What is an ESL endorsement?
An ESL endorsement is a short series of courses taken to add a certification to a teaching certificate or teaching license that shows you are able to work with students who are learning English. The number of courses required varies for each educator based on the type of teaching license they have. The state of Illinois now called teaching licenses “Professional Educator License” or PEL. The course series will be between one and five courses. Typically there are courses in the foundations of bilingual education, a methods and materials class, and an assessment course.
I’m working on my ESL and bilingual endorsements and I’m really loving all of the information I’ve learned. Much of it is not new to me, but some is. Whatever the case, I love talking about these topics with other educators. I’m finishing my second course in a sequence of six that will add two endorsements to my teaching license. I am getting both my bilingual (in Spanish) and ESL endorsements. I have a full-on teaching certificate so I have to do a bit more than the regular non-teaching certificate that most SLPs have. So if this is something you want to do in the future, you might not have to take as many courses as I am taking.
Do SLPs need to have an ESL endorsement?
I think that speech-language pathologists who work with linguistically and culturally diverse students should look into at minimum professional development related to these kind of topics. But these graduate courses related to working with emergent bilinguals would help many, many educators.
Read more about the course sequence I will be taking here: ESL Endorsements for the Speech-Language Pathologist
If you are in Illinois and want to look into this course sequence, check out The Center: Resources for Teaching and Learning. And even more information here: Illinois Resource Center. Watch my video for more information: