April, Your AP® Exam Survival Guide: An Interactive Q & A
Also read:
Building Forward as AP® World Language and Culture Educators
AP® World Language Course and Exam Changes on the Horizon
AP® World Languages and Cultures Scaffold and support exam tasks! After all, it’s not May yet!
