Looking into language teaching related degrees

[aperantosbias]

@aperantosbias, Hmm, strange... that was the degree I was going to recommend you... the BLS Education Minor!  You can add to your BLS Education minor the certs and other experience you currently have.  If you ever wanted to 'upgrade' you can take the Bridge TEFL as that will apply 6 credits into the ACE.edu Masters program, so technically it'll be free as the cost of the 6 credits already exceeds the Bridge TEFL cert.  

Recent Post: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...#pid389970
Link 1: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...CE-credits
Link 2: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...ESOL-1-000

Interesting...I'll keep that in mind. It does seem like a degree worth considering.

You absolutely can do the TESU BA in English, and to me, it's a lot more interesting than the UMPI degree, although more expensive.

First, you find out everything you have from your previous school, because this will count as RA credit, which you need.
Second, you do everything you can via Sophia because it's cheap.
Third, you do SDC.
Fourth, you do Coopersmith.
Last, you do your FT/FR 15cr term at TESU, which will include the cornerstone, capstone, and 3 courses (I'd take 2 of them as UL English courses, and the last as a LL English course).

Major coursework:
ENG-201: American Literature Survey: Early America to 1900 (Coopersmith)
ENG-202: American Literature Survey: 1900 to Present (Coopersmith)
ENGL 103: Analyzing & Interpreting Literature (SDC)
ENG 301: Non-Western Literature (SDC)
ENGL 305: Advanced Technical Writing (SDC-UL)
LIT-401: Medieval Hispano-Jewish Poetry (Coopersmith-UL)
LIT-301: The Works of Herman Wouk (Coopersmith)
LIT-302: The Works of Arthur Miller (Coopersmith)
ENGL 101: English Literature (SDC)
ENGL 310: Short Stories (SDC)
BUS 310: Advanced Business Ethics (SDC-UL)
BUS 318: Management Ethics (SDC-UL)
2 add'l LL Humanities courses

For the single TESU term, there are 3 UL Lit and 1 UL English courses that don't overlap with any of the above, and so you can just choose which ones you want to do.  You need 6 UL courses total in the major (including Humanities), and 1 will be the capstone; so that leave 5 UL to take.  SDC has 2, and Coopersmith has 1, so you need 2 UL.
------------------------------------------------------------------

UMPI is a good option, but it just won't be "literature" heavy like TESU's will be; just depends on how you feel about that.  Their Education minor is one that people say is a lot of work and will take more terms to complete, so keep that in mind as you go through.  I feel like an English degree would be much more useful than the education minor personally.  And more fun.

---

I forgot to mention: ACTFL hasn't renewed their courses yet, but they may, in which case you could get 6cr UL and 6cr LL for the highest score on the OPIc exam ($151) and 6cr UL and 6cr LL for the highest score on the WPT exam ($151).  This means that you would only need 1 add'l UL English/Lit course for the degree (you'd still need a certain number of English/Lit courses, you'd just have more flexibility in getting more LL credit).

The courses all expired on 6/30, but they've been around for years (since 2015), so I think they'll be coming back, someone just let the ball drop there.

Wow, lots of info here. Thanks for chiming in. 

I don't really mind if it's more expensive. Especially given that a BA in English is pretty much universally well-regarded in my line of work. I also find the TESU degree more interesting than the UMPI equivalent. 

I suppose I'm a little worried about the potential time frame I would be looking at by going with TESU. That said, I could say the same about the Education minor being a lot of work and taking more terms to complete. I hadn't come across that fact yet.

Am I looking at a 1+ year difference between either degree (school), for example? Not sure what spread would constitute a deal-breaker for me. English does seem like the more useful degree, possibly by a considerable margin in my situation. These replies have been helpful as I ease into the process of making a decision and fleshing out a plan. 

If my previous schoolwork ends up being worth a pretty decent amount of credits, that's also something. I think I'll go dig out my old grades now and see what's what.

Also, thanks for the info on the expired courses. I'll keep an eye on their possible return.

[rachel83az]

For a motivated student with sufficient time, a TESU degree may be completed in maybe 6-10 months + final semester of at least capstone/cornerstone. If you need to slow down because work, it might take 10-18 months, plus final semester. Because you already have some Argentinian credits, that's a LOT of the potential time out of the way. You can focus entirely on the alt credit from Sophia, SDC, and Coopersmith without trying to fit standard university classes into your schedule.

Meanwhile, because of the reported relative difficulty of the UMPI classes, you're looking at a probable minimum of 6 months at UMPI, possibly 8 or 10. The time difference between TESU and UMPI is probably going to be 8-10 months at most, though it's hard to be certain. Certainly not over a year, assuming you put a good amount of effort into your work.

