ESL Endorsements

Bilingual Education and ESL Coursework

Bilingual Education and ESL Specializations | Area of Concentration in Bilingual/ESL Education for Undergraduates

Bilingual Education and ESL Specializations

If you are interested in bilingual education or ESL instruction for children in grades k-12, we recommend that you take the following courses.

C & I 433: Foundations of Bilingual and ESL Education (Fall)
C & I 446: Culture in the Classroom (Fall)
C & I 499/BSL (will be renumbered at a later date): Bilingual and ESL Methods and Materials (Spring)
C & I 507, BA (will be renumbered as C & I 515): Bilingual and ESL Assessment (Spring)
C & I 595 (will be renumbered at a later date): Clinical Course in Bilingual and/or ESL Education (only can be taken after all the other courses have been completed or are being completed concurrently)

You may take the courses as part of your degree or as a non-degree student through Academic Outreach. Undergraduates may take any of the 400 level courses.  Only graduate students may take the 500 level courses. For the clinical requirement, undergraduates should request to be placed in a bilingual/ESL setting for student teaching.

The above courses meet the Illinois State Board of Education's requirements for bilingual teaching approval/ endorsement. In addition, to obtain state approval/endorsement in bilingual education, students must be a certified teacher at the appropriate grade level, pass a language proficiency test in a language other than English, and complete clinical hours in a bilingual classroom (by taking C & I 595) or have taught for three months in a bilingual classroom. The language proficiency test is administered by the Illinois State Board of Education.

Certified elementary teachers who have their bilingual teaching approval/ endorsement also may teach ESL in grades K-6.

If students are interested in obtaining their ESL teaching approval/endorsement, they must be a certified teacher, take the 5 courses listed above, as well as a course in linguistics (Ling 100 or substitute). If they have taught for three months in an ESL classroom, then they do not need to take C & I 595. The Division of English as an International Language also offers courses for the ESL teaching approval/endorsement.

Approval versus Endorsement

There is no difference in the validity of an approval versus an endorsement—they are both equally valid. An approval comes in a separate letter from the State Board of Education and is valid for the same grade levels for which your teaching certificate is issued. For the endorsement, your teaching certificate will be reprinted to include the endorsement, allowing you the advantage of having all information appear in one document. However, please be aware that, if you teach in a middle school (grades 6-8) and choose to apply for the endorsement, there is a $30.00 fee and you are required to complete two additional middle grade courses. There is no fee for the approval, and no additional courses are required if you are teaching in the middle grades. More information...

If you have any questions regarding approvals/endorsements , please call Jolene Reddy, Division of Professional Certification, 1-800-845-8749, or refer to the website at www.isbe.net.

Area of Concentration in Bilingual/ESL Education for Undergraduates

Students who plan to enroll in the teacher education program in Elementary Education have the option of choosing Bilingual/ESL Education for their area of concentration.

Students may choose at least four courses (12 hours) to fulfill an Area of Concentration in Bilingual/ESL Education:

C & I 433: Foundations of Bilingual Education (3 hours)
C & I 446: Culture in the Classroom (3 hours)
Linguistics 100: Introduction to Language Science (3 hours) or EIL 487: Introduction to Linguistics for Language Teachers (3 hours)
EIL 489: Theoretical Foundations of Second-Language Acquisition (3 hours)
EIL 422: English grammar for ESL teachers (3 hours)
C & I 449: Issues in Latina/o Education or EPS 402: Asian American Education (3 hours)