Teaching English as a Second Language
Professor Sam Overstreet, Chair, Division of Languages and Literature and Coordinator
The Major in Teaching English as a Second Language is offered as an initial endorsement educator preparation program for teaching pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. The major is interdisciplinary and requires the equivalent of the completion of a minor in a second language.
Students successfully completing the program of study will have achieved the following learning outcomes:
- Understand linguistic terms and concepts essential for teaching English as a second language.
- Identify by name all the phrasal and clausal syntactic structures commonly used in the formation of English sentences.
- Draw generative tree diagrams of kernel sentences in English.
- Describe how the phonemes of American English are produced in the mouth.
- Read and write phonetic transcriptions using the International Phonetic Alphabet.
- Understand the stages of language development in children that can normally be expected at different ages.
- Understand a range of methodologies and approaches for teaching English that are suitable for learners of different ages and levels of English ability.
- Articulate a philosophy of standards of correctness that balances respect for linguistic diversity with acknowledgment of the reality of both sociolinguistic prejudice and culturally determined norms of correctness.
- Articulate how their own experience as learners of a second language facilitates empathetic understanding of their students as language learners.
- Effectively communicate information about a teaching project through development and delivery of an oral presentation.