Next Application Deadline October 15 Apply Now

The online MA in TESOL is a two-year, fully online, part-time, asynchronous, 30-credit program that prepares you to be a leader in language education and teaching English.

Start Date Credits Practicum Program Chair
May, Sep, Jan 30 Required Jason Martel

Asynchronous Courses

All courses in the online TESOL program are asynchronous (no required live class meetings) so you can schedule your weekly coursework around your other personal and professional responsibilities. Your time zone will not affect your ability to complete your coursework so you can study from any location in the world with appropriate technology and internet access.

Courses include various activities, including socially annotated readings, recorded lectures, discussion boards, individual assignments, and peer reviews. Although all coursework is asynchronous, there are many meaningful opportunities for interaction with your professors and classmates.

You can continue working while you earn your online TESOL master’s degree.

Competencies

You will develop the following competencies through your coursework:

  • Inclusive learning environments: collaboratively create supportive learning environments considering relevant contextual factors and students’ diverse backgrounds, aspirations, and challenges.
  • Language and language learning in context: curate language learning experiences based on a range of theoretical, empirical, and conceptual understandings of second language acquisition and socialization.
  • Evidence-based instructional design and practice: plan and enact language learning experiences using strategies and tools appropriate for specific instructional contexts.
  • Digital technologies: integrate appropriate technological tools for multimodal learning based on a critical evaluation of a tool’s affordances and student needs.
  • Critical assessment and evaluation: design valid and reliable language assessments while identifying and challenging systemic biases and inequities.
  • Dedicated professionalism: cultivate professional identities associated with lifelong learning, leadership, and advocacy for learners and language-related matters.
  • Critical intercultural communication (CIC): mobilize CIC knowledge, skills, and dispositions across diverse cultural, societal, and institutional contexts relevant to students’ language learning experiences.    

Core Coursework

The curriculum has eight core courses

  • Language Systems
  • Language in Society
  • Teaching and Learning Additional Languages
  • Multimodal Curriculum Design
  • Core Instructional Strategies
  • Classroom Research and Assessment
  • Inclusive and Intercultural Teaching Practices
  • Social Change and Advocacy

Practicum

You will take two practicum courses after successfully completing the required core courses. The practicums are designed to help you synthesize what you learned in the program as you reflect upon who you are professionally and what you value when it comes to creating a positive and constructive learning environment. 

During the practicum courses, you will engage in a student teaching experience, either in your own classroom (if you are currently teaching) or with an experienced teacher in your local context (if you are not currently teaching). You will receive feedback on your work from a variety of stakeholders, including your practicum professor, classmates, your mentor teacher (if you have one), and the students you teach. 

You will leave the two practicum courses with a professional development portfolio that contains materials for a job search, artifacts representing your pedagogical beliefs and practices, and a professional development plan, to ensure your continued growth and development beyond your master’s program.

Course Schedule

The online MA in TESOL is a part-time program. In general, students take two courses per term—one in session A and one in session B. Each session is seven weeks long. 

  • This allows you to complete the degree in 20 months. 

  • You can start your program in the summer, spring, or fall term. 

  • The course schedule for the next four terms is listed below. Practicum A and B are offered every term. 

  • If you are interested in taking a one-off course for professional development or in pursuing a microcredential, contact Jason Martel at jmartel@middlebury.edu

The table below outlines anticipated offerings for the coming two academic years. Please note that the projected course availability may be subject to change at any time, and, depending on the circumstances, the Institute may not be able to provide advance notice of changes. 

Enrolled students should consult the Course Schedule for course dates, times, and locations for the current and upcoming semester. Degree maps for enrolled students are provided via Canvas through the “Front Desk” site.

  • offered in: Fall 25
    offered in: Spring 26 ()
    offered in: Summer 26 ()
    offered in: Fall 26 ()

    Course Description

    What is “language”? Why is it difficult to learn and teach? In this fully asynchronous course, we will examine various aspects of language, such as its sound system, lexical system, morphosyntactic structures, as well as pragmatic and discourse features. Activities will include readings, discussions, and exercises designed to explore how these language systems function and what we, as teachers, can do in the classroom to help our learners engage with them successfully. Upon completion of the course, you will have the skills to analyze language components, select level- and context-appropriate learning objectives and instructional strategies, and provide a range of authentic materials to demonstrate to your learners how language is used. You will demonstrate your learning by conducting a language analysis project and compiling language resources to guide your teaching. Students pursuing the online MA TESOL must complete this course along with the other seven core courses before they can register for the two capstone courses.
  • offered in: Fall 25
    offered in: Spring 26 ()
    offered in: Summer 26 ()
    offered in: Fall 26 ()

