Graduate TESOL Certificates (Bilingual Education)

Increase Your Reach with Graduate Bilingual Education or TESOL Certificates at BSU

Are you an educator hoping to begin bilingual teaching? Would you like to join bilingual educators and teach English in the United States or abroad? Expand your professional skillset and broaden your reach through our graduate bilingual education or teaching English to speakers of other languages certificates at Bridgewater State University.

For 180 years, BSU has helped educators cultivate advanced teaching and leadership skills to grow in their careers and meet their personal and professional goals. If you would like to work with linguistically diverse learners, the Department of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) offers two graduate-level options: bilingual education and teaching English to speakers of other languages/TESOL Graduate Certificates.

Bilingual educators require specific skills to teach English as an additional language and to deliver bilingual education. Prepare for your career and gain the linguistic and pedagogical skills and methods you need to help all students succeed.

Graduate Admissions

Bridgewater State University
Maxwell Library, Room 019
10 Shaw Road
Bridgewater, MA 02325

(508) 531-1300

gradadmissions@bridgew.edu

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Bilingual Education and TESOL Certificate Program Highlights

BSU student Taylor Alfonse smiling while showing a large book page to a preschool student

Learn by doing

As you study for either the bilingual education or TESOL certificates, you’ll complete a course that includes a detailed case study of a second language learner. This experience will give you the opportunity to explore learners’ perspectives and incorporate those insights into your teaching.

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The flexibility you need

At BSU, you may earn a bilingual education graduate certificate 100% online and your TESOL certificate through a hybrid of online and in-person courses. This will allow you to complete either program in as little as one year.

speaker at podium with 2 people seated beside it

Learn from experts in the field

At BSU, your instructors are experts in bilingual teaching and bilingual education. They have extensive research and teaching experience in the field, and they bring student-centered, culturally responsive approaches to the classroom.

Gain invaluable experience in the field

If you choose to pursue a graduate certificate in bilingual education, you’ll have the exciting opportunity to observe other bilingual educators and practice teaching in bilingual settings, too.

Apply credits from your TESOL graduate certificate to a master’s

After you complete your TESOL certificate, you can transfer up to four courses or up to 12 credits toward your TESOL master’s degree, should you wish to continue your education.

Program of Study for Graduate Bilingual Education and TESOL Certificate Students

Whether you’re looking for professional development or to add bilingual teaching to your wheelhouse, our graduate bilingual education and TESOL certificates will help you join the ranks of successful educators of linguistically diverse students.

Our bilingual education certificate will help you gain bilingual endorsement for grades K–12. It includes principles, practices and strategies for effectively instructing and assessing multilingual learners to prepare you for bilingual teaching.

Our TESOL certificate program will show you how to instruct students whose first language isn’t English — and help you prepare for the Massachusetts Test for Educator Licensure in English as a Second Language.

Admission Requirements and Program Details

Click any link below to reveal each program's admission requirements and program description.

Program details from 2024-2025 Undergraduate/Graduate Catalog

Bilingual Education Program Coordinator: Dr. Emily Spitzman

TESOL Program Coordinator: Dr. Yulia Stakhnevich

Programs Related to Bilingual Education and TESOL Certificates

In addition to our bilingual education and TESOL certificates, we offer several other graduate certificate and master programs that are ideal for educators who are in search of professional development opportunities, including:

Digital Technology for Educators, Graduate Certificate
Teaching in a Virtual/Online Setting Graduate Certificate
Urban Education, Graduate Certificate
TESOL, MAT
Higher Education Administration, MEd
Educational Leadership, MEd or EdS
Reading, Language, Literacy and Culture Concentration, MEd

Careers in Bilingual Education and TESOL

Graduate bilingual education or TESOL certificates can help you expand your professional skillset, qualify for meaningful bilingual teaching roles and more.

With a bilingual education graduate certificate, you’ll be prepared for your bilingual endorsement to teach in bilingual programs in grades K–12 and beyond while helping to fulfill the critical need for bilingual educators across the country.

With a graduate TESOL certificate, you’ll gain the knowledge and strategies you need to work with English language learners in public or private school settings, as well as other learning environments such as colleges, community groups and organizations or international schools.

More than 30 states have reported teacher shortages in English as a second language and bilingual education, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

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