Opportunities are available to complete either a TESOL minor or TESOL endorsement.
The TESOL endorsement is necessary to teach in a public school. Students who obtain the TESOL minor might be interested in teaching English more informally (such as in tutoring situations) or teaching English in other countries.
Students do not need to have expertise in any other (non-English) language in order to teach English as a second language. The TESOL minor is open to students from any major, however students majoring or minoring in Spanish have found the TESOL minor to complement their Spanish studies.
Explore requirements for a
Declare a TESOL minor or TESOL endorsement.
Graduate Kristy (Liechty) Aeschliman wrote:
"I am working in the Washington Local School district in Toledo. I am an ESL tutor, which means that I pull students out of their regular classrooms for half-hour sessions in ESL. Most of my students have been in the U.S. long enough that they speak and understand the spoken word quite readily; however, they speak their other languages at home. I have found the TESOL courses I took at Bluffton helpful – especially this year because I have four newcomers to the U.S., and they have not studied English at all. It has been interesting and fun to work with these students because, as a teacher, one sees very evident progress in terms of speaking, listening to and understanding, reading and writing in the English language. I also found the extensive work we did with pronunciation to be helpful, as I am working with one student who not only qualifies for the ESL program, but also has learning and physical disabilities which affect his speech."
