North Greenville offering TESOL as a new academic program
Abigail Welch, Staff Writer
Photo courtesy of Unsplash.com
Beginning Fall 2018 the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics is offering a new academic program in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). This program serves as an add-on for other degree programs in the following options:
· Certificate (15 hours, 5 classes)
· Minor (18 hours, 6 classes)
· Secondary component for the interdisciplinary studies major (18 hours, 6 classes)
The program consists of five core courses that every TESOL student will complete and in addition to the core courses, the minors and interdisciplinary majors also have to gain approval for and pass a relevant internship. If you pursue the minor or secondary you automatically get the certificate. With this program being an add-on, a student cannot come to North Greenville strictly to study TESOL.
The objective of TESOL is to become trained ESL/EFL teachers who uphold Christian values and possess the knowledge, skills, and behavior that foster competence in the profession; while creating efficient ESL/EFL lessons, implementing them and assess the progress of students in ESOL/EFL/ESL classes.
Victor Prieto is a strong advocate for the program and is a professor here at North Greenvile. Prieto explained that the English department started the linguistics and languages program at NGU roughly 10 years ago. A few years ago, Prieto, being certified in the program, saw a peaked interest in the TESOL program here at NGU. After becoming Department Chair last year, Prieto sent in a proposal and got the program approved.
When asked how TESOL is beneficial to the school and for those involved in the program, he stated, “If you’re an education major, you apply for a job, it is attractive because you can be used by your school twice as much. The business world is marketing on English schools in other countries, and if you have this certification you can apply to teach in those countries.”
He went on to say that it’s also very hard to enter certain countries as a missionary; churches can connect with countries that we consider unreachable because they have the opportunity to teach them English. People want to learn English. TESOL is a great way to expand your marketability while still attending college.
The only requirements as of now to enter the program is you have to be an undergraduate student here at NGU, a native speaker of English and have taken the prerequisites. There is a form online you will print, fill out and bring to the Linguistics department once completed.
The department will look over it and ask to you come in for some “testing”, simply put that will see how natively you speak English and ask what major you are pursuing. The university may require you to apply for the certificate or declare it as a minor…check with other venues after you have turned in your paperwork.
People who already have the certificate in the Upstate generally get an increase in pay or transfer to a better position in their jobs. You are already receiving benefits just from getting the TESOL certificate because not everyone can do what you do.
Prieto himself graduated with the certificate and then got his first job as an English teacher. He then became a Spanish teacher, and those jobs led him to North Greenville. When talking about the success of TESOL here at NGU he added, “Hopefully in two years we will be able to measure what we have done. We can almost already see the benefits [in the program] just from what we have seen from this certification in other community endeavors. “
Prieto said it is important for students to know about TESOL. “They have an asset [natively speaking English] that is so appreciated by millions and millions of people. Use what God has given you and share that with others. This is a beneficial opportunity to train that gift,” said Prieto.
If you are interested in pursuing the TESOL program or have more questions you would like answered, Prieto would love to answer those questions. You can email him at vprieto@ngu.edu.
