English Language Teaching

Entry requirements

Applicants should have a good honors degree (at least an upper second or equivalent; GPA of at least 3.2). Preference is given to applicants with relevant teaching experience. Students who are not native speakers of English are expected to attend the orientation course in English for Academic Purposes in the CLCS in the month preceding the start of the academic year. All applicants are expected to show proficiency in at least one language other than their first language. Applicants must complete the Personal Statement section of the application form and explain their motivation in applying for their chosen course(s).

Months of entry

September

Course content

The course is aimed at both experienced and non-experienced teachers of English as a foreign or second language. The programme gives practising teachers the opportunity to explore current issues in ELT, and to deepen their understanding of the theoretical and practical concerns that underlie their teaching. For non-experienced teachers, there is a “Practices in TESOL” strand, which involves taking the electives English Language Teaching Practice 1 and 2. These electives offer structured and supervised classroom teaching, which exceed the current requirements of international professional TESOL certifications like CELTA.

The programme benefits in particular from CLCS’s involvement in the development and implementation of two Council of Europe tools that are important in the current debate about language learning, teaching and assessment world-wide: the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and the European Language Portfolio. Students take six modules and undertake a research project leading to a 15,000 word dissertation. Four core modules are mandatory and two are elective options.

Core modules include:

• Describing English Grammar
• Language Testing
• Pedagogical Grammar of English
• Second Language Curriculum Planning and Implementation

The elective modules for experienced teachers include:

• History and Globalisation of English
• Corpus Linguistics
• Technology, Language, and Communication
• Language Variation and Change
• Linguistic Pragmatics
• Bilingualism and the Maintenance of Irish
• Second Language Teaching
• Multilingualism

The elective modules in the “Practices in TESOL” strand for non-experienced teachers include:

• English Language Teaching Practice 1
• English Language Teaching Practice 2

Fees and funding

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