Master of Arts in Teaching English Language Learners

The Master of Arts in Teaching English Language Learners (MATELL) degree program explores the methodology of teaching a second language, identifying appropriate second language materials, establishing dynamic learning communities, designing effective educative assessment strategies and instruments for English language learners. Participants will learn ways in which students learn English as a second language within a cultural context, and the strategies that teachers use to help English language learners learn the language while fully integrating them into general education classrooms. The program will examine the view that language learning is a social process situated in a social world of learning and studies the vast range of connections among language, learning, cultures and identities.

The MATELL program includes 1) a Cohort Learning Community, 2) an Integrated Course Content Model, 3) a Pedagogy for Understanding Framework, 4) a focus on student assessment, 5) an electronically-mediated learning component, 6) a Circle of Praxis approach to learning, an 7) an Enhanced Teaching Practicum.

For all questions related to MATELL contact Steve Hull at 615-966-1811.

Course of Study
The following courses (36 hours) are required for the MATELL degree.

TELL5013 Teaching English as a Second Language
TELL5022 Classroom Management: Strategies, Techniques, and Dispositions
TELL5031 Technology in English Language Learning
TELL5042 Teaching reading and Writing to English Language Learners
TELL5052 Linguistics: Implications for Teachers of English Language Learners
TELL5062 Issues in a Linguistically Diverse Society
TELL5073 Educational Assessment: Promoting and Facilitating Language and Content
TELL5082 Teaching English as a Second Language on the Elementary Level
TELL5092 Teaching ESL in Secondary schools; Programs, Problematics and Possibilities
TELL5103 Analysis of Effective ESL Teaching: Assessing Teacher Practice
TELL512C Enhanced ESL Teaching Practicum: Classroom Performance as Transformative Process
TELL5132 Culminating Project: Integrating Theory and Practice
TELL5126 The ADEPTT (Teacher Training) Course.
TELL5146 Case Study and Action Research

Course Descriptions

TELL 5013 Teaching English as a Second Language: Integrating Theory, Research, and Practice (3)
Grounded in a review of second language acquisition theories, this course will address the teaching of reading, writing, and content through a second language. The focus will be on the methodology of teaching a second language, identifying appropriate second language materials, establishing dynamic learning communities, designing effective educative assessment strategies and instruments for English language learners.

TELL 5022 Classroom Management: Strategies, Techniques, and Dispositions (2)
The course explores environmental settings and their impact on cognitive, affective and psycho-motor development. Such elements as developmental phases, learning incentives, and teacher expectations contribute to the nature of how learning and teaching are accomplished.

TELL 5031 Technology in English Language Learning (1)
This course aims to provide students with an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the theoretical and practical use of Information Communications Technologies (ICT’s) in second language teaching and learning. It focuses on analyzing and responding to English Language Learners’ “needs” using specific technology related to language teaching methodology and pedagogical theory.

TELL 5042 Teaching Reading and Writing to English Language Learners (2)
The course content addresses a number of salient issues that are at the core of teaching English as a second language, including principles of task and activity design, lesson planning, textbook analysis, assessment and testing, classroom management, grading, and program evaluation. The purpose of the course is to provide participants with the ability and confidence to create English learning environments that meet the needs of ELL students.

TELL 5052 Linguistics: Implications for Teachers of English Language Learners (2)
The theoretical foundations of language and its implications for the classroom will be a prominent focus in this course. Additionally, participants will examine the five basic linguistic areas of study: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. Participants in the course will engage in a systematic study of the way language works, examining the theoretical foundations of language and its implications for the classroom.

TELL 5162 Issues in a Linguistically Diverse Society (2)
This course examines typical stages of language acquisition in monolingual and multilingual children in both formal and informal education. Participants will examine various theories about language acquisition and diversity, and the role that teachers play in the child’s development of language.

TELL 5073 Educational Assessment: Promoting and Facilitating Language and Content (3)
This course presents a rationale for learning-centered assessment of English Language Learners as well as an overview of the instruments and techniques to effect clinical summative evaluation. It delineates the evolution of the Educative Assessment Framework and presents standards and criteria to judge the value and effectiveness of this unique approach to assessment.

TELL 5082 Teaching English as a Second Language on the Elementary Level (2)
Students will research second language teaching and learning in elementary schools. The course content examines the view that language learning is a social process situated in a social world of learning and in academic institutions which include a vast range of connections among student’s languages, learning, cultures, and identities.

TELL 5092 Teaching ESL in Secondary Schools: Programs, Problematics and Possibilities (2)
Participants will learn how to develop and integrate criterion-referenced assessments into subject-specific curricula. This task-based approach to assessment and evaluation aligns subject-specific Achievement Targets, Learning Outcomes, Performance Tools and Genre-Contexts to assessment protocols.

TELL 5103 Analysis of Effective ESL Teaching: Assessing Teacher Practice (3)
Authentic learning is examined in the context of community and mutual concern. Establishing protocols for generating life enhancing learning requires the teacher administration, and all stakeholders to develop covenental understandings, goals and a collective vision. Protocols for developing trust, positive intention and articulation of the moral voice are explored.

TELL 512C Enhanced ESL Teaching Practicum: Classroom Performance as Transformative Process (12 hrs)
The enhanced student teaching program is a planned professional semester which includes full day teaching and observation activities as an initial step in the induction process for the English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher candidates.

TELL 5126 The ADEPTT (Teacher Training) Course (6)
The Accelerated Development and Exemplary Professional Teacher Training (ADEPTT) initiative will facilitate a unique opportunity to forward ELL teaching designs that develop competent, extended longevity teachers who are skilled in exemplary ELL practices of pedagogy, assessment and curriculum development. It includes lesson design, instructional delivery and evaluation, skills and content-specific assessment design, behavior management strategies and the review of myriad practices mandated by NCLB and IDEA.

TELL 5132 Culminating Project: Integrating Theory and Practice (2)
The culminating project demonstrates in-depth understanding of theory, and proficiency in application of self selected phases of teaching as each may influence learning. From the perspective that teaching is a learnable art, and with an appreciation that research and development undergird the practice of this art, each candidate is required to develop a comprehensive project in an application of educative practice.

TELL 5146 Case Study and Action Research (6)
Program participants, working in collaboration with a university professor and a site-based mentor, identify a significant problem that is currently affecting the ELL teaching/learning process, facilitate rigorous academic research on the identified issue, facilitate the development of a case study based on a clear hypothesis, and construct a Plan of Action to remedy the identified problem.