Internet Resources for Professional Development

Below are descriptions of some relevant sources of information and services. A clickable version of this page at <URL here>.will be regularly updated.

• Information on Professional Development

  TESOL Inc's Career Information -- http://career.tesol.org/cc/teflrsa.html Your first stop for career information. ESL/EFL Career Guide -- http://www.esl.about.com/education/esl/blcareer.htm A Guide to British Master's Degrees in TESOL by Distance Learning -- http://langue.hyper.chubu.ac.jp/jalt/pub/tlt/97/mar/ distance.html An article by Daniel Dunkley, The Language Teacher Online, March, 1997 "Online or Traditional -- That is the Question! -- http://www.att.com/learningnetwork/virtualacademy/ journal.html An informative review of the author's first experience with obtaining his M.A. degree via an online course. Ronald Chalmers has gone on to become the program director for homeroom.com

• Professional Resources Online
  • Agora News -- http://agoralang.com/agoranews_current.html
  • Forum Magazine -- http://e.usia.gov/forum/
  • ITESL Journal -- http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/
  • JALT Journal Online -- http://www.als.aoyama.ac.jp/jjweb/jj_index.html
  • Language Learning & Technology -- http://llt.msu.edu
  • TESL-EJ -- http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ/
• Degree/Certificate Programs
  • Newport Asia Pacific University -- http://www.asiapacificu.edu
    For those desiring a U.S.-based qualification, this appears to be the 'big kid on the block,' at least for the time-being. The program, conducted almost completely on-line, features weekly, scheduled synchronous on-line sessions with courses conducted by David Nunan, Rod Ellis and Ruth Wajnryb, all well-known TESOL names. There is both a certificate program and an M.A. program. Basically aimed at residents of Japan. The M.A. program requires attendance at two 2-day seminars per year in Tokyo.
  • New School University's Cyberspace Campus -- http://dialnsa.edu/
    Offers an "English Language Teaching Certificate." Separate courses may be taken on a non-credit basis for as little as $450. According to their information, "the program stresses communicative, student-centered learning and has a very practical orientation."
  • OnlineLearning.net -- http://www.OnlineLearning.net/CommunitiesOfStudy/ neighborhoods.cfm?NB=TEFL
    Sponsored by UCLA Extension and other schools. It advertises that "Lectures, coursework, assignments, questions, discussion, all take place at your convenience - online."
  • London Institute of Education (London University) -- http://www.ioe.ac.uk/lie/email.htm
    This version of the MA TESOL is the first postgraduate qualification in TESOL to be offered by computer conferencing. Students register part-time. In addition to the compulsory modules, and a selection of the optional modules, training is also provided in computer conferencing itself. Another version of this distance MA TESOL is offered by e-mail to a group of students from Israel.
  • University of Aston -- http://www.aston.ac.uk/pg/pros/lestptefl.htm
    The course is aimed at both teachers wishing to further their careers as well as those intending a mid-carerr change. "The course aims to train such teachers to an advanced level of professional competence in TEFL and to prepare them for careers throughout the world."
  • University of Surrey -- http://www.surrey.ac.uk/ELI/ma.html
    Boasts a unique library support system for it's distance learning program including access to on-line bibliographic services, a discussion list, tutorial and study support and dissertation supervision.
  • Open Learning International -- http://olionline.com/
    This organization claims to be the first to offer the OCR (Oxford, Cambridge RSA) Certificate in Teaching Foreign Languages to Adults, via the Internet." The full course costs £575.00 ($920.00).
  • "The Certificate in On-Line Teaching of English" -- http://www.nll.co.uk/colte/
    Offers teachers the skills and knowledge required to transfer their traditional teaching skills to the on-line environment. Both synchronous and asynchronous methods (live chat vs. message boards or e-mail) of teaching are covered on the course.
  • See ELEaston.com for some other possibilities -- http://eleaston.com/dist_ed.html
• Courses for credit
  • TESOL Education Programs -- http://www.tesol.org/edprg/index.html
    Check out TESOL's Professional Development pages (URL above) for forthcoming TESOL Academies and online courses.
  • New Jersey City University -- http://newlearning.njcu.edu/weblearning/default.htm
    Offers online courses for teachers though not specifically for ESL, such as "Introduction of Hypermedia" and "Learning Theories."
• Courses in related fields
  • TeleCampus -- http://courses.telecampus.edu/about.cfm
    Features a searchable database of online courses throughout the world.
• Employment Information
  • Linguistic Funland -- Job Opportunities and Information -- http://www.linguistic-funland.com/tesljob.html
    Maintained by Kristina Pfaff-Harris, University of Nevada. Contains a lengthy listing of sources of employment information and regional surveys of the employment situation,
  • The Internet Job Search for ESL! -- http://www.uni.edu/riedmill/
    Maintained by Thomas Riedmiller of the University of Nebraska. An excellent collection of links and commentary.
  • TESLJB-L -- This mailing list is dedicated to "Jobs, employment and professional advancement." In addition to position openings, there are free ranging discussions on issues such as "Is Distance learning more cost-effective than traditional education?" and "The Future of Ph.D.'s n Applied Linguistics." You need to subscribe to TESL-L in order to subscribe to this branch list, but you can do both in a single message. Send your message to LISTSERV@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU with the following lines in the message body:
    

    SUB TESL-L Your-full-name-here
SUB TESLJB-L


    Once you are subscribed, you can search the 10000+ messages in the archive by keyword. For example, you can send this line to the Listserv:

    SEARCH "online course" in TESLJB-L