Welcome
to the AU TESOL Program!
History
Launched in the mid-60's, the American
University TESOL Program was one of the
first universities in the United States to offer a master's degree
concentration in TESOL. In addition to the master's program, a TESOL
Certificate option soon followed. In 1995, under the direction of
LFS Chair Naomi Baron, Program Director, the Program was extensively revamped,
including new course offerings, a greater emphasis on methodology,
and the addition of the TESOL Summer Institute, a package of two seven
week sessions of intensive summer courses and a special
Summer Intensive Workshop, with a different focus each year. In 1997
the MAT:ESOL Program (a joint program with AU's School of Education
that leads to K-12 certification) was initiated, and in 1999, the
AU TESOL Program entered into collaboration with the Peace Corps'
Master's International Program, whereby students can earn up to nine
credit hours of course work at no cost based on their Peace
Corps experience. In 2000, the Program introduced another innovation:
its one-credit courses (typically of five weeks in duration) which
allow students a greater variety of course offerings so that each
student can build her/his individual program to measure.
Images
from October 2004: AU TESOL students strike a pose with sculptures
from DC's "Pandamania" art project displayed on the American
University campus. Visit http://www.pandamaniadc.org/
for more information.
Students
The program typically has
around 110 students - 25 to 30 students in the Certificate program,
45 to 50 in the Master's program (including those in the Peace Corps
option), and the rest in the MAT:ESOL or other joint programs with the
School of Education. Many students begin in the Certificate Program,
but get so caught up in their classes that they opt to go on to the
Master's (all TESOL courses taken at the graduate level in the Certificate
are fully transferable to the MA in TESOL). Class size for most classes
runs 15 to 20 students, although some of the beginning required courses
may have 20 to 25 students. Many of the one-credit or advanced level
courses have 10 to 15 students and the TESOL Practicum course, designed
to give students teaching experience, is formally capped at an enrollment
of 10.
Our student body is as diverse
as the audience who wishes to learn English. Traditionally, our Program
has had a significant number of mature students; that is, students who
have taught for some time but have returned to gain teaching credentials,
or career switchers including CIA trainers, former military officers,
lawyers, business executives, and diplomats. These days, a larger proportion
of our students are traditional grad students who have recently completed
their undergraduate programs, but the experiences our students bring
to the classroom remain diverse and find they learn a great deal not
only from their professors but also their peers.
Our student body is also ethnically/culturally
diverse. Typically 25% of our student body is composed of international
students, and the agreeable result of AU's D.C. location is that our
international students come from all over the world, not just one
or two countries.
Continued
