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Master of Arts in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (MATEFL)

The M.A. TEFL is designed to meet the needs of an educational system in transition. In an era when English is regarded as the international language of business, diplomacy, scientific research, and other specialized areas of endeavor, it is imperative that the development of curricula, textbooks, examinations, and the preparation of future teachers dedicated to English language instruction be based on the most highly developed and advanced linguistic, pedagogical, and socio-cultural principles. The course combines theory and practical skills providing students an opportunity to conduct research in the field of applied linguistics and language teaching.

It is expected that graduates of the M.A. TEFL program will assume leadership positions and play pivotal roles in Armenia's and other nations' development and implementation of English language curricula for academic, scientific, political, and commercial purposes.

Admission Requirements

Applicants to MA TEFL must comply with the general university admission requirements detailed in the Admissions tab of this website. In addition, MA TEFL program applicants must have a minimum iBT (Internet-Based TOEFL) score of 90, a satisfactory GRE score, an undergraduate GPA of 3.4 or higher on a 5-point scale, and an interest in applied linguistics research, theory, and practice expressed in the applicant’s letter of intent. Applicants who do not meet the minimal language scores may be admitted conditionally.

Graduation Requirements

To graduate with a Master's Degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (MA TEFL), students must successfully complete a set of graduate courses in advanced methods, discourse grammar, research design, curriculum design, and assessment. In addition to the coursework, students must complete a Master's Thesis or a Master’s Paper and Internship (see below TEFL 238A and TEFL 238B), and present the results to the public. Submitting and receiving final approval of the Master’s Thesis or Master’s Paper constitute the final steps in the Program.

In addition, all students must take one of three alternative two-unit courses in environmental science. These are a university-wide requirement.

Course Listing and Descriptions

NOTE: All courses are four (4) credits each except TEFL 238 “Thesis Writing”, which is 8 credit units.

TEFL 111: English for Language Teachers

The course will lay the groundwork for a well-informed understanding of the key issues and insights that underlie language teacher development. By exposing students to an engaging array of concepts and practices in TEFL, the course will encourage self-analysis in students. Spread over 40 hours of classroom work the course will cover/ address three strategic components concurrently: Subject Focus/Fundamental Concepts in TEFL, Reading and Response, and Writing. In addition, the course will provide and promote appropriate contexts for developing students' listening, speaking and critical thinking abilities. When students realize how the different aspects of teacher development complement the different aspects of their development as individuals, they will be better equipped to bring in a vibrant experiential perspective to their professional role in TEFL.

TEFL 112: Introduction to TEFL Methodology

The course surveys language teaching approaches and methods and their underlying principles, with a particular focus on the basic questions of language acquisition and affective/cultural variables that impact on second and foreign language teaching and learning. The course provides an overview of the historical development of language teaching, addresses the roles and responsibilities of the modern language teacher, and introduces the basic concepts of motivation, learning styles and strategies, learner autonomy, course evaluation and assessment, exploring how current understanding of language learning and language acquisition informs teaching practice.

TEFL113: Introduction to Language

An introduction to language in all its aspects as studied in the field of linguistics, including a focused concentration of how this approach relates to language education. This course explores biological, historical, and social/cultural aspects of language, and then addresses the system of language, looking at phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and discourse analysis. It covers most areas of linguistics at the introductory level, familiarizing students with general principles and key vocabulary in these areas, and exploring the relationship between the study of linguistics and language teaching.

TEFL124: Introduction to the Structure of English

This course studies English sentence structure – morphology, syntax, and semantics – as it relates to the teaching and testing of ‘grammar'. The students examine the sentence level grammar of English in terms of both the forms and functions of basic grammatical elements. Thus, the focus is largely on syntax and semantics, with phonological and morphological aspects of sentence level grammar considered as necessary for the fullest understanding of the structure of English. The consideration of the functions of grammatical elements requires some consideration of discourse and how grammar plays a role in creating discursive structures in longer texts. In addition, the students also learn to develop their own lesson plans and materials for teaching grammar consistent with contemporary theory and the need to focus on form within a meaning-based or communicative approach.

