Newbie Here looking to focus on TESOL in the future

[ndelco]

Hello everyone!

I found this forum two nights ago and have read about 4,000,000 (estimated but not far off) post since then. I have been researching college options online for about 3 weeks and as you all know there is A LOT of information. This forum is just awesome and invaluable for people who are looking to get an education.

My background is pretty lame. I have 0 college credits since I never went. I began working right out of high school, got married and starting having children right away (at 19!) We now live overseas because we wanted our children to experience a different culture and have lived in Latin America for close to 4 years. So now 11 years into my adult life I am ready to get a degree to do something I really enjoy. I currently do sales :puke: (not that anything is wrong with sales, but it's not for me) and I do not want to waste another 10 years of my life. My first goal is to get bachelor's degree and then I would love to move onto a Master's in TESOL or some other program that will give me an advantage in teaching English. Living in a Latin country (with no plans to go home) gives me a lot of chances to help people with their English and it is something I enjoy especially since so many people have helped me with my Spanish.

I gave up a much higher paying job to move here so some of my biggest concerns are financial. I was all pumped and ready to enroll at my local (still a NJ resident technically) community college until I realized that the FAFSA payment is for the entire year and not per semester. What are my options for financial aid in going the route of testing plus SL and other online options. Is this all out-of-pocket only? Also, being a NJ resident does it make sense for me to focus on TESU over the others since that is a NJ school? The finances aren't a deal breaker for me, it will just take me much longer to pay for all of this myself.

I have plans of a US visit this fall and also in March of next year so I'd like to take as many CLEPs and DSST as possible while I'm home. A local CC offers testing every day of the week and has 3 times per day for tests - 9:00, 10:30 and 12:00. Is it possible to take 3 tests in one day or should I should I only expect to take 2 per day? My plan is to begin binge-studying now on and take as many tests as I feel comfortable with while at home.

I have looked at many degree plans but haven't really seen any focused on TESOL so would anyone be able to point me towards a link or help me setup the best plan of action to take? I signed up for ALEKS last night and did an assessment for Intermediate Algebra and score 77 out of 459. A bit embarrassing! My plans are to do ALEKS for any math classes and then SL for a bunch of others.

Any help is very appreciated!!

[keepsingin]

I'm not one to give answers as I'm still learning the ropes here, but I thought I'd say that I think your background is anything but lame...sounds pretty awesome, especially your motive for moving to Latin America! Your motivation and energy is real inspiring too!

[KayV]

I made a degree plan for a former student that might be a good starting point, but a few things have changed at TESU since then. I know you would need to add the Cornerstone and Ethics requirements, for example.

It's post #10 in this thread:
http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...arted.html

[ndelco]

That post is great! I don't know how I missed it in my search before. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I was up until 4:00am the other night searching haha. Perhaps my eyes were a bit sleepier than I thought.

Thanks so much!

Also, Keepsingin thank you for your kind words. Life certainly is a roller coaster.

[KayV]

I remember that I put a bunch of TECEPs in that plan to get the no-longer-applicable tuition break, so you could change those to Straighterline/ Saylor/ Study.com. Also, there was a recent Straighterline success story and the Wiki Beginner's Guide pages that are great for consulting.

It might be easier for you to focus on options like Study.com and Saylor to start, since the books are included with the course and you can take the exams online instead of going to a testing center.

[dfrecore]

No clue on the Financial Aid, I can't help you with that part.

As for being a NJ resident, I don't think it matter which school you go to, since there's not much of a discount for that at TESU except the Cornerstone (you will save $342). That wouldn't be a deciding factor for me to choose which school.

The degree is the most important thing, and there I might choose TESU. COSC is also a good option.

I think you just need to figure out which degree you want. If you're just looking at the BALS at TESU or COSC, those will probably be your cheapest options. Probably within a few hundred dollars of each other. You just need to figure out how you can take all of your courses. I don't think CLEP/DSST are your best options, given that you live out of the country. I think it would be much easier to figure out using financial aid to attend an inexpensive CC, and use the rest of the money to take courses through SL and study.com. Then, all your testing is done from home on your computer, with an online proctoring service. But to answer your question, I took 4 exams in one day (2 CLEP's and 2 DSST's) and passed all of them. Although, if you choose to use CLEP/DSST, especially to save some money by doing the general exams which are 6cr each instead of 3cr, that would be good.

