美国很多学校都开设TESOL的课程，只是有的设置在教育学院下，对TESOL课程非常注重Research；还有一些学校的TESOL开设在语言学系里，有的语言学系有Applied linguistics方向的，有的没有。总的来说大部分的学校都还是有这个program的，只是叫法略有不同，ESL, TESL, TESOL, TEFL都有，侧重也有些不同，有些侧重language acquisition的，也有侧重literacy的。同学们在选校的时候要注意到这些区别，根据自己的兴趣和优势来选校。
下面是哥伦比亚大学TESOL专业开设的主要课程（哥大的TESOL专业是以为学生的教学理论、技巧、实践打下坚实的基础为主旨的）：
· Second language teaching methodologies
· Teaching of the language skills
· Content area education for ESL students
· ESL/EFL materials development and curriculum design
· Language teacher education
· Language teacher observation and supervision
· Second language acquisition
· Second language assessment
· Classroom interaction
· Second language teaching and literacy
· Language program evaluation
· Technology and language teaching and learning
英国的TESOL专业也是申请的热门，课程设置大致如下:
第一学期：
Methodology I
Classroom Observation
Language Learning Theory and Research
Description of Modern English
Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) Concepts and Materials
Multimedia Authoring for Language Teaching
第二学期：
Methodology II
Microteaching
The English Language Teaching (ELT) Curriculum
Discourse Analysis
Internet Applications in Language Teaching
Teaching English to Young Learners
Corpus Linguistics in Language Teaching and Research
