Western Kentucky University plans to unveil a certification program in the fall for students who want to teach English as a Second Language classes without getting a degree in education.

WKU’s English department has created a new certification program - Teaching English as a Second Language - that will qualify graduate students to teach ESL classes.

The TESL program is geared primarily toward students who do not want to teach ESL in public schools or get a master’s degree in English, said Alex Poole, assistant professor of English.

“They’re not traditional education people,” Poole said.

Poole said a lot of people are interested in teaching ESL classes abroad. He said a lot of the interest has come from international students who want to teach English in their home countries.

“The need would be to teach fundamental language, so their needs wouldn’t be the traditional needs of an English major,” he said.

The board of regents’ academic affairs committee approved the new certificate program during its meeting earlier this month. The full board will consider approval of the certificate program at its regular meeting April 24.

At Western, the certification to teach ESL is an add-on to a student’s education degree. Teachers in public schools have to have a degree in specific subject, such as math, English or Spanish.

“They already have teacher certification,” he said. “Then they add on the ESL certification.”

Non-education students currently can take the ESL classes without getting the resulting certification.

“These students take all the classes and have no official credentials for that,” Poole said. “This gives them something to show for their work.”

The graduate certificate will give students the credentials private language institutes and foreign schools and universities look for, Poole said. He said, for example, a student could have a master’s degree in psychology and a TESL certificate, giving that student the opportunity to teach both.

“So it makes them more marketable,” he said.

In many international markets, anyone who wants a well-paying ESL position must at minimum possess a graduate certificate in TESL, which was stated in the program rationale that was presented to the academic affairs committee April 4.

The TESL program is identical to the existing ESL program at Western. It requires 15 hours of course work, a portfolio of student work and completion of six hours of a foreign language.

The courses needed to complete the program will be offered online, in the evenings and during the summer for the convenience of full-time professionals.

The program, which takes a year to complete, will be available the start of the 2008-09 school year, Poole said. No additional resources are needed for the program since all the courses already exist.