TEFL 125 Teaching Language Skills

This course is a study of theoretical and practical approaches to selecting and developing materials for the teaching and assessing of the four skills in English. In this class the students explore the practical aspects of teaching language skills (Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening) focusing on various 'sub-skills'. Students also consider these aspects of language teaching and learning in the context of the Armenian classroom and incorporate the outcomes into their teaching. Students observe English language classes and their peers during microteaching and learn to give constructive feedback. They learn to understand and analyze lesson plans and materials used in teaching the skills and then develop their own lesson plans and create appropriate materials for different levels of language students.

TEFL126: Research Methods

This course will lay the foundations for the students to learn about various principles and issues regarding research methods in second or foreign language teaching and classroom research. The course will look at the various viewpoint involved in research, the issues raised by quantitative and qualitative research, how the research program is to be structured and carried out, and how to report findings.

TEFL137: Interlanguage Analysis

One of the ways to improve foreign language teaching that has received great attention is the ability of the language teachers to equip themselves with techniques of identifying the potential problems that originate from the differences between the structure of the mother tongue of the learners and those of the target language, analyze the sources of the problems and offer solutions to the problems. This course is designed to help MA TEF L students in this direction. The objectives of the course are as follows:

1. To enable students to compare and contrast the sound systems, the word systems and the grammatical systems of the sources and target languages in order to find out the potential sources of errors made by the learners of the target language. This is referred to as contrastive analysis.
2. To help students to analyze oral and written performances of the students and find out actual errors of the students and design activities to help learners reduce their errors. This is called error analysis.
3. To enable students to understand the developmental stages of the language learning process of the learners and identify the problems specific to each stage of language development.

The above objectives are under the cover term of Interlanguage analysis.

TEFL 138: Classroom Assessment

This course focuses on school/classroom-based assessment. It attempts to provide the latest information on the theoretical principles of language assessment and discusses the implementation of the principles in real life practices. The primary focus of the course is on language assessment in classroom context. In addition, the course provides learners with knowledge and skills required for critically examining the existing tests and select or develop appropriate tests for their own academic context.

TEFL139: Practicum

General Goals:

•  to improve the effectiveness of EFL teachers

•  to consolidate the theory and practice of teaching methods covered

•  to help student teachers develop and expand their own teaching/learning techniques

•  to facilitate the integration of new EFL teaching methods

•  to teach and be guided in an authentic EFL class

•  to get constructive feedback and assistance

•  to learn how to reflect on one's own teaching as a means of improvement

•  to improve time and classroom management in the EFL classroom

•  to practice peer observation and evaluation

Requirements:

•  Students will be observed for a minimum of ten class sessions. The observation time will be divided between two observers. If possible, both instructors will observe on weeks 1 and 10.

•  Students will read selected readings given as handouts.

•  Students will participate in one to three group discussion sessions, dates and time to be announced.

•  Students will submit the compilation of their written work in the folder mentioned above

TEFL 211: Seminar on Current Topics in Applied Linguistics

This course will attempt to promote an informed understanding of the relationship between knowledge, theory and practice in the field of language study as understood in Applied Linguistics. This will encourage students to investigate how various ways of looking at language can influence their thinking about language teaching. The aims of this course are to:

1. Familiarize students with major issues and insights in the field
2. Introduce students to some current topics and debates in the field
3. Study in some depth particular articles as a way to acquaint students with particular issues and topics of potential interest to them

TEFL 212: Second Language Acquisition (SLA)

This course will explore the various concepts relating to the learning of a second language (or any language not learned in infancy), in the discipline of applied linguistics usually referred to as “SLA”. It will deal with the patterns observed during the learning process across several languages, as well as personal and social factors affecting the process. We will also look at the learner language itself, considering it as a “language” in its own right. We will also consider the differences between SLA in the classroom and SLA in “naturalistic” settings.

