StudyQA — Master: TESOL — Victoria University of Wellington

Description Contents Requirements Funding

The Master of Arts in TESOL (MA TESOL) aims to give graduates a strong grounding in the teaching and learning of English as a second or foreign language. Candidates for the programme must already have a good undergraduate degree and at least two years' teaching experience, preferably in the teaching of English to speakers of other languages. The programme builds on this experience by providing the opportunity for specialist study in a range of areas in the fields of TESOL, Linguistics, and Applied Linguistics. The substantial compulsory core of the programme provides a strong basis for the electives.

By the end of the MA TESOL, graduates should be able to:

prepare and critically assess teaching materials
plan a programme of language study
account for individual differences and difficulties in language-learning
monitor and assess learners progress
advise teachers on effective procedures and interventions
read and evaluate research, theory and descriptions of classroom practice in language teaching
plan and carry out small scale empirical studies.

There are seven core courses from three different categories for the MA in TESOL. The Course Planner (see below) will help you to choose your core TESOL courses and electives. It is best to do core courses first as they provide a useful preparation for other courses.

Teaching Practice Focus

At least three courses from:

Listening & Speaking in the Language Classroom
Teaching Reading & Writing
Language Curriculum Design
Special Topic: English for Academic Purposes
Special Topic: Reflective Practice for Language Teachers
Special Topic: Task-Based Language Teaching
Language for Specific Purposes
Teaching & Learning Vocabulary
Language Assessment
Language Testing
Computer-assisted Language Learning

Linguistic Understanding Focus

At least two courses from

Teaching and Learning Grammar
The Pronunciation of English
Discourse Analysis
Phonetics & Phonology
Issues in Sociolinguistics

Language Learning Focus

At least two courses from:

Understanding Second Language Learning
Special Topic: Cognitive Linguistics & L2 Pedagogy
Learners & Second Language Learning
Learner Autonomy & Learning Strategies
Interaction & Identity in Language Learning

Plus five more courses from any column on the Planner.

Evaluating Research in Applied Linguistics
The Research Process
Language in the Workplace
Syntactic Analysis
Research Paper
Research Project

Requirements

A Bachelor's degree (or equivalent qualification) in Linguistics, English Language, Education or a language other than English (or another relevant degree), and at least two years of professional experience in language education or other aspects of applied linguistics.
TOEFL 575 with (preferably) a TWE of 5; or 237 on the computer-based test; or 90 on the internet-based test with a minimum 20 in writing; or
IELTS overall band of 6.5 with no sub-score below 6.0; or
Pearson Test of English: minimum score of 65 (with a ‘Communicative’ score of not less than 58); or
A minimum of two ratings of 5 and two ratings of 4 in the Victoria University English Proficiency Programme test.