This is a course for people who want to develop advanced scholarly and practical knowledge to teach English language and literacy to children, post-secondary learners or adults. You can commence this course as a qualified teacher or as a career changer to update your knowledge and skills and upgrade your existing teaching qualification.
The course builds your foundational knowledge and skills needed to teach English language and literacy and then offers you the option to specialise in 1) English language, literacy and/ or numeracy teaching in the adult education sector, 2) English as an additional language or dialect teaching in the primary or secondary education sector or 3) academic English teaching in the post-secondary education sector. As you progress to the later stages of the course, you will be able to choose from a range of electives that extend the depth and breadth of scholarly knowledge in contemporary topics in TESOL and applied linguistics.
In this course, you will be taught by experienced practitioners who have close connections with industry and who are research active in their specialist area of English language, literacy and numeracy education. This means that your learning will be authentic, research-informed and applicable to your teaching practice.
You will be studying with colleagues from a diverse range of settings, both local Australian students and international students. The classes in the course are interactive and draw on both academic staff input and also your experiences and knowledge as language and literacy learners and users.
The course features flexible study options, with classes held at times suitable for students working standard full-time hours. Credit recognition may be available if you are already a qualified teacher.
The course enables students to specialise in one of three streams. The first stream focuses on teaching English for academic purposes where graduates teach English to international students who are studying or seeking to study university courses in institutions where English is the medium of instruction; employers of these graduates are typically English language colleges or universities in Australia or overseas. The second stream is designed for teaching adults who are developing their English language, literacy and/ or numeracy skills as part of a migrant education and settlement program; a ‘second chance’ education program; a job-seeker, vocational or workplace program; or a community education program. Employers for graduates from this second stream include colleges in the vocational education and training sector, community education providers and industries. The third stream is for school teachers who work in Australia or overseas who teach English as an additional language and literacy to primary or secondary school students; graduates from this stream will typically be employed by schools.
Course aims
This course equips teachers with in-depth research-based knowledge of topics in TESOL and Applied Linguistics. The course focuses on contemporary models of language, literacy and numeracy learning and teaching. It has both a strong focus on practice through two supervised teaching practicums, and an emphasis on recent developments in the field of language and literacy studies. The course consists of subjects that equip teachers with skills and in-depth knowledge in the areas of teaching practice, pedagogical grammars, global English, discourse analysis, phonology and pronunciation, language development and language and literacy for specific purposes.
In the last stage of the course, students may broaden their knowledge through their elective subjects that give exposure to other cognate areas of study such as Aboriginal education, digital learning in schools and mentoring in the workplace. Students are also able to undertake an independent study project.
Read what our graduates say about our TESOL and Applied Linguistics courses
