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Master's in TESOL - what program specifics to look for?

 
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Threnody



Joined: 13 Nov 2009
Posts: 26
Location: Pennsylvania

PostPosted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 10:50 pm    Post subject: Master's in TESOL - what program specifics to look for? Reply with quote

I am paring down my list of graduate programs in TESOL to which I plan to apply. While I've already considered concerns such as cost, location, program length, classroom practica, and additional opportunities (e.g. public school certification tracks), I'm not totally sure what other factors are most important.

What should I specifically be seeking in a solid TESOL program; what are good questions to be asking in direct inquiries to schools? I am not yet sufficiently well read in the TESOL field to name-drop or even recognize notable scholars thereof with much success, so useful evaluation of a uni's faculty is tricky. Are there particular methodologies or courses that are essential but not universally taught? Are there any smaller schools with unexpectedly high-quality or prestigious TESOL programs?

(At present, I am only considering schools in the U.S., but I assume a lot of these questions are applicable anywhere.)

I've tried to research this on my own, but my information is still spotty. Any help would be fantastic!
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rogerwallace



Joined: 24 Nov 2004
Posts: 66
Location: California

PostPosted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 7:12 pm    Post subject: esl vs tesol Reply with quote

here in the us of a, each state has different criteria as well as needs. Seeing that teachers here don't teach tesol, it's about esl. This is either through a state teaching licence or through a masters program in education.
I have a MEd(as well as teaching lic. in several states). In Calif. my MEd isfor "cross cultural teaching and education". Few univ. programes offer such an animal. Calif also has CLAD(cross cultural language and academic development) requirement for their teaching credentials-I don't know of anyother state that has that yet. Also Calif doesn't use the old praxis-it's C-SET( combined subject matter exam).
I wouldn't pay for any on-line type program, but thats just me. Anyway it all cost too much...
National University in Calif/Nev has such programes at 26 campus sites. They graduate more state lic. teachers than any other school in Calif.
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robertokun



Joined: 27 May 2008
Posts: 199

PostPosted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 12:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

One very important thing to consider is that a lot of master's programs in TESOL or Applied Linguistics (maybe even most of them) are Fall semester admission only and the deadlines already started from January 15th for a lot of schools. I put in a few apps to schools I'm interested in, but the window is quickly closing on a lot of programs, so you might want to check into the deadlines at schools you were considering ASAP.
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fluffyhamster



Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 3292
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again

PostPosted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 6:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Are US institutions much into functional grammar (e.g. SFG), and corpus linguistics? Just two areas that would seem pretty practical and hands-on, and useful for language teaching. (Apologies if you're aware of them already, Threnody!).
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Threnody



Joined: 13 Nov 2009
Posts: 26
Location: Pennsylvania

PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 1:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

robertokun wrote:
One very important thing to consider is that a lot of master's programs in TESOL or Applied Linguistics (maybe even most of them) are Fall semester admission only and the deadlines already started from January 15th for a lot of schools. I put in a few apps to schools I'm interested in, but the window is quickly closing on a lot of programs, so you might want to check into the deadlines at schools you were considering ASAP.


Yep, I have a spreadsheet with deadlines/reqs of schools that interest me. Some of them are already past; many are still doable. I'm not averse to starting fall 2011 if it's necessary, because I want to be as sure as possible about my decision.

fluffyhamster: That's a handy start. I'll have to inquire as to which linguistic theories departments tend to prefer, if any...
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fluffyhamster



Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 3292
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again

PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 2:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hopefully they won't be too much into anything other than good modern descriptive grammar (like you can find in the CGEL - the ComprehensiveGEL of Quirk et al 1985, or the CambridgeGEL by Huddleston & Pullum 2002; I'd also add the LGSWE by Biber at al 1999, and the various COBUILD publications, most notably their Dictionary, Grammar, and Grammar Patterns 1 & 2) - even SFGers can go a bit overboard sometimes. But what I find really strange (that is, perverse almost) is making AL or TESOL course takers (at some institutions, apparently) struggle through stuff like UG, "Generative" formalisms etc, even if it's in the form of relatively digestible treatments such as in the likes of Fromkin et al, as if such stuff not only makes the course and takers more academically respectable, but were in itself so academically respectable. (The fact is however that it is just theory, as opposed to more immediately relevant, usable and relatively uncontroversial facts as presented in those CGELs etc). I mean, it isn't like the average MA TESOL taker goes on to a glittering career in linguistics proper/theoretical linguistics - most in the latter field did first degrees and ultimately PhDs in it, and often at leading institutes for it (in short, they are academics not language teachers - not that language teachers can't be at all "academic" (by which I mean informed and therefore reasonably sophisticated rather than 'too interested in intellectual pursuits - impossible, unreal? - at the expense of practicalities'!)).

There are actually a fair number of reasonably interesting theory-related threads both here on the JD forums' GD forum and over on the Teacher Discussion AL forum - do some searches for 'Chomsk*' (* is a "wildcard" allowing a variety of endings to be searched for at once: -y, -y's, -ian, -yan (etc?)) whilst selecting the appropriate forum from the Search Options. Wink
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GambateBingBangBOOM



Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan

PostPosted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 8:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

North American universities tend to be a bit on the formalist side rather than the functionalist side. That doesn't mean that they don't use descriptive grammars. I used Greenbaum and Quirk for my grammar course in Canada. (Think of it as 'descriptive formalist programs talk about Chomski very often').

It was a very different approach than the functional grammar that I studied through an Australian university. (Think of it as 'functionalist programs talk about Halliday very often').

That's one thing to ask about- the role of sociolinguistics. In North America it seems to usually be treated as a side bar to the main point (which was the academic study of second and foreign language acquisition and how other areas in theoretical linguistics can be related to it), whereas in Australia sociolinguistics and the navigation of cross cultural communication is the main thrust of the program.
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