Personal question to teachers of English

[HaraKiriBlade]

Dear English / Language experts,

I don't know if this section of the forum is the right place for my question but I couldn't find other places, pardon me if you find it inappropriate for this forum.

I need your help.

I'm about to make a decision that may last a lifetime.
I want to teach English, publish books and online contents on learning English, and found my own ESL school in distant future. I recently gave up illustration and am now about to attend adult school for a year for high school courses I missed. Then I have to decide which program to take in university.

I'm considering the following three:

Communication studies
English
Linguistics

English is my second language, and my English is still very meager compared to that of native speakers. I'm nowhere near the level of teaching anyone right now. That said, I have no plan to stay that way. By the time I finish one of the three course I hope to become a full-fledged language teacher. They're all four-year programs so including one-year adult school I have roughly five years from now.

Which program would help me the most? Do you have other programs in mind to suggest? Could you also suggest anything I should work on to help my race towards the goal while at home? A good portion of my life depends on this and any input would be truely appreciated.

[Casiopea]

I want to teach English, publish books and online contents on learning English, and found my own ESL school in distant future. Then I have to decide which program to take in university. I'm considering the following three:

Communication studies
English
Linguistics

Sounds wonderful! Linguistics would be your best bet. I did a double major in English and Linguistics. One of my colleagues majored in Communcation Studies, and later found she needed to take TESOL make up courses to teach ESL/EFL. If we could do it all over again, we'd major in Second Language Acquisition, a very popular, and growing field in Linguistics. For a fair percentage of students who enter that field and continue on to become very successful, English is not their first language.

Why not head on down to the nearest university and make an appointment with the Dean or Associate Dean of each department to discuss your future plans?

All the best, and good luck!

[HaraKiriBlade]

Thank you, very much, Casiopea! I owe you big this time.

In the meanwhile I did some research and it seems that only few universities in Canada offer linguistics w/ second language acquisition (SLA henceforth), and it's never a major. It's just a course in Linguistics. Maybe I didn't search hard enough.

U of Toronto offers Linguistics with language acquisition course in it but I wonder if it's the same thing as SLA. I tried Google for a list of universities in Canada with SLA major without success.

Do you know any good universities in Canada with SLA? and if it's not uncomfortable to you would you tell me what post-secondary institution you were in for your double-major? (If you're not comfortable with it, don't worry)

Thanks again, I'm eternally grateful.

[Casiopea]

Do you know any good universities in Canada with SLA?

It would have to be an M.A. Also try the University of Calgary. They've a webpage. Department of Linguistics.