MSc TESOL

These notes have been prepared to help you prepare for the course over the coming weeks and
months. There are four ways in which you can prepare.

1. Reflection on your professional practice as an English teacher.

It will be useful for you to collect documents and artefacts which represent English language
teaching and learning in your context. These may be:

Course books
Teachers' books
Tests and examinations
Evaluation questionnaires
Syllabuses
Schemes of work

Programmes or guidelines for teacher development

Video recordings of your teaching
Examples of your students' work
Simplified readers

Work you have had published

Other publications on TESOL in your context
Web references which contain information on TESOL in your context

Many of these will not be in English, or wholly in English. They will be a resource for you during the
MSc TESOL, both as data to account for learning, and as an authoritative reference for TESOL policy
and practice in your context.

Use of such documents in these ways will enhance the development of your academic skills and your
assignments.

It is unlikely you will have easy access to all of the above, or that you will have space in your luggage
for all the available examples of them. You should therefore select carefully, with attention to the
following questions:

Do these documents represent particular issues which you are interested in?

Do they represent standard, excellent or innovative practice in some way, or conversely, do they
reflect problems in learning English?

Do they represent specific policies, traditions or conventions in TESOL practice?

2. Reading

The following books will be useful for all students, and which you should consider buying. Two
general reference books here are:
Carter,R & Nunan, D. (Eds.) (2001) The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other
Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

In addition you should have a good dictionary, reference grammar and a how-to academic
referencing guide (e.g., academic referencing used is APA or Harvard style you can check these
styles online through google search).

The following books should prove valuable reading in preparation for the MSc TESOL. They relate to
four main strands of the course.

Research

Paltridge, B., Phakiti, A. (2015). Research Methods in Applied Linguistics: A Practical Resource.
London: Bloomsbury.

Teaching

Burns, A. & Richards, J. C. (Eds) (2012). The Cambridge Guide to Pedagogy and Practice in Second
Language Teaching, New York: Cambridge University Press

Language

Paltridge, B. (2006) Discourse Analysis. London: Continuum.

Learning

Lightbown, P. M., & Spada, N. (Eds.). (2013). How Languages are Learned (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford
University Press.

If the books are not easily available in your area, it is possible to buy them through an online
bookstore.

3. Looking at TESOL / ELT websites

These sites will help you become familiar with current issues in TESOL and approaches to studying
them. You should also look at other webpages such as: The British Association of Applied
Linguistics http://www.baal.org.uk/

http://www.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/tesl-ej/index.html

International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL)

http://www.iatefl.org

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

http://www.tesol.org
4. The University of Bristol Libraries (such as the Education Library) will provide you will access to
print copies of books, online journals and e-books. Once you have arrived and have registered we
strongly suggest you become familiar with accessing key texts for your units. For example:

Simpson, J. (ed.)(2011). The Routledge Handbook of Applied Linguistics. London: Routledge.

Available as an e-book.

5. Focussed preparation: Starting the MSc TESOL programme

From language learner to language teacher (1,500 words excluding references). Please consult and
cite 3 references in support of your ideas.

From Language Learner to Language Teacher: My TESOL story.

What are the key influences that have shaped your experience as a language learner (L1
& FL) and as a language teacher?

Which strategies & dispositions contributed to your success (or lack of it) as a language
learner? How do these relate to your teaching strategies?

What changes or additions in terms of skills and strategies do you feel would improve
your performance as a learner & teacher?

You should attempt to relate your experience to some of the pre-course reading you have done and
include references to these where possible.