Admission Requirements
IMPORTANT: The UW English Dept. is winding down the Graduate TESOL certificate.
For Graduate Students: Enrollment in any one of the required certificate courses along with enrollment in a graduate degree program at UW-Madison.
Graduate Certificate Requirements
- Student Status. Enrollment in any one of the required certificate courses along with enrollment in a graduate degree program at UW-Madison.
- Native English speakers must satisfactorily complete at least four college-level semesters (or the equivalent, such as 4 years in high school) of one language prior to or completed concurrently with certificate coursework. For non-native English speakers, English fulfills this requirement.
- Demonstrate English proficiency of spoken and written English commensurate with the role of language model. Nonnative English speakers must have a score of at least:
- 50 on the SPEAK test or
- 26 on the iBt speaking section, with an overall score of 100 on the iBt or
- 600 on the paper version of TOEFL or
- 7 on IELTS.
Application Process
Graduate students must utilize the Graduate Student Portal in MyUW to add, change, or discontinue any doctoral minor or graduate/professional certificate. To apply to this minor or certificate, log in to MyUW, click on Graduate Student Portal, and then click on Add/Change Programs. Select the information for the doctoral minor or graduate/professional certificate for which you are applying.
Courses
Prerequisite Courses – can be taken any time
Foundation Courses
- English 314 Structure of English
- English 315 English Phonology
- English 318 Second Language Acquisition
Courses on Social Perspectives on English (One of the following four courses)
- English 316 English Language Variation in the U.S.
- English 414 Global Spread of English
- English 416 English in Society
- English 319* 3 cr. Language, Race, and Identity
*Students who completed English 319 can request for an exception to fulfill the Social Perspective requirement. Please send an exception requests to asktesol@english.wisc.edu.
Required TESOL Graduate Certificate courses listed below must be taken for graduate credit
TESOL Foundation Course
- English 415 Introduction to TESOL Methods – must precede English 515 and 613-618.
Courses on Second Language Teaching
- English 515 Techniques and Materials for TESOL
- English 613-618 Choice among (3) one-credit TESOL Workshops
TESOL Certificate Completion Requirements
- 9 credits of required graduate level courses listed above along with all prerequisites and language requirements.
- A grade point average of 3.0 in all required courses except English 613-618, which is graded as Credit/No Credit.
- Teaching practice. This requirement is normally fulfilled by completion of English 515.
- All requirements for the Certificate in TESOL must be satisfied within three successive academic years.