home » graduate » programs » doctorate » esl

ESL

We will be admitting a limited number of PhD students to the ESL program in Fall 2008. We are not accepting Masters applications at this time. Please contact the Graduate Advising Office for more information. (979)862-8032

English as a Second Language (ESL)

The ESL Education program is an interdisciplinary program designed for individuals with professional interest in the teaching and teacher education of English as a second or foreign language in national or international context. The program offers MS, MED, and Ph.D. degrees. In addition to taking a core curriculum shared with all students of Curriculum and Instruction, and some required ESL courses, students may choose to take some of their ESL electives from early childhood education, linguistics, and reading and literacy. The areas of emphasis in our ESL Education program include:

ESL/Early Childhood Education,
Teaching English in International Context
K-12 ESL Education
Adult ESL Education
ESL/Multicultural Education

We prepare teachers to work as teacher educators, in K-12 public school settings, to teach adults in community colleges, intensive English programs, community-based settings such as libraries, workplace or corporate settings and of course, those who plan to go abroad to teach EFL.

Courses in ESL

EDCI 610. Second Language Assessment and Development.

Second language assessment and development stressing classroom situations to teach second language acquisition. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

EDCI 611. Teaching English as a Second Language.

Translation of theory into practice stressing various methods and techniques in ESL; relationship of language development, culture and conceptual processes to language teaching. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

EDCI 612. Bilingual/ESL Content-Area Instruction.

Integrating English language instruction with content-based ESL instruction in science, mathematics and social sciences for non-English speaking students. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

EDCI 613. Spanish/English Reading for Bilinguals.

Developmental processes in second language reading; nature of knowledge transfer and the application of second language principles in the classroom. Prerequisites: Graduate classification and Spanish proficiency.

EDCI 614. ESL for International and Intercultural Settings.

International and intercultural teaching practices with major emphasis on second language instruction in an international setting. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

EDCI 615. Classroom Practice in Adult ESL.

Literacy practice issues in adult ESL literacy leading to assessment, instructional planning, curriculum development and program evaluation. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

EDCI 616. Teaching in Spanish in the Bilingual Classroom.

Acquisition of Spanish in an elementary bilingual classroom and its relationship to instructional and curriculum issues. Prerequisites: Graduate classification and Spanish proficiency.

ESL Faculty Members

Hersh C. Waxman is a Professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Culture in the College of Education and Human Development at Texas A & M University. In 1983, he received his Ph.D. in Public Policy Analysis, Educational Research and Evaluation from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and then received a postdoctoral fellowship in 1983 and 1984 from the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh. He formerly served as Associate Dean for Research and Director of the Educational Research Center at the University of Houston. He also was a Senior Research Associate at the National Research Center for Education in the Inner Cities, and a Principal Researcher in the National Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence. Prior to receiving his doctorate, he worked for the State of Illinois as a program evaluator in the Bureau of Planning and Evaluation and as a classroom teacher in the Chicago Public Schools.

Hersh received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the College of Education at UIC, and Outstanding Research Awards from the American Educational Research Association, Southwest Educational Research Association, and the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education. He also has received the University of Houston Teaching Excellence Award, College of Education Alumni Service Award, and the College of Education Research Excellence Award. He has authored or co-authored more than 100 research articles in journals such as the International Journal of Educational Research, Bilingual Research Journal, Urban Education, and Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences. He has co-edited several books such as: Preparing Quality Educators for English Language Learners (Lawrence Erlbaum, 2006) and Observational Research in U. S. Classrooms: New Approaches for Understanding Cultural and Linguistic Diversity (Cambridge University Press, 2004).

Research Interests

· Preparing Quality Teachers for ELLs

· Improving Teaching and Learning for ELLs

· Effective Schools and Programs for ELLs

Zohreh R. Eslami is an assistant professor in ESL education in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Culture at Texas A&M University where she teaches ESL Methodology, English in international contexts, and Assessment of ELLs, at both graduate and undergraduate level. She received her Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education (SLATE) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Dr. Eslami has been involved in ESL/EFL/and EAP teaching and ESL/EFL teacher education from both national and international perspectives for more than 14 years both in the U.S. and overseas. She is one of the faculty members involved in the collaborative primary teacher education program between Texas A&M University and Qatar University and teaches the ESL Methodology course in Qatar University.

Research Interests:

· Sociocultural issues related to ELLs and their education

· ESL/EFL Teacher preparation

· Intercultural Pragmatics

· Developmental Pragmatics

· Needs analysis and EAP Instruction

· English in international Context

Blanca G. Quiroz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Culture in the College of Education and Human Development, Texas A & M University.

In 2005 she received her Ed.D. in Human Development and Psychology from the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. While doing her doctorate work she served in the editorial board of the Harvard Educational Review where she edited a special issue on Immigration and Education. Prior to her dissertation work, she worked as a bilingual teacher in Los Angeles School District and as a research associate at UCLA where she completed her BA and MA. She has authored and coauthored multiple articles and chapters in the area of cross-cultural psychology and home-school interactions in the education of minority children. Some of these articles have been published in New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, Aztlan: The Journal of Chicano Studies, orHandbook of Educational Psychology. She has also coauthored books and other materials for teacher training in cultural sensitivity for WestEd Laboratories. Dr. Quiroz has extensive experience in conducting research with immigrant Latino populations, especially with Latino parents and their children. Currently she is conducting research on the Language development of Spanish speaking children in the home and its impact on early language and literacy skills. She is also interested on studying the role of language on learning math and science for ESL students and other cognitive aspects of bilingualism.

L. Quentin Dixon is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Culture in the College of Education and Human Development, Texas A & M University. She earned her Ed.D. in Human Development and Psychology, specializing in Language and Literacy, from Harvard University Graduate School of Education in 2004. While doing her doctoral work, she was selected for the highly competitive 3-year Spencer Foundation Research Training Grant. Her dissertation employed multilevel modeling techniques to examine the English oral language and early literacy skills of bilingual kindergarten children in Singapore. After completing her dissertation work, Dr. Dixon worked on large-scale educational program evaluations at Abt Associates for clients such as the US Department of Education and the National Science Foundation. For the national Reading First Impact Study, she took a lead role in designing an instrument for classroom observations and in training 170 field staff to use the instrument reliably to conduct observations of reading instruction in 250 schools located in 13 different states. Dr. Dixon's research interests focus on the language and literacy development of young bilingual children, and in using rigorous quantitative research methods to study educational questions. Prior to her dissertation work, she taught English as a second language in public elementary schools near Seattle, WA.

Janet Hammer is a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Culture. She received her PH.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. She joined the Texas A&M faculty in 2004 where she teaches ESL courses and methods courses to pre-service teachers. Before joining the faculty at Texas A&M University she was a public school teacher for nineteen years and a middle school ESL coordinator. Her research interests include how best to educate teachers to work with second language learners and multicultural students, and the development of best practices for working with secondary English language learners.