We discuss the significance of teaching and learning as a goal in the writing of Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics. First, by analyzing textbooks that Bally and Sechehaye published based on their own teaching before they started working on the CGL, we determine criteria defining university textbooks as a genre. Then, we examine the making of the CGL into a textbook (manuélisation) as an outcome of content adaptation for teaching and learning (transposition didactique). Finally, we illustrate these processes through the study of two notions: “appendix” (appendice) and “natural place” (place naturelle)