Minor in Teaching English Learners

For students admitted to a teacher education program

The minor in teaching English learners is designed for students earning an Illinois professional educator license and serving PK-12 linguistically diverse student populations who are learning English.

Completion of this minor requires a minimum of 4.5 credits (18 semester hours) of foundational and methodological coursework for Illinois licensure endorsements in English as a Second Language (ESL) and Bilingual Education.

  • The minor requires 100 hours of documented fieldwork in linguistically diverse classrooms, which are distributed across the six courses.
  • The upper-level coursework in the minor may only be completed by students admitted to a teacher education program.
  • In addition to completing the minor coursework, there is a state examination requirement for earning a bilingual endorsement.

Minor Courses

  • TEL 204 Cross-Cultural Studies in Teaching English Language Learners
    (.75 credit; Fall/Spring Term; Prerequisite: EDU 104)
  • TEL 212 Theoretical Foundations of Teaching English Language Learners
    (.75 credit; Fall/January Term; Prerequisite: EDU 104)
  • ***TEL 317 Methods and Materials for Teaching English Language Learners
    (.75 credit; Spring Term; Prerequisites: TEL 204 and TEL 212
  • TEL 319 Linguistics for Second Language Learning
    (.75 credit; Spring Term; Prerequisites: EDU 104)
  • ***TEL 439 Assessment of English Language Learners
    (.75 credit; Fall Term; Prerequisites: TEL 204, TEL 212, TEL 317 and TEL 319)
  • ***TEL 448 Inquiry and Application of Bilingual Methods I
    (.50 credit; Fall Term; Prerequisites: TEL 204, TEL 212, TEL 317, TEL 319)
  • ***TEL 449 Inquiry and Application of Bilingual Methods II
    (.25 credit; Fall/Spring Term; Prerequisite: TEL 448)

***Requires admittance to a program in the Department of Education or instructor permission.

Admission Requirements

  • Admission to the TEL minor is for Fall Term only, due to the highly sequenced nature of the coursework.
  • Candidates who have completed courses prior to admission should meet with Dr. Troiano to see if spring admission is possible.

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