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 Master's International Program / MA in TESOL
"For me, the MIP was the perfect package - my master's coursework gave
me exactly the preparation I needed
to be a successful and productive teacher-training volunteer, and my Peace Corps
experience allowed
me to deepen my understanding of my coursework by putting it to work
in the field. Together, both my
master's coursework and my Peace Corps experience were more meaningful
than they could have been alone."
--
Brooke Cashman, on her Peace Corps Teacher Training experience
in the Philippines.
Meet
our Peace Corps volunteers!
Click on their names to read letters and
descriptions of their
Peace Corps experiences.
Click here for a Flash presentation of Austin Kaufmann's Peace Corps Experience!
Current Volunteers:
Kelly Gast is currently serving as a TEFL volunteer in Turkmenistan while finishing her MA in TESOL at AU..
Emma Archer graduated from the AU TESOL MA program in 2008. She is currently serving as a TEFL volunteer in Mongolia.
Angela Potts is currently serving in Malawi.
Julie Staggs is currently serving in Namibia
Current Master's International Students:
Megan Calvert served as an EFL teacher in a rural village school in Kyrgyzstan from 2005-2007. She is currently pursuing her MA in TESOL at American University.
Samantha Parkes served as an EFL teacher in Moldova from 2005-2007. She is currently pursuing her MA in TESOL at American University.
Returned Peace Corps Volunteers/AU TESOL Alums:
Marlena Hawkins is currently teaching ESL at an elementary school in northern Virginia.
Lyn Fogle is a Doctoral Candidate in Applied Linguistics at Georgetown University. She received her MA in TESOL at AU in 2002.
Angela
Dick has completed her Peace Corps service as a teacher trainer in the Sakhalin Islands. She is currently living in Switzerland with her husband and son.
Jennifer Lubkin served in Azerbaijan from 2006-2008. She completed her MA in TESOL program in December 2008. She is currently teaching at Montgomery College, a community college in Maryland.
Ben
Houle, who taught University EFL in Vladivostock,
Russia from 2001 to 2003 is currently teaching in Prince William County Public Schools.
John Mark King served in Uzbekistan. He is now full-time ESL faculty at Northern Virginia Community College.
Brooke Cashman volunteered in the Philippines from 2002-2004. She is currently an instructor as Georgetown University's Center for Language Education and Development.
Austin Kaufmann taught English in
the Kyrgyz Republic from 2002-2004. He is currently
a teacher educator for Georgetown's Center for Learning, Education, and Development (CLED), teaching Methodology and Materials Design in a TESOL Certificate Program at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, Korea. Catch up with Austin via his blog at
http://austinstesolblog.blogspot.com/ or his Flash Video, here.
Christina Breuer is working with Peace Corps Response (formerly Crisis Corps), which places RPCVs for "short-term, high-impact" assignments. She is currently focused on placing RPCVs in education asssignments in Liberia. This is the first new program in Liberia since Peace Corps pulled out nearly two decades ago.
John Mark King completed his Peace Corps Service in Uzbekistan in 2001 and currently holds a position in NOVA's College ESL program.
Program
Requirements
A total
of 36 credit hours (of which the 3-credit ESL Practicum is waived):
9 core courses (27 credit hours):
• TESL.500 Principles of Linguistics
• TESL.501 English Language Teaching I (Prerequisite
for TESL.502)
• TESL.502 English Language Teaching II
• TESL.503 Structure of English (prerequisite: TESL.500)
• TESL.522 Language Acquisition OR TESL.523 Second Language Acquisition
• TESL.527 Cultural Issues in the ESL/EFL classroom OR
ANTH.537 Topics in Language
and Culture OR ANTH.554 Topics in Public Anthropology: Anthropology
of Education
• TESL-531 Language Assessment
• TESL-541 Teaching Grammar OR TESL-542 Teaching Pronunciation
• TESL-620 ELT III (waived)
Three credits of approved TESOL electives
One internship course (6 credits):
• TESL-693 Master's International Internship
The six credits
for this internship are completed during the Peace Corps service;
tuition is waived.
Admission
Requirements
No previous training
in linguistics or teaching experience is required for admission. It
is recommended (but not required) that native English speakers have
some background in at least one language other than English. Applicants
for the MA degree must have a grade-point average of at least 3.0
(on a 4.0 scale) on undergraduate coursework. The Graduate Record
Examination is required.
Note: Peace
Corps can only accept American citizens. Participants must meet
all other Peace Corps requirements
prior to beginning Volunteer service.
Students
are required to complete a portfolio and pass an oral comprehensive
exam. To remain in
good standing, students must earn a grade point average of B (3.0) or
better.
FAQs
How does
the MIP work?
Certain volunteer assignments are classified by Peace Corps as "Scarce
Skills Assignments." This mean that regularly, Peace Corps gets
more requests from host countries for these kinds of skills than Peace
Corps can provide. The MIP was therefore designed to yoke graduate
education in these skills with Peace Corps service. Some other Peace
Corps assignments in the MIP are forestry, nursing, and fisheries.
In principle, an MIP
applicant applies to the college program and Peace Corps at the same
time. The applicant then carries out the bulk of her/his coursework
in the graduate program and then completes the degree program through
credits earned based on Peace Corps service. This works out well because
the Peace Corps application process is quite extensive, usually taking
six to nine months.
If you do the AU TESOL
Master's International Program, your degree will be AU's MA in TESOL
degree. To get there, the candidate does most of her/his coursework
at AU and then begins Peace Corps TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign
Language) service. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, the MIP candidate corresponds
regularly with the TESOL Program Coordinator and at the end of her/his
service, does a comprehensive final report on the course work. This
results in earning six credits of International Internship experience.
Then, since the volunteer has been doing significant teaching for
two years or more with Peace Corps, s/he is waived from the three
credit TESOL Practicum course.
What if Peace
Corps turns down my application? From time to time this happens,
usually for medical reasons. If this should occur, the candidate can
continue as a regular MA in TESOL candidate. However the nine credits
of course work which the candidate would now take in lieu of the credits
earned for Peace Corps experience must be paid for.
What is the "Reverse"
MIP? For Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) who have
already served as TEFL teachers, they can join the MIP program "in
reverse"; that is, by submitting the required reports on their
Peace Corps TEFL experience, they can earn, at no cost, six credits
of international internship course work and be waived from taking
the 3 credit TESOL Practicum.
Can I be considered
for Merit Awards under the Master's International Program?
Yes, MIP candidates may be considered for all Merit Awards for which
they are eligible.
For
more information on Peace Corps, email dcinfo@peacecorps.gov (DC, MD, NC, WV, VA, DE), click the PEACE
CORPS LOGO on the right, or call 1-800-424-8580,
option 1.
To visit the Peace
Corps Master's International webpage, click
here. |
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For
a Graduate
School Application, click here.
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| TESOL
Program
Language and Foreign Studies
American University
Washington, DC 20016-8045 |
Tel: 202.885.2582
Fax: 202.885.1356
Email: tesol@american.edu
Last Modified: January 2, 2009
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