The purpose of this portfolio is twofold; it represents a culminating project for my methods class, FL 507 – College Teaching of Foreign Languages and serves as a professional development opportunity in that this portfolio may be presented to future employers.

It is divided into three sections. The first of these is a teaching philosophy. This was prepared early in the semester and has been altered to reflect updates in my teaching ideals as they changed based on my experience in class. Of primary importance is the CLT approach, which promotes the use of language as used in real-life situations. Beyond that, one of my strengths as an instructor is my effort to decrease student stress and lower the threshold to participation. In addition to a strong emphasis on speaking, CLT also stresses a number of other skills which feature heavily in my lesson design.

Second, there is a sample unit of lessons from the program at NC State that was designed to reflect each of the focus areas of CLT; a lesson is available for Speaking, Culture, Writing, Listening, and Reading. Each of these foci are necessary in a course that seeks to teach language such that students can move into the world and use their language. I invite you to review my lesson plans to get a deeper sense of how my teaching looks in context.

Lastly, my CV is available so that my teaching philosophy and techniques can be placed in the context of my previous experience. In addition to being a graduate teaching assistant of basic Spanish in the Department of Foreign Languages at NC State University, I also have experience in linguistics and literatures, holding a BA in Foreign Languages and Literatures.