Frequently Asked Questions

First consider what your ultimate career goal is: Do you want to volunteer? Work with children? Work at a community college or university? Answering this question will help you decide the level of training you need in the field of English language education. In addition to the training, you’ll want to get as much experience as you can get as early as possible, so that you can decide if teaching is right for you. Many organizations accept volunteers and we strongly encourage you to get some volunteer experience under your belt. This will provide you with valuable in-classroom experiences to help you make career decisions and is a very important first step towards building a competitive resume.

TESOL stands for Teachers of English for Speakers of Other Languages. It’s our professional field and also the name of the international professional organization for teachers of English language learners. You can find out more about it at the TESOL International Association website.new window TESOL also has two local affiliate groups in this area–the Washington Area Teachers of English for Speakers of Other Languagesnew window and the Maryland Teachers of English for Speakers of Other Languagesnew window. Both affiliates and TESOL offer a full array of opportunities, including job listings, professional development, and ways to become more involved in the field.

There are numerous job opportunities in TESOL. You may wish to go overseas for short-term or long-term opportunities or stay here in the US.  In both cases you can work with children or adults at a variety of language levels. The work setting though determines the type of certification or training you need.

Many kinds of agencies offer ESOL programs. The largest ones locally are in the K-12 school systems. Programs of various kinds may be offered by community colleges, community-based organizations and faith-based groups, universities, and businesses and industries.

Training requirements vary between programs and agencies. Here are some of the most common. Of course the more training you have, the easier it is to find work in your desired setting. The following charts explain the training types and what agencies typically require.

• K-12 Certification in ESOL: Offered through universities and state departments of education in preparation for teaching kids. May include a graduate degree. In Maryland, bachelor’s level courses may be used to meet the requirements, although this is less common for ESOL teachers. A bachelor’s degree is always required and a master’s degree is strongly preferred. K-12 teachers certified in another area may re-certify for ESOL by taking the Praxis exam.  
• Master’s degree in TESOL or Applied Linguistics: Offered by universities. Often most of the courses meet K-12 certification requirements and many people who are seeking to teach in K-12 opt for this route.
• Graduate Certificate Program: Offered by universities. A shorter graduate level program, many people choose this route who are not interested in a full Master’s degree but are interested in working in the field.
• Certificate programs: There is no universally accepted TESOL certificate for teaching adults. There is only one local program offered by a private language training school. Cambridge has a program (called the CELTA) that is more widely recognized overseas. The professional organization TESOL does not endorse any of these programs in particular. These programs are typically very practical in nature and emphasize the practice of teaching over the theory. Private certificate programs of this sort are not accepted for K-12 certification.
• In-house training: Some programs have their own in-house training programs that may be required for work in that setting.

Yes, absolutely although it depends on which level of students you have worked with and your content area of instruction as to where your strengths are. If you’ve worked primarily with children in a K-12 setting, then you’re likely familiar with the development of instructional goals and objectives, lesson planning, and assessments. You may not have had experience working with adults though or solely with English language learners. Conversely if you have taught in higher education, your strengths may be in working with adults, but you may not be familiar with planning to meet specific learning objectives, incorporating cooperative communicative learning activities or the foundations of language.