[aperantosbias]

For a motivated student with sufficient time, a TESU degree may be completed in maybe 6-10 months + final semester of at least capstone/cornerstone. If you need to slow down because work, it might take 10-18 months, plus final semester. Because you already have some Argentinian credits, that's a LOT of the potential time out of the way. You can focus entirely on the alt credit from Sophia, SDC, and Coopersmith without trying to fit standard university classes into your schedule.

Meanwhile, because of the reported relative difficulty of the UMPI classes, you're looking at a probable minimum of 6 months at UMPI, possibly 8 or 10. The time difference between TESU and UMPI is probably going to be 8-10 months at most, though it's hard to be certain. Certainly not over a year, assuming you put a good amount of effort into your work.

That's a great overview. Just the kind of ballpark I was looking for- thanks.

I'll be dropping a line at my previous universities sometime soon (I forgot I also did a few classes at another school!) in order to obtain transcripts or whatever I need for evaluation. I'm 90% sure that between the two, I passed no less than five or six classes. I'll need to get my hands on the required documentation and probably get it legalized here in order for it to be evaluated by TESU, I believe.

I'm fine with one school taking up to a year longer ("worst case scenario"), in exchange for a more attractive degree and curriculum (in my eyes). 

That said, there shouldn't be anything external preventing me from dedicating long days to Sophia courses and the like, so I would be aiming for the 6-10 month + final semester category (TESU BA English) or thereabouts. Work will be at most a ~20-hour/week commitment for me, and I manage my own schedule. Especially if there are no hiccups in the process of acquiring and converting my uni classes into a decent amount of RA.

I don't mean to rush through the process but things seem to be panning out in favor of TESU BA English. It would appear to satisfy pretty much all of the criteria that I was considering. I think it might be time to slowly arrange a degree plan, keeping in mind a previous commenter's order of operations, so I'll get on that.

[dfrecore]

UMPI is a good option, but it just won't be "literature" heavy like TESU's will be; just depends on how you feel about that.  Their Education minor is one that people say is a lot of work and will take more terms to complete, so keep that in mind as you go through.  I feel like an English degree would be much more useful than the education minor personally.  And more fun.

Wow, lots of info here. Thanks for chiming in. 

I don't really mind if it's more expensive. Especially given that a BA in English is pretty much universally well-regarded in my line of work. I also find the TESU degree more interesting than the UMPI equivalent. 

I suppose I'm a little worried about the potential time frame I would be looking at by going with TESU. That said, I could say the same about the Education minor being a lot of work and taking more terms to complete. I hadn't come across that fact yet.

Am I looking at a 1+ year difference between either degree (school), for example? Not sure what spread would constitute a deal-breaker for me. English does seem like the more useful degree, possibly by a considerable margin in my situation. These replies have been helpful as I ease into the process of making a decision and fleshing out a plan. 

If my previous schoolwork ends up being worth a pretty decent amount of credits, that's also something. I think I'll go dig out my old grades now and see what's what.

Also, thanks for the info on the expired courses. I'll keep an eye on their possible return.

I think most people agree here that a TESU degree takes about a year, if you're bringing in credit already, are motivated, and plan on doing your remaining credits pretty quickly through Sophia and SDC.  The courses you're taking will have more papers, so that might take a little bit more time than maybe a business degree, but not like a year longer - a couple of months maybe.  Since you already have credits, and have a fast way to get most out of the way, I think you're fine.

So, honestly, you could complete the TESU degree in 12 months or less.  The final term is not a full semester, it's 12 weeks - their length of terms.  So 9 months if you started now, applied and sent in your transcripts, and then started right away on Sophia/SDC/Coopersmith, and then 3 months at TESU.

[aperantosbias]

UMPI is a good option, but it just won't be "literature" heavy like TESU's will be; just depends on how you feel about that.  Their Education minor is one that people say is a lot of work and will take more terms to complete, so keep that in mind as you go through.  I feel like an English degree would be much more useful than the education minor personally.  And more fun.

Wow, lots of info here. Thanks for chiming in. 

I don't really mind if it's more expensive. Especially given that a BA in English is pretty much universally well-regarded in my line of work. I also find the TESU degree more interesting than the UMPI equivalent. 

I suppose I'm a little worried about the potential time frame I would be looking at by going with TESU. That said, I could say the same about the Education minor being a lot of work and taking more terms to complete. I hadn't come across that fact yet.

Am I looking at a 1+ year difference between either degree (school), for example? Not sure what spread would constitute a deal-breaker for me. English does seem like the more useful degree, possibly by a considerable margin in my situation. These replies have been helpful as I ease into the process of making a decision and fleshing out a plan. 

If my previous schoolwork ends up being worth a pretty decent amount of credits, that's also something. I think I'll go dig out my old grades now and see what's what.

