TESL MA courses: pre-requisites
The TESL MA program has two major pre-requisites:
- An introductory course in linguistics; and
- One year of college foreign language study or the equivalent.
If both of these pre-requisites are met and all application files are complete, students can be admitted to the TESL MA program without any conditions. If one or both pre-requisites have not been met, the students can be admitted to the TESL MA program conditionally: on the condition, that the pre-requisites are met as soon as possible. After the pre-requisites are met, the Graduate School will then regularize the admission of the student by removing the conditions to their admission.
For an introductory course in linguistics, if students have not completed such a course, they can take English 361: an introduction to linguistics online at SCSU in either Fall, Spring or Summer. We advise students to take this course as their first online course for this program. Students are also able to take this course from another university and report its completion to the TESL Director. Without completion of this course, students are not allowed to enroll in English 663, 664 or 666, the major linguistics courses in the program, but could take other courses in the program simultaneously with English 361.
For the foreign language requirement, students can meet this requirement by having taken one year, two semesters or three quarters, of a foreign language. Please note that American Sign Language would count as a foreign language. This requirement can also be met by several equivalencies:
- two years of high school foreign language can count as one year of college foreign language, as it is considered an equivalent experience;
- Bilingual, multilingual or international students can meet this requirement by listing a native language other than English;
- Those who have studied and/or worked abroad can meet this requirement by writing a letter that describes their language learning experience if the experience would then be equivalent to one year of college foreign language; and
- Students can also complete the equivalent of two four-credit 60 hour college courses through tutoring or adult education foreign language courses, including online courses, as long as they can document a total of 120 contact hours of learning.
For more information email the TESL Director, Jim Robinson at: jhrobinson@stcloudstate.edu.
