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The Eastern Echo Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025 | Print Archive
The Eastern Echo

Pray-Harrold

Teaching English to speakers of other languages - and what it offers EMU students

EMU's Teaching English to Students of Other Languages, or TESOL program, had it's conference in Dec. of 2024 It was their fourth annual International Conference for Preservice Teachers, or ICPET.

The TESOL program is an EMU program that educates teachers of English to speakers of other languages and prepares them to teach English in a variety of local and international settings.

Their website states that the program is accredited, and the curriculum includes courses in language learning, on-site and online courses, tutoring and practicum opportunities in the ESL program, extensive practical experience, and more.

According to the press release from EMU today, they held the conference virtually, which connected students, alumni, and international partners for professional development.

The ICPET has a format for their teachers, where they deliver a concise five-minute talk that showcases their projects. The format encourages engagement and builds public speaking skills. Recordings of last year’s and previous year's conferences can be found on their website.

“My job is to prepare future teachers of English language learners," professor Zuzana Tomaš said. She is a professor of both TESOL and ESL. "Some of our students will end up teaching immigrants and refugee-background students in the United States. Some of our students really want to travel the world and teach English in Korea, China, Europe, you name it."

The conference came out of a Fulbright Scholar collaboration between Tomaš and Anna Slatinska of Matej Bel University in Slovakia. The collaboration expanded the conference to include joint presentations by the two universities teacher candidates. Over the fall, they came together to design and implement online English lessons for Slovak and Ukrainian secondary students.

The program has attracted students from various backgrounds throughout the years since its inception. When asked about the students that come through, Tomaš said that some students are studying education, while some are not.

“I’d say about half and half — half of our students come from the education majors," Tomaš said. "There is a new law in Michigan that requires every future teacher to have taken an introductory class to working with English learners, which I think is fantastic. Because in Michigan, only 7% of students are English learners. So, for these teachers, to at least have the basics of how they approach somebody who doesn’t have any English is really huge."

The TESOL's program currently has about 15 grad students and their between 15-20 undergrad students. Tomaš said that as a program, they always try to encourage their students to attend conferences whether the conferences are at EMU or held elsewhere.

Professor Tomaš shared that students can add the TESOL minor to any major.

“The one nice thing about our field is that it’s definitely applicable to so many things you do," Tomaš said. "Communication across culture … I mean, in everything you do, it’s relevant."