Also, thanks for the info on the expired courses. I'll keep an eye on their possible return.

I think most people agree here that a TESU degree takes about a year, if you're bringing in credit already, are motivated, and plan on doing your remaining credits pretty quickly through Sophia and SDC.  The courses you're taking will have more papers, so that might take a little bit more time than maybe a business degree, but not like a year longer - a couple of months maybe.  Since you already have credits, and have a fast way to get most out of the way, I think you're fine.

So, honestly, you could complete the TESU degree in 12 months or less.  The final term is not a full semester, it's 12 weeks - their length of terms.  So 9 months if you started now, applied and sent in your transcripts, and then started right away on Sophia/SDC/Coopersmith, and then 3 months at TESU.

That sounds great. Twelve months or so sounds more than reasonable, for a motivated student with sufficient time on their hands. I was expecting something closer to a year and a half - two years, so this is great news.

I've sent an email to my previous universities. After checking their websites, I'm not entirely sure if I will be able to get my transcripts (I foolishly discarded my physical student ID's for both, and presenting said ID's appears to be a requirement).  I figure there must be some way of proceding anyway- people get robbed, lose things, etc., right? In any case, I should be finding out soon.

I'll see what I can do with both but at the moment it doesn't depend on me. In any case, there are alternative sources of RA and I would be willing to bite the bullet and deal with those (or possibly pay2win, if there are paths that are shorter/easier/can knock a decent chunk of time off the journey that I can afford at the time).

I could apply to TESU only after fighting for my transcripts, so I'm assuming the logical course of action would be to become a member of Sophia and take a relevant capstone course and a non-cap one? I could do that after finishing up my current job interviews. I passed the first of three and I would be earning more so I'm spending a lot of time preparing for the second one.

That gives me time to get a handle on my degree/Sophia plan (and another that includes what to do if I need RA).

Thanks a bunch guys.

[rachel83az]

If, for some reason, you are unable to get the transcripts for your previous university studies, your cheapest option would probably be to complete at least 30 ECTS at a Finnish University for free (or low cost). (2 ECTS usually equal 1 US credit at TESU.) https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Fi...iversities XAMK and Metropolia are the most popular here, but other options may be possible.

Metropolia has a TOEFL class that you probably don't need yourself, but would probably a.) be easy for you b.) is self-paced and c.) might be useful for your future teaching career. It costs 50€. Most of the rest of the courses are IT or Computer science in some way, though they do have a handful of marketing or business-type courses that might be good for someone not interested in tech courses: https://www.metropolia.fi/en/academics/o...technology

XAMK is mostly technical courses as well, but they have business or business-related courses now and then. https://www.xamk.fi/en/pulse/ Right now, they have a number of customer service/tourism courses available that you might be interested in: https://www.xamk.fi/en/openstudies/

You'll want to pick one university because the courses might be free or cheap, but each additional transcript will cost extra money to have evaluated. At ACEI (the recommended evaluator for Finnish university credits to TESU), the first transcript is about $200 and each additional transcript is $100. So it's cheaper to have everything on one transcript rather than on multiple transcripts. The more ECTS are on a single transcript, the lower your per-credit cost!

---

For RA credit, you could also take some TECEP exams. But each exam costs at least $158 and the proctor... isn't a good one like Study.com uses. Plus, they're not always easy to pass on the first attempt. Nevertheless, you can see options here: https://www2.tesu.edu/listalltecep.php

TEL Learning is also an option, but each course requires multiple assignments and two proctored exams (using a different proctor again). Some people like it, but it's not for everyone. Each TEL Learning class is $200.

ASU Universal Learner is another possible option. But, at $425 total per class, it's probably best to exhaust the above options before spending the money on one of their classes.

---

Hopefully, you'll be able to get your previous university transcripts and none of this advice will be necessary!

[bjcheung77]

@aperantosbias, you don't need an English degree to teach the language. Most people have a different degree and end up teaching... Here's an example of what you can do, if you wanted. UMPI BLS Education Minor, Walden MS Childhood Education Tempo. PrettyFlyforaChiGuy did the Walden program, if you want to check reviews, search for it... Anyways, if you're going to another country and that country accepts Nationally Accredited program, then you can go for UofP, Masters Education for $4.5K or similar like this one for almost half price at $2500: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...Philosophy

[aperantosbias]

If, for some reason, you are unable to get the transcripts for your previous university studies, your cheapest option would probably be to complete at least 30 ECTS at a Finnish University for free (or low cost). (2 ECTS usually equal 1 US credit at TESU.) https://degreeforum.miraheze.org/wiki/Fi...iversities XAMK and Metropolia are the most popular here, but other options may be possible.

