


Prepare for a global career in teaching with our BA TESOL degree at the University of Hull.
This dynamic programme prepares you to become a confident and creative TESOL teacher, combining academic study with practical classroom experience. You’ll explore language learning theory, teaching methods, and teacher language awareness, while developing your skills in real teaching contexts.
With placements each year - including opportunities to teach abroad and work with migrant and refugee communities - you’ll gain invaluable experience in primary, secondary, adult education, and community TESOL settings. Plus, you’ll earn the prestigious Trinity Certificate in TESOL, boosting your credentials for a global career in TESOL.
About this course
Develop the skills to teach English confidently and creatively in a global context with our BA TESOL degree. This forward-thinking programme equips you with a solid foundation in English language teaching, combining theoretical knowledge with hands-on experience. You'll gain expertise in language learning theories, teaching methodologies, and classroom practices while earning the highly sought-after Trinity Certificate in TESOL alongside your degree - a qualification recognised nationally and internationally by the British Council.
Throughout your studies, you'll benefit from supported placements each year, with opportunities to work in primary, secondary, and adult education settings, community TESOL classes, and with refugee and migrant communities. In your second year, placements abroad offer the chance to broaden your perspective and gain international experience.
Images show some of the activities that TESOL pathway students have been involved in recent years through their studies and the Talking Hull project. Through the TESOL pathway and Talking Hull, students have opportunities to enhance their formal studies by working with local asylum seeker and refugee communities on placements, through voluntary opportunities and on extra-curricular events such as the unique Festival of Community and Language.
Delivered by expert academics and supported by Hull's strong community networks, this course bridges the gap between theory and practice. You'll graduate with the skills, knowledge, and qualification needed to pursue diverse career paths in teaching English, including Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), English as a Foreign Language (EFL), English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), and English as an Additional Language (EAL), whether in schools, adult education, or global teaching opportunities.
By teaching, we learn
Module options
Each year, you’ll study modules worth a certain number of credits, and you need 120 credits per year. Most modules are 20 credits – so you’ll study six modules each year. Some longer modules, such as a dissertation, are worth more. In these cases, you’ll study fewer modules - but the number of credits will always add up to 120. Some modules are compulsory, some are optional, so you can build a course that’s right for you.
Filters
Education, Power and Knowledge
Education is at the forefront of social change for social justice. This module offers you the opportunity to make a difference, through Education, from the beginning of your studies. As agents of educational change, you will undertake a collaborative project which focuses on the issues you are passionate about alongside fellow students and academics. You will examine how mainstream education has been shaped through agendas of power that reproduce social inequalities. This module then introduces you to existing alternative approaches to education and to the direct action of educators and learners which come from those approaches. Alternative approaches to education can act as driver of change to challenge poverty, inequality, and sustainable community development at local, national, and global contexts.
compulsory
20 credits
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
This engaging module provides foundation knowledge and skills that will enable you to develop understanding and analysis of social inequalities and the nature of discrimination in contemporary society. There will be opportunities to explore key equality legislation and policy. The module will explore the ethical and political rationale for developing equitable, diverse, and inclusive practices as part of an agenda for social justice and social change.
compulsory
20 credits
Learning Across the Lifespan
This module explores a diverse range of theories of human development and learning. Using real world examples, you will be encouraged to apply a combination of theories to understand, consider and reflect upon appropriate courses of action to address issues found across a range: of relevant settings and contexts.
compulsory
20 credits
Ethical Dilemmas and the Moral Maze
Dealing with real-world, ethical, or moral dilemmas is both challenging and pertinent to all areas of lived experience and professional, practice. The module will introduce you to a range of theoretical models and provide opportunities to explore these in relation to real world ethical dilemmas drawn from professional practice contexts.
compulsory
20 credits
Social Justice and Social Change
Social Justice and Social Change offers an exciting opportunity for you to make a difference from the outset of your studies. You will work collaboratively to co-produce the big social justice questions. Why are so many children still living in poverty in the UK? Why does inequality still exist? Why do so many young people leave school without being able to read and write? What will good work look like in 2030. How is social media affecting ideas about education? What is your vision for the type of society you want to live in? With these big questions in mind, you will become familiar with innovative, creative projects and initiatives that work with children, young people, and communities, locally, regionally, nationally and globally. The module provides field work visits and placement alongside teaching and learning.
compulsory
40 credits
Managing Self in Contemporary Practice Contexts
This module will provide opportunities to understand how organisations work in contemporary society and will consider different approaches to leadership. The module will encourage you to explore your own approach to leading and managing in the 21st century and introduce you to a range of graduate futures across all organisation types including for example schools, charities, health services or your own enterprise business. The module will encourage you to think about leadership in new ways as well as understanding the challenges facing organisations in developing ethical and socially just practices and services. You will acquire a range of skills and develop your knowledge to help you make a difference through activities such as knowing where to source funding and write a funding bid to evidence good practice.
compulsory
20 credits
Introduction to English Language Teaching
This module looks at how language is governed by the context in which it occurs, and how far this affects the way that it is learned. You will seek to answer the following core questions:
Why are there so many different ways of saying the same thing?
How can we best describe language use?
What is the connection between language use and language learning?
compulsory
20 credits
Language and Communication in Context
This module aims to heighten students’ language awareness particularly from the perspective of emerging language teacher, whilst enabling students to develop an understanding of the relationship between language form, function and meaning and show how these are dependent on genre and context. You will explore how the nature of language use has profound implications for how it should be taught. This feeds onto the second major element of the module; Language Learning. Here you will examine how languages are learned, why some learners are more successful than others and what research can tell us about how best to go about teaching them.
compulsory
20 credits
Communities of Practice
This is a participatory, experiential, and collaborative module in which you will be introduced to a series of provocations identified by practitioners working at a grass root level in range of TESOL/EFL/EAL settings. The module works alongside the professional practice placement and will enable you to undertake in-depth investigation into issues you are encountering in placement.
compulsory
20 credits
Our facilities




