Skip to main content

Microcredential in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

TESOL is a university microcredential offered at SLU-Madrid for students with little or no English language teaching experience, and who would like a credential that allows them to teach English to speakers of other languages worldwide.

This 8-credit-hour microcredential can be completed in the spring semester while students are enrolled in other courses in their degree programs or while studying abroad at the Madrid Campus.

Course Aims

The course seeks to provide students with:

  • English-language teaching design principles, including the ability to adapt teaching to different cultural contexts and to assess learner background, preferences and needs, while acknowledging one's own educational and cultural biases.

  • Essential knowledge of English language skills, structure and use, and how these are most effectively acquired/learned.

  • Practice in designing lessons and materials for teaching English language in the classroom.

  • Opportunities to teach in real contexts, to receive feedback on teaching, and to reflect on ways of continuing teacher development.

  • Awareness of the critical role of language learning in a global society as a means of creating opportunities and enhancing social equity.

  • A printed certificate to show that you have completed the microcredential that will signal to potential employers that you have had some initial, basic training in language instruction, as well as some practice in classroom teaching.

Course Requirements

  • ENG 4110 Introduction to Linguistics (3 credits)
    Topics include: phonology; syntax; pragmatics; sociolinguistics; language acquisition; language skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening).
  • EDI 4220 Second Language Acquisition (3 credits)
    Topics include: contexts of teaching and learning; learner backgrounds and preferences; needs analysis; methods of language teaching; lesson planning; continued development for language teaching.
  • EDI 4350 Intercultural Seminar and Practicum (2 credits)
    Students apply concepts from the two three-credit courses (Introduction to Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition) to their teaching practicum.

  • Community ESL Program (0 credits/ UUC: Reflection in Action requirement)
    Students complete their practicum teaching class once or twice a week in the Community ESL program, MTW or R 7-8:30 p.m. where they put into practice what they have learned and be observed.

Once a student has completed the TESOL microcredential, they can declare it by completing the Submit Update for Student Curriculum Record form.

Faculty

Work as a language and culture assistant in Spain. If you are interested in coming to Spain and working legally as a language and culture assistant in schools in Spain, you can apply to the Spanish Government program. For more information on alternative language assistant opportunities in Spain, check out eslteacher365.