Metropolia has a TOEFL class that you probably don't need yourself, but would probably a.) be easy for you b.) is self-paced and c.) might be useful for your future teaching career. It costs 50€. Most of the rest of the courses are IT or Computer science in some way, though they do have a handful of marketing or business-type courses that might be good for someone not interested in tech courses: https://www.metropolia.fi/en/academics/o...technology

XAMK is mostly technical courses as well, but they have business or business-related courses now and then. https://www.xamk.fi/en/pulse/ Right now, they have a number of customer service/tourism courses available that you might be interested in: https://www.xamk.fi/en/openstudies/

You'll want to pick one university because the courses might be free or cheap, but each additional transcript will cost extra money to have evaluated. At ACEI (the recommended evaluator for Finnish university credits to TESU), the first transcript is about $200 and each additional transcript is $100. So it's cheaper to have everything on one transcript rather than on multiple transcripts. The more ECTS are on a single transcript, the lower your per-credit cost!

---

For RA credit, you could also take some TECEP exams. But each exam costs at least $158 and the proctor... isn't a good one like Study.com uses. Plus, they're not always easy to pass on the first attempt. Nevertheless, you can see options here: https://www2.tesu.edu/listalltecep.php

TEL Learning is also an option, but each course requires multiple assignments and two proctored exams (using a different proctor again). Some people like it, but it's not for everyone. Each TEL Learning class is $200.

ASU Universal Learner is another possible option. But, at $425 total per class, it's probably best to exhaust the above options before spending the money on one of their classes.

---

Hopefully, you'll be able to get your previous university transcripts and none of this advice will be necessary!

I was able to easily get one school to send me a PDF of my transcript, so I'm pretty happy today. It clearly states that I passed three classes, albeit with not-the-best grades. Here's to a completed course being a completed course I guess. The document is in Spanish and I'm pretty sure I'll have to get it "legalizado" and translated and all that, but the ball is in my court. I can email the TESU registrar and figure out the details.

Hopefully the other school responds similarly. At that one I did great, I know I passed two classes and I might have passed three. I got the equivalent of an A in all of those IIRC.

It's looking pretty good so far but I don't want to get my hopes up before going through all the hoops. I do feel better about becoming a member on Sophia soon and mostly letting the chips fall where they may, though. Thanks for the detailed summary of many of my options- I'll check those out so I know what to do when I know a little more about my situation.

@aperantosbias, you don't need an English degree to teach the language.  Most people have a different degree and end up teaching... Here's an example of what you can do, if you wanted.  UMPI BLS Education Minor, Walden MS Childhood Education Tempo.  PrettyFlyforaChiGuy did the Walden program, if you want to check reviews, search for it... Anyways, if you're going to another country and that country accepts Nationally Accredited program, then you can go for UofP, Masters Education for $4.5K or similar like this one for almost half price at $2500: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...Philosophy

This is true, and I appreciate the clarification. That said, some companies specify the need for a four-year degree within the spheres of English, TESOL, Education, and Linguistics. While a minor in Educational Studies would surely be sufficient for many or maybe even most of these, some entities can be picky (and they tend to be the ones with competitive pay- supply and demand I suppose). 

Depending on the nature of the work, such as language companies/clients that prioritize something approaching a Speech & Language Pathology degree,  TESOL & English qualifications by and large tend to be solid runners-up. Another example would be Business English clients and companies looking for Business majors as well as TESOL/English majors with business experience. Not that Education isn't a solid option:

I'm virtually positive that Education degrees are up there, in almost all of these situations, compared to the vast majority of degrees that exist. Maybe it's the fact that it is technically a BLS degree with a minor in Educational Studies that doesn't quite sit right with me, given the choice between this and an archetypal, vanilla BA in English. An Educational Studies major would be a different story I suppose, in my eyes at the very least.

[rachel83az]

I would suggest using SpanTran as the most obvious source of a hopefully-favorable evaluation. But there is a list of evaluators that TESU accepts here: https://www.tesu.edu/admissions/apply-in...al-student

[aperantosbias]

I would suggest using SpanTran as the most obvious source of a hopefully-favorable evaluation. But there is a list of evaluators that TESU accepts here: https://www.tesu.edu/admissions/apply-in...al-student

Thanks for the suggestion. I checked out the options there. I've also been looking at all the top results on google for conversion-to-GPA (by country) to get a feel for how this could go. 

Assuming I have grades that fall between C and A in five or six classes (eligible grades for transfer),  can I expect most of those to be applicable to my degree in some way shape, or form? Or would a pass in, say, Physics 1 be virtually useless in terms of netting RA for an English degree? 

That is to say, is the credit valid regardless of the subject? Either way, it would be reasonable to assume that at least two or three of the subjects are likely to be equivalencies (the ones with good grades, as luck would have it).