Almost any student who wishes to do so can complete the TESOL Certificate in Course. There is no special application process or fee. The Certificate in Course is easier to get than most minor degrees!

Most people who study TESOL do so because they want to teach English to speakers of other languages in some capacity. For that reason, the Linguistics Faculty especially seeks English majors and minors, Foreign Language majors and minors, Secondary Education majors, and Elementary Education majors.

However, in the age of globalization, more and more people find themselves working for and alongside with nonnative speakers of English. Thus, we strongly recommend that any student majoring or minoring in International Studies and International Business seriously consider a TESOL Certificate in Course. Other majors that could find a TESOL Certificate useful include Public Administration, Social Work, Gerontology, Pre-Med, Pre-Law, Women’s Studies, Communication, and Criminal Justice.

Graduate Students may also complete these requirements, but we encourage them to consider our TESOL Graduate Certificate Program.

The TESOL certificate in course requires just 15 semester hours of course work, composed of the following courses:

ENGL 4610/8616 Introduction to Linguistics
ENGL 4650/8656 Structure of English
ENGL 4690/8696 Topics in Linguistics—Applied Linguistics
TED 4000/8006 Special Methods—ESL (or equivalent)
ENGL 4670/8676 Sociolinguistics

If you have further questions, contact the Director of TESOL certificates.:

Dr. Owen Mordaunt