The issue of language variations and linguistic diversity within the Spanish-speaking world has been little explored so far in Spanish language teaching in schools. The standard adopted for the teaching and learning of Spanish in schools was, for a long time, that of an educated native speaker with literary texts being the preferred materials, right from beginner level, with reference to a single method-ology (The Active Methodology) which lasted up to the 2000s. Until then, official instructions for Spanish would present the language of literary texts as the reference in language teaching and learning. Subject to competition with English in French schools from the 1970s (English being regarded as a language for communication), Spanish has been identified as a language for culture, asserting its specificity without seeking to explore learning strategies relying on the command of other languages by pupils, inspired particularly by inter-comprehension models across neighbouring languages. The conclusion of this article will consider a multilingual approach within this specific context.