Korean Job Discussion Forums

BigBlackEquus

Please detail the difficulty in obtaining a Masters in TESOL. I am curious if I will be stuck in 2 years of grammar classes, or what exactly will be happening in such a program.

Many thanks!

indytrucks · Joined: 09 Apr 2003 Location: The Shelf

BigBlackEquus · Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 6:40 pm Post subject:

Chicken or the egg.

I happened to be on Dave's and was curious.

Sorry I asked.

indytrucks · Joined: 09 Apr 2003 Location: The Shelf

No need to be sorry. I just found the tone of your post to be glib.

And that, Derrek, is true.

anyway · Joined: 22 Oct 2005

I have an MS Ed. (TESOL). What's that, you say?

Well, the MA at that uni consists of the 12 hour TESOL sequence, a 12 hour linguistic sequence, and 12 hour of core and elective classes. That program has a grammar class and practicum (with journal as observation) as electives. Thesis or comprehensive test final.

I switched to the MS because I decided two seminars in online education and an independent study with my TESOL professor would be more useful and interesting (not to mention easier) than the linguistics courses. I did take the intro to linguistics to round out the 12 credit substitution.

Was it worth it? Well, yes and no. I studied in a program in my home state which meant in-state tuition. Whole thing probably cost me 8k. The TESOL classes were filled with many international students and few Americans. Most of the Americans were taking the classes to get their ESL endorsement for state-licensing purposes. SO, the upshot was that the professor focused too much discussion on the ESL in the American school system, in my opinion.

I didn't learn a lot, but I didn't put in a lot of effort. (3.89 gpa with minimum effort) The program did confirm a lot of what I had already learned from experience. I would imagine that there wasn't much there that I couldn't have learned on my own. One of the most interesting classes was the psychology of learning (Bruner, Vygotsky, etc.)

The paper does help me out, I guess. I am working in a teacher training program which doesn't require a master's degree but really prefers one. I have 7 years experience (2 post-MS) and 2 years in composition assessment.

Too much information? Long story short, I think the CELTA might be more strenuous (and practical) than my MS program. Too bad that it won't open the same doors, especially here in Korea where appearance is everything.

Hollywoodaction · Joined: 02 Jul 2004