Conclusion

Developing a curriculum for Spanish as a second language (SSL) that can be implemented across the four secondary levels is always a complicated task, especially when focused at trying to fulfill the needs associated with teaching Spanish in a Belizean context. This idea has prompted me, as an educator, to put together this curriculum at hand that would suffice for those needs and alleviate such difficulty.  Thanks to this effort, secondary school educators will now have the advantage to acquire the fundamental theoretical and methodological information needed to execute their professional mission as facilitators in the teaching of a second language. At the same time, Belizean educators will have access to programs that will assist them in planning and implementing effective Spanish lessons. Similarly, students will have available, detailed workbooks to complete the different tasks that complement the lessons of the program, which will allow them to implement and practice the target language. Evidently, the curriculum caters for the needs of both the teacher and student regarding the teaching and learning of Spanish as a second language.

There is a wide variety of theories concerning the teaching of a second language. However, the most effective teaching approaches of teaching a L2 were considered as the foundation to complete this curriculum. Such selected approaches have been categorized as effective in the grounds of teaching a second language for being brief and easy to follow. Among the array of approaches that exists, the communicative approach and task-based approach has been favored as the most effective. However, these approaches should not limit the teacher to further research for improved methods or approaches to facilitate the teaching of the Spanish language, since there are  other sources of information that exist  that sheds light to the teaching of a second language (L2) or a foreign language (FL). It is therefore vital to take into consideration that language teaching is an evolutionary process, which offers new techniques, options, and methodologies over time. Certainly, there is a significant appreciation to the continuous efforts of the language researchers, who have dedicated their lives in searching for new and innovative methods, approaches, and strategies to assist students. Teaching/learning methodologies prepares students to develop their intellectual capacity to master all the linguistic skills and competences of the target language. For this reason, it remains the responsibility and obligation of the teacher to become an observer and researcher, attentive to new pedagogical updates to teach L2. History has proven that there is no specific method/approach that guarantees perpetuity or is fully effective but it has also demonstrated the constant evolution in the methods/approaches in teaching a second language. Fortunately, these changes have impacted society, who in turn demands a change in previous methods or approaches.

One of the greatest obstacles that language teachers face when preparing units or lessons is not necessarily the selection of topics or establishing objectives; in fact, the greatest challenge is the development of recreational activities. The teacher needs to ensure that such activities guarantee effectiveness in the learning process, in measuring the degree of complexity of the level, and in evaluating the student’s performance in each activity. Therefore, the objective is to guide educators in providing clear and precise instruction, including examples for the development of the final task and subtasks of each unit, which are necessary to prepare the learner to complete the final task. Furthermore, it should guide the teacher to select and categorize the lexicon into the associative and semantic fields and prefabricated phrases of common use. Examples have also been provided to demonstrate how to work with the vocabulary in a L2 class setting; for instance, through games and other interactive activities that fosters the transmission of the content and encourages the student to become a self-learner. Most importantly, it is necessary to emphasize that it is the teacher’s onus to select appropriate material for each teaching level to cater for the linguistic needs of the learners. The teacher’s added role is to observe which activities were effective during the previous lessons and document the outcome to create an activity bank of activities for future use. The curriculum leaves a space available for the teacher to develop his/her own activities by following the pattern provided in the activities section.

To facilitate the preparation of effective lesson plans, the descriptors from the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) for each level were taken into consideration for this curriculum. This establishes a limit; in other words, it measures the complexity of teaching and learning at a certain level and selects appropriate teaching materials for a lesson. These descriptors are the fundamental basis for the development of other specific and clearer descriptors, which are assigned for each unit of the program and detailed in the section based on its functional content. The purpose of the specific descriptors is to ensure that the teacher has a clear idea of what the student will learn or “be able to do” with the target language at the end of each unit. Similarly, these specific descriptors are intended to guide the preparation of recreational activities, objectives of the lesson plan, and instruments to evaluate the progress of the students in the final task.

The content presented in the curriculum, ensures that the Spanish teachers will be equipped with the necessary information to develop facilitator skills in order to teach Spanish as a L2, from a pedagogical and didactic perspective. Certainly, it is also necessary to have the “affective” factor in view, to complement the true essence of a Spanish class by combining knowledge with affection. The “affective” factor certainly exists between the teacher and students, and between classmates towards the target language and the native speakers. A teacher may possess the best theoretical and pedagogical knowledge in language teaching; he/she may prepare the best recreational activity and selects the appropriate teaching material, but if he/she does not have the passion for the teaching profession, everything becomes futile. In this curriculum, the affective factor has been emphasized in detail with the purpose of encouraging the teacher to adopt this as part of his/her personality, since it determines what the teacher thinks about his/her student and the class. Furthermore, the affective factor determines the student’s response to teachers and his/her methodology of teaching. Once, the theoretical, pedagogical, didactic, and affective factors have been harmonized the result will be an excellent class with the certainty to produce successful students.

