ENGL 571 A: Theory And Practice On Teaching English To Speakers Of Other Languages

One of the first courses taken by students in the MATESOL program, this class aims to familiarize you with key concepts and theories in the field of TESOL and to support you as you consider their implications for classroom teaching.

The first few weeks provide a basic foundation in second language acquisition (SLA) the canon of theories you will be expected to understand as an effective language educator, such as critical period hypotheses, universal grammar, the monitor model, and input-output hypotheses. We will then move on to explore some of the central disciplinary tensions of the profession, devoting the rest of the quarter to topics that have become increasingly important in TESOL in recent years, such as language and identity, bi- and multilingualism, bilingual education, nonnative professionals, race, empire, and critical applied linguistics.

TESOL is becoming a richly interdisciplinary field, incorporating ideas not only from linguistics and psychology, but also from education, sociology, and anthropology. In all topics we discuss, I will encourage you to reflect critically on how these ideas inform your beliefs about language teaching and the image of the teacher you want to be.