TEFL 213: Discourse Grammar

This course will discuss the ways the grammatical and rhetorical forms of English are employed to convey various concepts and relationships in written and spoken modes. Discourse cohesion, coherence, and pragmatics will be studied along with many other aspects of discourse grammar. We also look at text analysis as well as various forms of conversation analysis.

TEFL 224: Computer –Assisted Language Learning (CALL)

Once viewed primarily as an indefatigable drill master for vocabulary and grammar, CALL has evolved into a multi-media form of artificial intelligence and edu-tainment that simulates a

tutor or interlocutor that helps learners build communicative proficiency and language learning intuition and strategies. This course will survey current trends and best practices in CALL and provide an overview of CALL theory and practice, including multimedia, graphic, audio and text interfaces, approaches to reinforcement, error handling, and feedback, effective use of CALL for classroom and out-of-classroom instruction, use of basic authoring tools and course-delivery systems for preparing CALL materials, synergistic integration of CALL and non-CALL components in language instruction. Students are expected to be conversant in internet and basics of second language acquisition.

TEFL 225: English for Specific Purposes (ESP)

With the growing interest in teaching English for specific purposes around the world, it is imperative that AUA MA graduates develop a sound knowledge of the field. ESP includes many areas such as EAP (English for academic purposes), EOP (English for occupational purposes), EST (English for science and technology), etc. Since in foreign language context like Armenia almost all non English major students study English through ESP programs, it is necessary for the MA TEFL students to understand the concept of ESP and be prepared to serve the needs of the society. Therefore, this new course is offered in the second year of the program. The objectives of the course are as follows:

•  To expose students to the major literature in ESP

•  To help students understand the nature of ESP and its taxonomic development

•  To help students understand linguistic and communicative features of ESP

•  To help students evaluate various ESP texts

•  To offer effective methods of teaching and testing ESP

•  To help students develop skills for needs analysis of a particular group of learners

The course is a 4 unite credit course that replaces advanced methodology which seemed to be unnecessary with the new two year framework program.

TEFL 226: Curriculum Design

This course will help students to develop a deeper understanding of the principles and procedures that inform current practices in language curriculum design and how they impact classroom pedagogies. It will also equip students with a variety of theoretical resources and insights for the formulation and implementation of appropriate language courses. Finally, it will enable students to develop a critical view of the curriculum in the context of Armenia EFL context.

TEFL 237: Advanced Assessment

This course focuses on psychometric aspects of assessment including the classical test theory, Generalizability theory, and item response theory. It aims to expand students' knowledge beyond teacher oriented classroom assessment and prepare students to work on high stakes tests implemented in the country. The course objectives are as follows:

•  Test Functions: achievement, proficiency, placement, etc.

•  Test Design: planning, writing, administering, scoring

•  Item Characteristics: item facility, item discrimination, choice distribution

•  Test Characteristics: reliability, validity, usefulness

•  Test References: norm and criterion referenced

•  Measurement Theories: classical, generalizability, item response

•  Test Theories: discrete-point, integrative, communicative, and performance-based

•  Statistics: measures of central tendency and variability, standard scores, correlation

•  Test Localization: effective methods of testing in the EFL contexts

•  Computer Utilization: apply basic statistics to analyzing data from language tests.

TEFL 238A - (8 units) Master’s Thesis, Theoretical Research Project -- Original library and literature research project or data/corpus analysis under the supervision of a thesis adviser/committee with a public defense.


TEFL 238B - (8 units) 10 week Internship plus Master’s Paper -- Field Work/Applied Research Project -- involves field work, internship,  practicum. Results are reviewed by a project adviser and may be presented in a more applied Master’s Paper format: e.g., curriculum materials, teacher's guides, assessment guidelines, etc.

TEFL 239: Independent Study in TEFL/AL

(No course description)