TESOL: An Overview

TESOL Key Components

TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) is a teacher preparation program that serves educators within the US as well as internationally. At its core, it is centered around a set of standards which serve to anchor the program. TESOL underwent a massive overhaul to its standards and program in response to two laws passed in 2001 and 2015; the No Child Left Behind Act and the Every Child Succeeds Act. As a result of this overhaul they have condensed their standards and increased their focus on teachers gaining a “deep understanding of their students’ background and personal characteristics, language learning processes, and academic skills and processes” (TESOL, 2019, p. 5). 

There are just five core standards to guide the TESOL framework. Standards 1 and 2 relate to understanding language and understanding one’s students. Standard 1, “Knowledge About Language,” specifies that candidates should have a deep understanding of the language structures and use of English, as well as an understanding of how individuals acquire new languages. They should be able to use this knowledge to track their students’ acquisition of English. On the other side of the coin, Standard 2, “ELLs in the Sociocultural Context,” explains that candidates should gain a deep understanding of their students, both as individuals, and within their familial cultural context. Candidates should then be able to use this information to improve their teaching methods for the individuals/groups they serve.

Standards 3 and 4 get into the meat of what we typically think of as the act of teaching. Standard 3, “Planning and Implementing Instruction,” describes the evidence-based practices candidates should use to formulate their instruction plan and make adjustments based on their students’ needs. Standard 4, “Assessment and Evaluation”, outlines the elements candidates should take into consideration when planning “formative, summative, and diagnostic assessments” (TESOL, 2019, p. 10). For example, candidates should be able to ensure their assessments are valid and reliable, and assess both language and content progress or achievement.

Standard 5, “Professionalism and Leadership,” discusses a variety of ways that candidates can demonstrate leadership within the field. This includes collaborating with other educators as well as serving as advocates for the families they serve. This standard also specifies that candidates should participate in ongoing professional development to continue to learn and grow.

How to Apply TESOL’s Framework in Lesson Planning and Instruction

In the overview of the standards, the organization describes some significant changes they have recently made to their standards, including in their method for teaching language and supporting language acquisition. The overview states that the updated standards “[reflect] the growing recognition in the field that language acquisition is not the result of adding together the structures and components of a given language, but instead a communicative and academic process arising from a multitude of interpersonal interactions.” 

This relates to what Krashen and Terrell repeatedly assert as they describe their version of the traditional method of acquiring language; “through communicative practice in real situations using the language for specific functions” (1998, p. 7). In my opinion, the most important piece of how to apply TESOL’s framework in lesson planning and instruction can be found not in Standard 3 (“Planning and Implementing Instruction”), but in Standard 5 (“Professionalism and Leadership”).

Within this standard, substandard 5.a describes that candidates will “demonstrate knowledge of effective collaboration strategies in order to plan ways to serve as a resource for ELL instruction, support educators and school staff, and advocate for ELLs” (TESOL, 2019, p. 11). This idea of language learning integrated with content development is peppered throughout the standards. In Standard 1, we can find, “Candidates apply knowledge of English academic language functions…and vocabulary to promote ELLs’ academic achievement across content areas” (TESOL, 2019, p. 6). Later, in Standard 3, we have, “Candidates…collaborate with other educators, school personnel, and families in order to support their ELLs’ learning of language and literacies across content areas” (TESOL, 2019, p. 9). Finally, in Standard 4 is the language, “Candidates demonstrate understanding of…assessments scaffolded for both English language and content assessment” (TESOL, 2019, p. 10). 

In other words, lesson planning and instruction for language acquisition, according to TESOL, must be done in an authentic way that works towards the goal of communication proficiency as well as supporting content learning across subjects. TESOL candidates must be prepared to bring language learning to life in order for it to have authentic meaning for their learners.

Where and How TESOL Addresses Socio-Cultural Competence

TESOL has clearly decided to prioritize socio-cultural competence, because they have an entire standard dedicated to it! The description for Standard 2 (“ELLs in the Sociocultural Context”) outlines a number of ways candidates should get to know their students and students’ families, cultural backgrounds, educational history, literacy practices, and so on. This piece of the standard suggests a similar position as the one Paris took when he described culturally sustaining pedagogy as “teaching and learning that seeks to perpetuate and foster linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism” (2016, p. 6).

Of equal importance, the standard also states that candidates will “identify and describe the impact of his/her identity, role, cultural understandings, and personal biases…on his/her interpretation of the educational strengths and needs of individual ELLs and ELLs in general” (TESOL, 2019, pg. 8). Recognizing one’s own bias is an integral step to dismantling systems of privilege and oppression, and also closely links with Arias and Medina’s assertion that socio-cultural competence requires seeing similarities and differences as “opportunities to connect rather than obstacles to overcome” (2020). Socio-cultural competence comes not from developing favorable feelings towards individuals whose backgrounds and cultures happen to be different than ours, but rather, deliberately seeking points of connection and celebrating areas of difference, all while honoring each person as an individual deserving of respect and care simply because they are a person in the world. TESOL makes this priority clear throughout the standards, and nowhere more so than in its second standard.