Education Specialist in
English Language Learning
(EdS)

Your communication abilities have a big influence on your professional reputation. In this course, you’ll develop skills to establish yourself as a competent professional with strong communication skills. You’ll learn competencies related to written, oral, and visual forms of communication appropriate to specific media and audiences. You’ll also explore how the iterative nature of preparing communications and integrating feedback into your work products can support your development and advancement as a professional.

Leadership during times of change can be challenging. This course supports your professional development as an effective leader of educational organizations during periods of change. You’ll explore strategies and techniques for self-reflection, evaluating culture, integrating stakeholder feedback, and incorporating data as part of improvement processes. To conclude the course, you’ll synthesize these skills to design a comprehensive improvement plan that addresses a specific problem within an educational organization.

This course introduces you to the research process by exploring its underpinnings, examining its paradigms, and investigating the foundations of qualitative and quantitative methodologies used in educational studies. You’ll identify criteria for the development of quality research studies that are ethical, accurate, comprehensive, cohesive, and aligned. Specific course topics involve the ethics of conducting research; data collection and analysis techniques; and issues of feasibility, trustworthiness, validity, reliability, transferability, and rigor. The goal is to familiarize yourself with the concepts and skills associated with conducting theoretical and applied research.

A focus on qualitative research methodology and the designs and methods used to collect and analyze data in educational research. You’ll examine the principles of qualitative research and explore commonly used designs (also referred to as qualitative traditions or genres) with a focus on application and feasibility. Qualitative data collection and analysis methods will be examined for their suitability with regard to the research design selected. Alignment between qualitative designs and research methods, issues of trustworthiness, and the responsibilities of the qualitative researcher will also be explored.

An exploration of quantitative research methodologies and associated designs and methods. You’ll examine paradigmatic perspectives along with the tenets and conventions of quantitative research. Topics for examination include feasibility, validity, reliability, variable operationalization, inferential designs, and analytic software applications used within the quantitative research paradigm. You’ll also look at the components of quantitative research designs that support meaningful studies within the field of education.

As the capstone to your EdS studies, you’ll work with a specific educational program relevant to your current or future professional aims. You’ll review the related literature and evaluate data to inform your development of potential solutions and future areas of research related to your identified problem. Finally, you’ll reflect on your personal learning journey throughout the EdS program.

ESL-7100 Second Language Foundations

In this course, you’ll analyze how learning a new language differs from learning a first language, including learner experiences and processes that occur during second language acquisition. As you examine theories related to second language acquisition, you’ll also consider the role of reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills in acquiring the second language. You’ll also assess best practices and principles in various learning environments and create instructional plans and materials based on those principles.

ESL-7200 Teaching English Language Learners

This course offers a deeper exploration of theories, models, practices, and strategies related to teaching English language learners. You’ll consider knowledge and skills related to listening, speaking, reading, and writing English as you develop sheltered content lessons for diverse learners. Given the collaborative nature of teaching, you’ll also assess opportunities to confer with other professionals around effective instruction for English language learners. Throughout the course, you’ll consider diversity, equity, and inclusion as you design culturally responsive instructional materials and accommodations.  

ESL-7300 Assessing Diverse Learners

In this course, you’ll explore the assessment of diverse English language learners in various educational contexts from the perspectives of a leader-practitioner and research scholar. Your studies will include assessment differences, tools, and strategies for both content-area learning and language learning. You’ll also evaluate the role of technology in the assessment of diverse English language learners and examine the roles of teachers and other professionals in the evaluation and accountability of English language services and programs.

ESL-7400 Developing Curriculum for English Language Learners

Here you’ll examine frameworks for curriculum development, including the development of unit plans for both content area and language learning outcomes related to reading, writing, and speaking English. You’ll also consider strategies for differentiating curricula and evaluating proficiency standards and guidelines for English language learners.

ED-7009 Educating a Diversity of Learners

Because today’s learners differ in gender, sexual orientation, age, cultural background, experiences, and abilities, today’s educators must be able to appraise, assess, and argue the best means to reach such a variety. In this course, you’ll explore different means to address the nature of cultural diversity, its sources, and its importance to educators. You’ll also consider how districts can plan and prepare to meet the needs of diverse students, taking into consideration epistemological and axiological perspectives unique to many cultures.

ESL-7600 Issues in ELL Education

In this course, you’ll analyze historical contexts for English language learning and the current political, social, and educational implications of teaching English learners. You’ll consider research regarding the education of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, as well as different ways to affirm students’ cultural identities. Along the journey, you’ll also evaluate strategies for teaching English language learners within contexts of English as a foreign language, English as a second language, and bilingual education.