Team Teaching Beginning Spanish at a University: A Democratic Model

• Main Author: Denise E. Minor
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: eScholarship Publishing, University of California 2011-04-01
• Series: L2 Journal
• Online Access: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/92v076gq#main

This study centers on a pilot project conducted at a research university to develop a democratic team teaching model for beginning language classes. The goals of the project were to design a solid model for delivery of the daily class material by two different instructors and to measure satisfaction with the model on the part of students and instructors. Written and oral evaluations by students showed a high level of satisfaction because of the exposure to two different accents, teaching styles and types of cultural presentations. Students also said they liked having the benefit of the different strengths of the two teachers. The instructors expressed high satisfaction because of the experience of collaboration, the greater amount of time that could be dedicated to each class preparation and the reduced amount of time spent in commuting to work.