Earn your master’s degree while gaining tools and learning strategies to help English-learning students succeed. About 8 percent of children in Arkansas schools in preschool through 12th-grade are English learners. This program will prepare you to create and implement curriculum and appropriate assessments for students who speak English as a second language (ESL).  

Coursework will equip educators in the United States and abroad to teach English to students whose first language is not English. You will learn to investigate problems and develop solutions in your own teaching contexts. Coursework includes four classes that are required by the Arkansas Department of Education for a licensure endorsement in ESL.

An ancillary license in English to Speakers of Other Languages, ESOL K-12, is available for those who complete their M.Ed. in TESOL. The ESOL PRAXIS exam must be passed.

You will learn the process of acquiring a second language and how to support English learners with research-based practices . You will also learn  techniques for evaluating the academic performance of second-language learners in listening, reading, speaking and writing. You will gain an understanding of multicultural student populations, including social/cognitive learning styles and differences.

Admission Requirements

• Students must be officially accepted by the Graduate School and accepted into the M.Ed. TESOL degree program. Once information is reviewed, the Graduate School will submit applicant’s completed packet to the program for review.
• Students must complete an appropriate undergraduate degree with a minimum 3.0 grade-point average (or equivalent for international students) on the last 60 hours of the course work for the undergraduate degree.
  
  Applicants with a minimum GPA of 3.0 on the last 60 hours of undergraduate coursework are exempt from the standardized test requirement.

12 graduate hours from an Arkansas Department of Education, Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (ADE DESE) ESOL Institute offered through an Arkansas university will be accepted for transfer credit for the following courses CIED 5923, CIED 5933, CIED 5943, and CIED 5953 if the applicant has passed the PRAXIS ESOL exam (5362).