Our academics
You'll benefit from the outstanding support of academic staff who are experienced education practitioners.
Our research is driven by the belief that education can challenge inequalities and injustices in society, and seeks social and educational change to enhance fairness, equity and social justice.

Ian Hutchinson
Lecturer
A language and linguistics expert, Ian has previously been an EFL tutor in Italy. His passion for languages enriches his teaching, creating authenticity in Language Learning and Teaching modules. Ian leads the TESOL Pathway on the MA.

Dr Martin Nickson
Lecturer
Martin is experienced in youth work and senior project management within the UK and Canadian cultural and heritage industries. Projects he worked on include the Red Bay National Historic Site in Labrador, Canda, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Entry Requirements
Fees & Funding
How much is it?

Future prospects
Graduates of this programme can pursue diverse and rewarding careers in English language teaching and community-focused roles.
These include becoming an English Language Teacher, EFL/ESOL Teacher in the UK or abroad, Academic Manager in a language school, or EFL Director of Studies. Others may work as Refugee Project Workers, Social Inclusion Coordinators, or Community Support Coordinators.
The course also provides a strong foundation for postgraduate study, for example our MA Social Justice and Community Engagement or MA SENDI degrees, opening doors to advanced roles in education and beyond.
Become part of the next generation of futuremakers
Like what you've seen? Then it's time to apply.
The standard way is to apply through UCAS. This will give you the chance to showcase your skills qualities and passion for the subject, as well as providing us with your academic qualifications.
Not ready to apply yet?
Visit our next Open Day, and see all that Hull has to offer for yourself. Talk to our lecturers about your subject, find out what university is really like from our current students, and take a tour of our beautiful campus and amazing facilities.
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94.9% employability (Education Studies) UK domicile full-time first degree leavers; Higher Education Graduate Outcomes statistics, for the academic year 2021/22, published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency June 2024.
Students studying the TESOL pathway will receive the externally awarded Trinity Certificate in TESOL (Cert. TESOL) – Level 5 Ofqual QCA Certificate in TESOL qualification, supplementing their bachelors degree with an internationally recognised initial teacher education qualification.
All modules on this course page are subject to availability and this list may change at any time.