Advanced Professional Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

Leads to endorsement in multiple states

Lesley University's TESOL Advanced Professional Certificate program, offered entirely online, is designed to enhance the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of licensed teachers who wish to teach English Language Learners (ELL). It offers a theoretical foundation as well as practical strategies for the classroom and empowers teachers with the most current technologies, research-based strategies, and culturally responsive teaching. It is aligned with TESOL and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) in the five domains: Language; Culture; Planning, Implementing, and Managing Instruction; Assessment; and Professionalism, and it meets endorsement requirements for multiple U.S. states. It also may be used as a specialization to fulfill some of the coursework in the M.Ed. Individually Designed Program for Educators.

Requirement for completion of the TESOL Advanced Professional Certificate program: students must submit evidence of minimal proficiency in a foreign language, equivalent to one semester’s work of approximately 45 class hours. For non-native English speakers, English is considered to be the foreign language.

Please note: In certain states, students may receive an endorsement/second license by completing Lesley's 18-credit TESOL program. It is important to check with your teacher licensing office, as additional steps may be necessary in order to meet state requirements. For more information on this process, please visit the state pages at the National Center for Teachers, Counselors, and School Leaders.

*See course descriptions for prerequisites.

EECLD 6001 Culturally Responsive Teaching
This course takes a practical approach to the study of linguistics and English as a new language with implications for teaching ESL, reading, writing, spelling, phonics, and grammar in monolingual or multilingual contexts. The basic nature of language, first language acquisition, language variation, language change, and the relations of language to society and culture are explored. The course focuses on the development of linguistic foundational knowledge elements such as phonology, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics that informs planning for teaching first or second language. Structural and semantic differences between the students first and English as a new language are examined and used in planning for learning.

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EECLD 6002 Essential Linguistics: What Every Teacher Needs to Know about Language
This course takes a practical approach to the study of linguistics and English as a new language with implications for teaching ESL, reading, writing, spelling, phonics, and grammar in monolingual or multilingual contexts. The basic nature of language, first language acquisition, language variation, language change, and the relations of language to society and culture are explored. The course focuses on the development of linguistic foundational knowledge elements such as phonology, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics that informs planning for teaching first or second language. Structural and semantic differences between the students first and English as a new language are examined and used in planning for learning.

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EECLD 6004 First and Second Language Acquisition and Oral Development
This course focuses on first and second language acquisition theories, research, and practice with special attention to the nature of second language learning in a multilingual, multicultural context. A primary focus of this course is on the development of effective culturally responsive and research based language learning strategies and engaging methods for listening and speaking in two or more languages. TESOL standards (2010) are used in lesson planning and evaluation of second language. Instructional materials, including realia and a variety of media, are also used. Prerequisite: EECLD 6002 Essential Linguistics: What Every Teacher Needs to Know About Language

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EECLD 6007 Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages: Literacy and Literature
This is a hands-on course dedicated to using outcome-based TESOL standards in multilingual/multicultural context for teaching reading, writing, and spelling in English to CLD students who are at different levels of English proficiency. Teachers acquire, evaluate, adapt, and develop materials that are responsive to the language proficiency level and cultural diversity of students in a classroom that fosters critical thinking skills and respect for all. Participants are expected to read, evaluate, and use a variety of K-8 children's literature and to learn to continuously assess and adjust their own language usage in the classroom in order to maximize student comprehension and verbal participation. Prerequisite: EECLD 6002 Essential Linguistics: What Every Teacher Needs to Know about Language or EACLD 5500 Poetry and Essential Linguistics

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EECLD 6010 Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages: Content Areas
This course explores various research-based approaches of using classroom inquiry, small and large group projects, and community involvement to integrate the subject area content of the state frameworks with TESOL standards. Issues of group development such as inclusion, influence, cultural identity, community, structure, and mediation that support achievement are addressed. Through simulation and analysis, students deepen their understanding of the underlying structure and process of each of the content disciplines in English as a new language. Prerequisite: EECLD 6002 Essential Linguistics: What Every Teacher Needs to Know about Language

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EECLD 6012 Assessment for Equity and Inclusion of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students
Appropriate assessment is essential to understanding and documenting standards-based learning and the process of distinguishing learning disabilities from language differences. Second language proficiency assessment is the primary focus of this course. Participants gain the skills to administer language assessments, monitor progress, interpret results, and incorporate them into instruction. Potential linguistic and cultural biases in assessment instruments, including biases in standardized tests, are analyzed. Students are required to practice with alternative assessment measures, including portfolio and other authentic assessments. Prerequisite: EECLD 6002 Essential Linguistics: What Every Teacher Needs to Know about Language

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Lesley University reserves the right to unilaterally add, withdraw, or revise any course offering in the above-mentioned program of study, including policies, provisions, requirements, and fees.

Lesley University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity institution and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, religion, color, creed, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, handicap or disability in its education programs, employment, or in admissions to, access to or treatment in its programs or activities.