Teaching English as a Second Language

The TESL Program emphasizes the importance of helping teachers understand both instructional and research principles to assist them in adapting to the changing face of ESL. We provide professional development to both pre-service and experienced teachers.

We facilitate professional development by introducing our students to current research and theoretical models, by helping them understand how to ask questions about the interactions they observe in their classrooms, and by exploring the possible ways in which those questions might be addressed.

Graduate students are often supported to work on research projects with TESL professors. The faculty and adjuncts in the TESL program are active researchers who have ongoing contact within classrooms and within the TESL community.

Their work is published in refereed journals such as Applied Linguistics, Canadian Modern Language Review, Language Learning, Language Testing, Modern Language Journal, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, System, TESL Canada Journal, TESOL Journal and TESOL Quarterly.

Capping Projects

In their final year of study, all TESL Master's students complete a capstone project that integrates the skills and concepts that they have learned during their tenure in the program.

The projects address an issue of relevance to teachers of ESL or EFL or the wider ESL/EFL teaching community. Many of these projects have been presented at conferences or submitted for publication.