Graduate Certificate

The Graduate Certificate in Foreign Language Teaching is designed to meet the needs of current and aspiring language educators around the world and relies on a distance-based model that emphasizes interaction, collaboration, and interconnectedness with participants’ local contexts for language learning and teaching. Unlike other professional development options for language teachers, the certificate offers a multilingual approach grounded in applied linguistics. Students explore contemporary proficiency-based approaches to language teaching and engage in courses assignments, projects, and related activities that incorporate national and international standards. Participants may teach or plan to teach any world, heritage, indigenous, or classical language.  The graduate certificate is available to students currently enrolled in master’s or doctoral degree programs at Michigan State University.

Admission

To be considered for admission to the Graduate Certificate in Foreign Language Teaching, an applicant must:

1. complete the online application, which includes an academic and a personal statement.
2. submit three official letters of recommendation, completed by instructors or supervisors familiar with the applicant’s work.
3. take one of the tests of English language proficiency described in the Graduate Education section of this catalog if the applicant’s native language is not English. Applicants must achieve a minimum score of 100 on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL iBT) or a minimum rating of 7.5 according to the International English Language Testing System (IELTS).

Requirements for the Graduate Certificate in Foreign Language Teaching

The student must complete 10 credits from the following:
1.	One of the following courses (3 credits):
	FLT	807	Foreign Language Teaching Methods						3
	FLT	817	Foreign Language Program Development and Administration						3
2.	Two of the following courses (6 credits):
	FLT	808	Assessment for Foreign Language Teaching						3
	FLT	815	Teaching Culture in Foreign Language Courses						3
	FLT	841	Topics in Foreign Language Teaching						3
	FLT	845	Language Concepts for Foreign Language Teaching						3
	FLT	860	Foreign Language Acquisition						3
	FLT	881	Teaching Foreign Language with Technology						3
3.	Complete the following course:
	FLT	898	Master’s Comprehensive Foreign Language Teaching Portfolio Examination						1
4.	Complete a web-based final portfolio that serves as the comprehensive examination and receive a rating of High Pass or Pass from a committee of two faculty members. The portfolio will be developed during the FLT 898 course and must be submitted to the program director in the same semester as the last of the three core courses or in the following semester. Required elements of the portfolio are outlined in the comprehensive language teaching portfolio examination guidelines, which are updated by the program director on an annual basis and provided to students on the program’s public  Web site and in the learning management system.

Academic Standards

Students must maintain a cumulative grade-point average of at least 3.5. A student may accumulate no more than 6 credits with a grade below 3.0 in courses taken for the purpose of satisfying the degree requirements.