Another option is to take the ACTFL exam(s) for Spanish. That should get you up to 6UL & 6LL credits for $115 for the speaking portion, and you can schedule an exam immediately on your computer. If you get pre-approval from the college you choose, you should also be able to pay another $115 and get up to 6LL credits for the written portion. You have to do this part through your employer, if that's an option you want to pursue. Unfortunately, they were just changed in December, and used to be much higher (6LL/8UL credit for each). Anyway, that's an easy way for you to get a bunch of credits (foreign language is considered a Humanities course) at either school.

If you haven't yet read the Beginners Guide, or Sanantone's list of GE's, that's a good way to start to understand the process. My other advice is to read through the degree plans at TESU and COSC. Once you put those all together, you should start to see how this all works.

http://www.degreeforum.net/general-educa...llege.html (Start at the beginning)
Sanantone's TESC General Education Options After July 1, 2015 - Degree Forum Wiki - Wikia

BA in Liberal Studies Degree at Thomas Edison State University
Thomas Edison State University | General Education - 2016 or After

Liberal Studies - Charter Oak State College Catalog

American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages


Good luck!

[ndelco]

Thank you for the additional threads!

One more question for now, am I understanding correctly that I can enroll into TESU and take one TECEP per year to keep myself enrolled for the entire year with the benefit being that my course catalog will be locked in as 2016 rules as long as I stay enrolled year after year? I have been reading about all of the changes made by schools each year and this is confusing enough for a beginner. I don't want to even think about doing courses that will eventually not be counted towards my degree especially on my budget and then having to change my plan of action. I was very bummed to see that I will no longer receive 12 credits for the Spanish CLEP as that is one I know I could get a 63 on right now with minimal study. When I was telling my wife about this forum and the CLEPs, I was all excited about knocking out almost an entire semester with just one test! Oh well...all the more reason to lock in a course catalog right?

[KayV]

^^^Check out the post above by dfrecore about the ACTFL exams for potentially 12 lower level and 6 upper level credits.

Also, BYU offers Business Spanish, which is TESU SPA-380.
http://is.byu.edu/site/courses/index.cfm...ct=Spanish

[dfrecore]

Thank you for the additional threads!

One more question for now, am I understanding correctly that I can enroll into TESU and take one TECEP per year to keep myself enrolled for the entire year with the benefit being that my course catalog will be locked in as 2016 rules as long as I stay enrolled year after year? I have been reading about all of the changes made by schools each year and this is confusing enough for a beginner. I don't want to even think about doing courses that will eventually not be counted towards my degree especially on my budget and then having to change my plan of action. I was very bummed to see that I will no longer receive 12 credits for the Spanish CLEP as that is one I know I could get a 63 on right now with minimal study. When I was telling my wife about this forum and the CLEPs, I was all excited about knocking out almost an entire semester with just one test! Oh well...all the more reason to lock in a course catalog right?

Yes, you can lock in the catalog, but that just means that you will lock in the school's requirements. It does not mean that they will not change other things. For instance, if you took the the English Lit CLEP that was downgraded by ACE to 3cr, and then at some point TESU decided that they would still count it for 6cr, then later decided that they would count it as 3cr - and you'd applied but hadn't sent in your CLEP scores yet - who in the world knows what they would do?!? That's because what they count for a course equivalency isn't in the catalog - you aren't locking that part in.

But, if you really want to lock in the catalog, then you have until June 30 to do so - the new catalog normally goes into effect on July 1.

The bad news is that things change - the good news is that things change! When I was first starting this process in 2011, SL was small and didn't have the same pricing structure, study.com didn't have any ACE-approved courses, and the following methods of getting ACE-approved courses did not exist: TEEX, Kaplan, Saylor, JumpCourse, Propero/Pearson, Ed4Credit & Sophia. And, CSU-Global did not have a huge list of UL CBE's available for $250 each. So, just because things change does not mean it's for the worse. I would say that while the requirements for a lot of degrees have gotten harder through TESU, and the pricing has changed, the ability to find courses has improved exponentially.

[happydayruth]

Hi ndelcollo! I'll weigh in here with a few comments based on my own experience. I chose to pursue an English degree at TESU because I also wanted to pursue TESOL endeavors. I tried to incorporate as many English-language related courses into my area of study as I could, and I thoroughly enjoyed the courses I took. I'm now working on ESL/TESOL certs, and volunteering to gain some experience. However, if finances are a concern for you, I don't really recommend an English degree. Everyone will tell you that it is not the cheapest or fastest degree out there and that is quite true. Also, it's not really necessary for your undergrad to be in English or TESOL related in order for you to go on to a Master's in TESOL. I'm happy to share the classes I took, but you might want to find a plan for a degree that you can work through much cheaper and faster from other users on this site.