Online TESOL Certificate Programs

Online TESOL certificate programs focus on ways to help students learn English. These programs might be available at the post-baccalaureate or graduate level. You might also find educational endorsement certificate programs for active teachers.

Courses in your program might cover things like language acquisition, linguistics, teaching strategies, and more. They might also focus on the needs of young children, adolescents, or even adult learners, allowing you to focus on how to help the types of students you teach.

What Is A TESOL Certificate?

TESOL certificate programs are also sometimes referred to as ESL certificates. ESL stands for English as a Second Language. Programs aim to prepare teachers to help their students learn to speak English.  This could apply to a variety of contexts. For example, some courses might look at how to teach students to understand, write, and speak English. Others might focus on how to provide support to English language learners (ELLs).

Some TESOL programs might include some teaching certification requirements in their programs. But they are not themselves teacher certifications. Rather, certificate programs could help students expand their certification areas to include ELL. If you want to learn more about certification requirements, follow up with your school or your state’s department of education.

TESOL Certificate Online Program Basics

Online TESOL Certificate programs focus on how to help non-speakers or new English speakers build fluency. They focus on teaching and supporting English language learners. In particular, they focus on ELLs who live in primary English-speaking communities. As a result, these programs look at more than teaching in a language classroom. They also look at the social aspect of language acquisition. Programs might also examine how language learning can impact education holistically. This is a little different than programs like TEFL, which look at teaching English in communities that speak other languages.

In a TESOL certificate online program, your courses might look at a variety of issues surrounding teaching English. Here are a few example topics.

  • Language Acquisition
  • Linguistics
  • English Grammar
  • Sociolinguistics
  • TESOL Foundations
  • And more!

Types of Online TESOL Certificate Programs

Online TESOL certificate programs might offer a few different types of credentials. Here’s a breakdown of some of the programs you might find.

  • ESL Graduate Certificate Online Programs are offered at the masters or post-masters level. In other words, the courses might overlap with a masters or education specialist program.
  • TESOL Endorsements might be offered at the baccalaureate or graduate level. Basically, these programs help educators expand their teaching certification areas. That means that teachers who are already licensed could demonstrate their expertise in a second area.

Sometimes, the above options might overlap—such as a graduate certificate doubling as an endorsement. Rarely, you might find TESOL certificate programs offered at the undergraduate level. More often, they’ll be designed with certified teachers in mind.

Find Online TESOL Certificate Programs

Are you ready to find your online ESL certificate program? If so, don’t wait too long to get started. You can begin by reading about the sponsored online TESOL certificate program listings. Then click on “Request Info” to contact the programs you think you might want to attend!