Penn GSE TESOL Essentials Series

Our Story

TESOL Essentials: Getting Started, the online TESOL certificate course offered by Penn GSE, provides an overview of practice and theory related to English language education, offering practical experience as well as general background knowledge in the fields of second language development and English language teaching. Over the course of the eight-week module (plus one introductory meeting), the course addresses the following topics:

Week 0: Introduction and Q&A session
Week 1: What is TESOL?
Week 2: What does it mean to know a language?
Week 3: How and what should we teach?
Week 4: How do we know what students know?
Week 5: How do we design good, effective, and engaging English language lessons?
Week 6: What's in a lesson?
Week 7: What is it like to teach?
Week 8: What’s next? (Starting your TESOL career)