I have been teaching for over 28 years. I teach both Spanish and English as a second language (TESOL). I have taught from as young as 7 years of age to my current student who is 82.
I focus from the outset on speaking, as ultimately this is what everyone wants to do, communicate. My lesson plans are created by me although at times I will dip in and out of language books. I encourage my students to keep their own vocabulary book which they will add words to throughout the lesson to create a strong bank of words. I teach online and in my home, and regularly use props to help students learn and retain new words. Apart from speaking from the outset I particularly enjoy teaching grammar, which is a very large part of learning Spanish, as fortunately Spanish is a very grammatical language.
From my own personal experience of learning Spanish, which I did living in mainland Spain for 4 years, I have realised that the key to learning is repetition, learning words in context, keeping a vocabulary book and of course regular studying and the desire to learn.
If you are looking to learn a language, Spanish is a great choice. It's the second most popular language in the world, a phonetic language so once you've learnt the alphabet you can spell and say any word.