Adult/University-Level TESOL Graduate Certificate Program

The Adult/University-Level TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) Graduate Certificate Program is designed to meet the needs of graduate non-degree students or graduate students concurrently enrolled in a UWM master's or Ph.D. program who wish to teach English as a Second Language (ESL) to adults or university-level students abroad. Requirements for this program are very similar to those for the "Adult/University-Level TESOL Certificate Program," which accepts undergraduate students and post-baccalaureate special students, but training in the graduate certificate program is more rigorous, and up to 9 of the 21 credits earned can be applied (concurrently or subsequently) to the M.A. program in Linguistics.

Admission

Students who wish to apply to the program should submit the following materials to the TESOL Certificate Program Coordinator in the Department of Linguistics:

• Adult/University-Level TESOL Graduate Certificate Program application form (available from the Linguistics Department office).
• Transcripts of all college-level academic work, with evidence of a GPA of 2.75 or better.
• A statement of purpose.
• Two letters of recommendation from persons knowledgeable about the applicant's recent academic and/or work experience.
• Applicants who are not native speakers of English should also submit TOEFL scores of at least 550 (paper-based test) or 79 (internet-based test), or at least 6.5 on the IELTS exam, and 45 on the TSE, or an equivalent means of demonstrating proficiency.

Credits and Courses

Students are required to complete the six courses (18 credits) plus teaching internship (3 credits) outlined below.

Linguis/MALLT 708 Proseminar in Linguistics

Linguis 410 Literacy, Grammar, and Methodologies in ESL Education

Linguis 420 Introduction to Second Language Acquisition

Linguis/English 565 Introduction to Adult/University-Level TESOL

Linguis 430 Language and Society OR Linguis/Anthro 570 Issues in Bilingualism

One elective selected from the following:

English 404 Language, Power, and Identity

Linguis 415 First Language Acquisition

Linguis 460 Sounds and Sound Systems

Linguis 464 Word and Sentence Structure

Linguis 468 Language in its Various Forms: (Subtitle)

Linguis 470 Historical/Comparative Linguistics

Linguis 560 Advanced Phonoloogy

Linguis 564 Advanced Syntax

Linguis/Ed Psych 748 Oral Language, Cognition, and Literacy

Linguis/English 806 Seminar in Linguistics: (Subtitle)

Linguis/English 569 Internship in Teaching ESL to Adult Learners

Students who have taken comparable courses at other institutions may be allowed to transfer in up to 6 credits of course work, upon approval by the certificate program coordinator. Students who have completed any of the required courses for undergraduate credit must substitute other courses at the graduate level, selected in consultation with the certificate program coordinator to fulfill the credit requirements.

The teaching internship is completed at one of the internship institutions affiliated with the Certificate Program. The site of the internship will be determined by the Certificate Program staff. The student is expected to complete between 40 and 60 hours of supervised teaching over a period of four to eight weeks.

Students receive the certificate upon completion of all the required course work and the teaching internship with a GPA of 3.0 or better.

There is a time limit of three years from initial enrollment for completion of the certificate.

This certificate program is subject to federal gainful employment regulations. For more information please visit http://www4.uwm.edu/financialaid/EligConsInfo/gainfulemployment.cfm.

See also: Gainful Employment Certificate Disclosure Information