• • Please be advised that TESL Certificate classes are offered in the daytime, on weekdays, and in-person, on-campus only. (No online option.)

  • International students must satisfy the English proficiency requirement before beginning the TESL Certificate coursework.

  • Read the TESL Certificate FAQ

No later than the end of the first quarter after admission to the TESL Certificate program, the student is required to consult with an adviser to select the appropriate courses and areas of concentration.

• Contact your adviser to arrange an appointment as early in your first quarter as possible. (Certain advisers may request that you arrange appointments through the Applied Linguistics Coordinator. )

• Bring the TESL Certificate Academic Program Planning Form to your first meeting.

For federal student loan purposes, PSU considers "full time" undergraduate study to be twelve credit hours per quarter.

• The typical full-time course load consists of three, 4-credit courses.

• Care must be taken not to enroll in three of the most time-intensive courses during the same quarter.

As a general recommendation, the most time-intensive courses tend to be Second Language Acquisition, Syntax, Phonology, and the Methods Sequence.

Although not all students will find these courses exceptionally demanding, in general it is wise to enroll in these time-intensive courses *only one per quarter*.

See also:

See also:

• When to take Syntax or Phonology
• When to take TESOL Methods I and II
• When to take SLA and Int'l Experience

Courses can be perceived as time-intensive for a variety of reasons.

•  

  • Some courses demand in-depth reading of substantial amounts of Applied Linguistics research literature. If the student's research reading skills need to be strengthened, these reading-intensive classes can be very demanding upon the student's time. (Second Language Acqusition)

  • Some courses have a high computational or analytical content. (Syntax, Phonology)

  • Some courses require many hours of field work, in the form of teaching, tutoring, and making observations in working ESOL classrooms. (Methods Sequence.)

TESL Certificate students who want to take LING 470 Grammar for TESOL but who have not yet taken LING 492 Structure of English, must take the Grammar Test as a diagnostic to determine their eligibility for LING 470.

• Degree Requirements
• Time required to complete
• Language Proficiency Requirement
• Teaching Portfolio Requirement
• Required course sequences
• Elective course sequences
• TESOL Methods Sequence

• Grades, Course Retakes, and GPA
• Combining the TESL Certificate + B.A. in Applied Linguistics
• Combining the TESL Certificate + a graduate degree at PSU
• Programs started prior to Fall-2006
• Transfer Credits from Other Degree Programs
• TESL Certificate FAQ
• ESL_Bilingual Endorsement: course equivalents in Applied Linguistics Dept.