    Course Description

    How can we cultivate language learning environments that are inclusive of all students’ diverse backgrounds, learning preferences, and culturally-shaped ways of being? What teaching practices foster various forms of intercultural learning and critical engagement? In this fully asynchronous course, we will explore the “what”, “how” and “why” of inclusive and intercultural teaching practices through materials development/selection, activity/task design, and classroom engagement. Activities will include readings, discussions, videos, case study exploration, and reflections. Upon completion of the course, you will have the skills to select relevant approaches for working with diverse student populations and in language teaching contexts through intentional design principles, culturally-informed methods, and intercultural techniques. You will demonstrate your learning by creating a differentiated activity, an inclusive and intercultural teaching philosophy statement, and a lesson plan with relevant adaptations for diverse student populations and contexts. 
  • offered in: Fall 25 ()
    offered in: Spring 26
    offered in: Summer 26 ()
    offered in: Fall 26 ()

    Course Description

    How can you design learning experiences that build language proficiency while also engaging students intellectually? How can you relate curriculum to students’ lives? In this fully asynchronous course, you will explore key knowledge, skills, and attitudes associated with the multiple stages of language curriculum design. Activities include readings, viewings, discussion boards, peer reviews, and design tasks. By the end of the course, you will be able to construct needs assessment instruments, fashion learning goals, articulate performance tasks, and generate ideas for lesson plans and modules in modalities evoked in specific contexts (e.g., synchronous, asynchronous, hybrid). You will demonstrate your learning in a complete thematic unit plan that follows a backward design approach and is shaped by evidence reflecting students’ needs and interests. Those studying toward the online MA TESOL will need to complete this course in addition to the other seven core courses before enrolling in the two capstone courses.
     
  • offered in: Fall 25 ()
    offered in: Spring 26
    offered in: Summer 26 ()
    offered in: Fall 26 ()

    Course Description

    As language teachers, we are constantly assessing our learners, our teaching, and our classrooms in order to provide the best learning environment for our students. In this fully asynchronous course, you will explore ways of collecting systematic information which will assist you in making important decisions regarding your lessons, your learners and your program. Activities will include readings, discussions, and task design and analyses during which you will explore the many assessment and research possibilities available. By the end of the course, you will be able to choose and create data collection methods that will help you to evaluate your students and your context, providing you with valuable information both for lesson planning and for advocating for your students. You will also be able to assess language assessment measures critically and thoughtfully to choose context-appropriate evaluation methods. You will demonstrate your learning through the development of a research or assessment proposal designed to collect information to help you make pedagogical decisions. Those studying toward the online MA TESOL will need to complete this course in addition to the other seven core courses before enrolling in the two capstone courses.
     
  • offered in: Fall 25 ()
    offered in: Spring 26 ()
    offered in: Summer 26
    offered in: Fall 26 ()

    Course Description

    What happens in a classroom with learners from a language learning perspective? What does it mean to be “proficient” in a language? In this fully asynchronous course, you will explore key theories that attempt to explain successful additional language learning and consider what you can do in the classroom to help create environments conducive to learning. Activities include readings, video viewing, discussion boards, peer collaboration, and small research explorations. By the end of the course, you will be able to articulate which theories are central to your teaching philosophy, analyze learner language production, and create lessons consistent with current theories of language learning. You will demonstrate your learning through an analysis of a textbook unit, noting which learning theories are exemplified in the unit and which activities you would incorporate into the unit to make it consistent with your beliefs about language teaching and learning. Those studying toward the online MA TESOL will need to complete this course in addition to the other seven core courses before enrolling in the two practicum courses.
     
  • offered in: Fall 25 ()
    offered in: Spring 26 ()
    offered in: Summer 26
    offered in: Fall 26 ()

    Course Description

    What does effective instruction look like in multimodal language learning settings? Which instructional practices are considered “high-leverage,” meaning they represent a core set that all language teachers need to master? In this fully asynchronous course, you will explore knowledge, skills, and attitudes associated with key instructional strategies for language teaching, such as facilitating class discussions, building relationships with students, using effective verbal scaffolding, and implementing organizational routines. Activities include annotated readings, viewings, discussion boards, peer reviews, and video-recorded enactment tasks. By the end of the course, you will be able to perform a range of strategies customized to your target teaching context and will demonstrate your learning in a digital practices showcase that highlights your abilities. Those studying toward the online MA TESOL will need to complete this course in addition to the other seven core courses before enrolling in the two practicum courses.
     
