Program Overview

Certificate in World Language Teaching (CWLT)

The Language Center (TLC), SAS-NB, in collaboration with the Graduate Programs in Comparative Literature, French, German, Italian, Literatures in English, and Spanish, sponsors the Certificate in World Language Teaching (CWLT). This certificate, administered through TLC, supports the continued professionalization of doctoral students in languages at Rutgers-New Brunswick.

Program Overview

The CWLT aims to increase the teaching preparedness of PhD students, enabling them to compete with candidates from peer institutions on the job market. The certificate quantifies the positive attributes of their teaching for prospective employers and provides them with a teaching dossier to complement their research/academic portfolio.

Program Requirements

Students are expected to:

• Transform theory into practice, applying varying teaching techniques to real literature and theory, linguistic inquiries and analysis, comparative studies, and related academic topics.
• Acquire skills to allow them to transform theory into appropriate practice for both in-person and remote teaching venues.
• Visualize ways in which their teaching can be improved with guided study in methodologies via practice, observations, and teaching reviews.
• Produce a professional portfolio packet suitable for a job search.

Course Requirements

PhD students eligible to pursue the CWLT must take three (3) graduate-level courses of three (3) credits each and receive a grade in each course of at least B+.

1. At least one of the following two core methods courses:
2. Teaching of World Languages (16:617:501) - Offered every Fall semester. - Taken normally during the first term of teaching. - Designed to hone teaching skills (at the postsecondary level) in languages other than English.
3. Teaching of English as an Additional Language (16:617:521) - Offered every Spring semester. - Designed to hone teaching skills (at the postsecondary level) in English as an additional language.
4. One additional graduate course in either language pedagogy or an interdisciplinary course of relevance to language teaching:

• Both core courses listed above may be taken to fulfill this requirement.
• Non-core elective courses:
  • May be language-specific or language-neutral.
  • Must be approved in advance by the appropriate Graduate Program Director (GPD) with guidance from TLC administrators.
  • Can be found in departments of languages, philosophy, cognitive psychology, linguistics, or in schools such as the Graduate School of Education.

Elective Courses

The following is a non-exhaustive list of possible elective courses:

• 15:253:520 Principles of Language Learning: Second/World Language Acquisition
• 15:253:522 Bilingual-Bicultural Education
• 16:195:501 Introduction to Literary Theory
• 16:195:502 Comparative Literature: The Discipline and the Profession
• 16:350:511 Comparative Racialization
• 16:350:594 Literary and Political Cultures of the Global Sixties (1960s)
• 16:350:608 What is World Literature?
• 16:350:660 Afropolitanism
• 16:420:511 Methods of Language Teaching
• 16:470:501 Teaching of College German
• 16:470:510 Literary Theory Methodology
• 16:470:513 Analysis of Literary Texts
• 16:560:506 Applied Linguistics in Italian
• 16:560:668 From Theory to Action: Strategies to Teach a Second Language Effectively
• 16:570:511, 512 Approaches to Literature (Italian)
• 16:615:610 Formal Methods (Linguistics)
• 16:617:512 Linguistic Theory and the Study of Literature
• 16:730:570 Philosophy of Language
• 16:830:602 Psycholinguistics
• 16:940:562 Teaching Hispanic Literature
• 16:940:578 Language Learning and the Brain
• 16:940:582 Bilingualism Theory
• 16:940:583 Second Language Acquisition
• 16:940:587 Bilingual Language Development

Language Teaching Portfolio

The language teaching portfolio course (Teaching Portfolio Project - 16:617:599):

1. Builds on courses that doctoral students have taken and taught.
2. Should normally be taken after candidates have completed at least two years of coursework beyond the Master's level.
3. Should be completed after the core and elective courses.
4. Includes class observations, student feedback, letters, articles/publications on teaching, awards for teaching, remote/online teaching experience, etc.
5. Incorporates statements of teaching philosophy and of diversity and inclusion, syllabi, unit and lesson plans with goals and objectives, assessment and evaluation rubrics, remote/online teaching methods employed, experience with various course management systems, etc.
6. Is overseen by each GPD or other departmental designee with guidance from TLC administrators.