The elaboration of this curriculum was not solely dependent upon my knowledge as an expert in this area, but on a variety of key questions that were considered fundamental for its development, such as: What happens in Belize regarding the teaching of Spanish? What type of Spanish is taught in Belize (L1/L2/FL)? Where is Belize located regionally and how is the country related to other Spanish-speaking countries?  What has the Ministry of Education done and is presently doing with regards to the teaching of Spanish in Belizean classrooms? How dominant is the Hispanic presence in Belize? How does the Hispanic presence influence the Belizean community? Who can be regarded as the target group? Are pre-service and in-service teachers trained to teach Spanish as a second language (L2)? How many hours of Spanish instruction does the student receive per week? Do the secondary schools have a Spanish curriculum? How effective are the textbooks that are used in the secondary schools? What are the student’s attitudes towards the Spanish classes?  Is there a content standardization in secondary schools? What is the linguistic need of the Belizean citizens regarding the Spanish language? Many other key questions pondered for the elaboration of the curriculum. To answer these questions, it was necessary to put oneself in the position of the teacher, student, government, and citizens.

Answering these key questions resulted in establishing objectives that focused on crucial aspects needed to be addressed and have been accomplished during the preparation of the present curriculum. Among them we can mention:

1. Establish the teaching of the Spanish language as L2, being that it is the second most widely spoken language in the country due to the Hispanic presence in the country and the influence of the neighboring Spanish-speaking countries. This objective allowed for the appropriate selection of the specific topics/objectives and most frequently used vocabulary in the Belizean communities, meeting the citizen’s linguistic needs, which are in line with the linguistic variety of the region.

2. Provide a Spanish curriculum for the secondary levels, which serves as a training and guiding instrument for the development of productive lesson plans.

3. Create a curriculum that helps to standardize the teaching of the Spanish language in the secondary schools of this country, bearing in mind that having an established and well-organized program guarantees the achievement of this objective. Although the didactic material and activities vary in certain areas throughout the country due to the Hispanic presence in the classroom, it was necessary to establish elements that define the degree of teaching/learning of the language for each level.

Subsequent objectives established in this curriculum will be achieved in the future through its acceptance by the educational authorities in the country and implementation in the secondary schools.

During each stage in the process of preparing the curriculum, Spanish program, and workbook, unique and memorable experiences were encountered. At the beginning, it seemed like a simple process that would take a few hours of work to complete all its components; however, this task became the greatest challenge I have ever faced as a Spanish educator and developer of didactic material. In the same manner, I have obtained a great sense of satisfaction from discovering and sharing a vast number of ideas and knowledge in this Spanish Curriculum which will benefit all those who accept and implement it in their respective educational centers.

During the time of its elaboration, many challenges were faced that almost led me to abandon the project altogether. Fortunately, the desire to develop a curriculum in the interest to collaborate with the teaching of Spanish in Belize made me persevere in completing it. Although I had many other professional obligations, my intrinsic motivation kept the enthusiasm growing. This learning experience has proven to me that knowledge without application is simply a waste of time. It was an extraordinary experience to be able to put theory into practice so that it contributes with more theory to refine our practices. Through these years of teaching as a Spanish educator, I have acquired a significant amount of knowledge and experience of teaching the Spanish language. By applying the pedagogical and content knowledge into practice by writing the curriculum, I had the opportunity to refine my own teaching strategies to the extent that they became learning strategies, allowing me to give my students the opportunity to become autonomous or self-learners, who can manage and direct their own learning process. Being actively engaged in this process transformed me from being a teacher to being a facilitator, guide, and friend to the students.

While processing the information about the methodology and development of programs and workbooks, various textbooks that were designed “for teaching of Spanish as L2” were evaluated. Through this process, it was discovered that most textbooks' content does not demonstrate a clear methodology for such desired purposes. These textbooks become confusing when wanting to utilize them as a teaching instrument or guide, since the majority of the textbooks do not meet the requirements for teaching a L2. For this reason, it was considered necessary to develop programs that are straightforward and easy to understand, so that a teacher with no specialization on teaching Spanish as an L2 can understand. Therefore, the content material was simplified and organized in a simple and manageable manner. This was the main strategy that was implemented for the preparation of the curriculum, since it was considered strategic to ensure that everyone knows how to understand and use its content to produce competent students in the target language. It is considered that the simpler the content, the more understandable and manageable it will also be; on the contrary, making the information difficult to understand will create barriers in the learning process.

In conclusion, the educational authorities and all stakeholders in the teaching of Spanish language are encouraged to bring all efforts together to make Belize a pioneer in the teaching and learning of the Spanish language as L2. Most importantly, “Working together guarantees great successes”, especially for our growing young nation and its political standing in relation to other Spanish speaking countries. Thus, the arduous work of Belizean educators will produce a major contribution for the economic development of the nation by enticing and influencing many international students to specialize in the Spanish language in Belize. This will create many opportunities for the Belizean populace, and simultaneously enhance their acquisition of Spanish as an L2 for its use in society.