  • offered in: Fall 25 ()
    offered in: Spring 26 ()
    offered in: Summer 26 ()
    offered in: Fall 26

    Course Description

    How are language, culture, and society interconnected? How can a deepened examination of these connections influence our language teaching philosophies and practices? In this fully asynchronous course, we will explore relationships among language and the 3Cs (Culture, Context, Community), 3 Is (Identity, Intersectionality, Ideology) and 3Ps (Power, Privilege, Practice). Additional topics will include multilingualism, translanguaging, language varieties, language socialization and schooling, and literacy/oracy. Activities will include readings, discussions, videos, case study exploration, and reflections as well as methods including critical discourse analysis, linguistic landscapes, observations, interviews, and narrative analysis. Upon completion of the course, you will have the skills and methodological toolkit to examine multilingual contexts at different scales (macro, meso, micro, me-cro). You will demonstrate your learning by creating pedagogical materials informed by language in society models (e.g., culturally sustaining pedagogy, critical language awareness, critical pedagogy), a statement of your language in society philosophy and practice, and a lesson plan sensitive to language in society dynamics across contexts. Those studying toward the online MA TESOL will need to complete this course in addition to the other seven core courses before enrolling in the two practicum courses.
  • offered in: Fall 25 ()
    offered in: Spring 26 ()
    offered in: Summer 26 ()
    offered in: Fall 26

    Course Description

    How does social change happen? What advocacy roles can language educational professionals play to foster social change? In this fully asynchronous course, we will explore scales of engagement (macro, meso, micro, me-cro), theories of change, key concepts for language and social change, positionalities and commitments, methods for observation and action, storytelling for change, and harnessing conflict during change processes. We will engage with tensions, critical incidents, and “hot moments” relevant to language teaching for social change. We will also examine forms of action (e.g., awareness-raising, advocacy, activism) for leaders and program administrators. Activities will include readings, discussions, videos, case study exploration, application activities, and reflection. Upon completion of the course, you will have the skills to analyze historical and present-day contexts and dynamics with an eye towards their potential for social change and advocacy for the future. You will also have the skills to engage in collaborative advocacy-oriented processes relevant to contexts in which you work. You will demonstrate your learning by creating a language lesson plan that embodies social change principles as well as an advocacy plan for a language-related issue relevant to a context of interest. Those studying toward the online MA TESOL will need to complete this course in addition to the other seven core courses before enrolling in the two practicum courses.
     
  • Offered in:
    Fall 25 Spring 26 Summer 26 Fall 26
    offered in: Fall 25
    offered in: Spring 26
    offered in: Summer 26
    offered in: Fall 26

    Course Description

    Who do you want to be as a language professional? In this fully asynchronous course, you will articulate your teaching philosophy and prepare yourself for the professional context in which you will be working. As part of this preparation, you will begin your student teaching. Activities will include exploring different teaching contexts, engaging in peer observation and feedback, keeping a teaching journal, compiling an employment portfolio and articulating a professional development plan. By the end of the course, you will be able to articulate your teaching and learning philosophy, your professional objectives, and be able to thoughtfully reflect upon your teaching context and learners. You will demonstrate your learning through the compilation of an employment-focused portfolio. Those seeking to complete the online MA TESOL will need to complete the eight core courses before enrolling in this course. Practicum “B” will be taken upon completion of this course. 
  • Offered in:
    Fall 25 Spring 26 Summer 26 Fall 26
    offered in: Fall 25
    offered in: Spring 26
    offered in: Summer 26
    offered in: Fall 26

    Course Description

    How do you ensure that your classroom provides the best learning environment possible for your students? In this fully asynchronous course, you will explore your classroom environment to make sure that you are meeting both your needs and those of your learners. We will focus on the ways in which your lessons and assessment practices address your teaching and learning objectives. Activities will include student teaching, keeping a reflective journal, engaging in peer observation and feedback, and conducting an investigation of your teaching. By the end of the course, you will feel confident in assessing whether or not your classroom objectives have been met and whether your lessons have maximized learner engagement. You will demonstrate your learning through the compilation of your teaching journal, a teaching portfolio, and by participating in a mock job interview. Those seeking to complete the online MA TESOL will need to complete the eight core courses as well as Practicum “A” before enrolling in this course.