Language Teaching in the Secondary Education Classroom: Strategies for Teaching Spanish and English

This portfolio is a compilation of the author’s beliefs about effectively teaching English as a Second Language and Spanish as a Foreign Language. All of the work in the portfolio centers on the teaching philosophy statement, which contains what the author believes to be the most important aspects of second and foreign language teaching. This statement discusses the importance of communicative language teaching, with a focus on real-life interactions with others. It also advocates teaching content via the second language for more concrete understanding. Four artifacts follow the teaching philosophy statement. The first artifact examines the role of neutral Spanish and gives recommendations for implementing telenovelas into Spanish classes. The second artifact argues the case for first language literacy in order to achieve biliteracy and true bilingualism. The third artifact focuses on teaching Spanish formality to adolescent students, with a focus on the pronouns tú and usted. The final artifact discusses using games to teach second language, with a specific focus on online and digital games. A three-part annotated bibliography follows these artifacts, showcasing the literature that the author researched on communicative language teaching and the task-based approach, gaming’s influence on second language acquisition, and the Spanish telenovela. The annotated bibliography portrays how this research affected the author’s teaching philosophy statement and the four artifacts of this portfolio.