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 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.
I think that these courses are fantastic. In fact, 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 theses graduate courses related to working with emergent bilinguals would help many, many educators.
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: