World’s Leading TESOL Faculty Online in Real Time

Click photos below to read faculty bios
D. Nunan, Ph.D
rod ellis2R. Ellis, Ph.D.
kathi-baileyK. Bailey, Ph.D.
Ken Beatty, Ph.D.K. Beatty, Ph.D.
Denise Murray, Ph.D.D. Murray, Ph.D.
MaryAnn Christison, Ph.D.M.A. Christison, Ph.D.
Fran Byrnes, Ph.D.F. Byrnes, Ph.D.
martha-clark-cummingsM. Cummings, Ph.D.
Andy Curtis, Ph.D.A. Curtis, Ph.D.
Jun Liu, Ph.D.J. Liu, Ph.D.
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TESOL vs TEFL

AU Dean Dr. David Nunan with MA TESOL students at 2011 residential session at Downtown Disney in Anaheim, California

TESOL is an acronym used to describe the field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Throughout the history of language teaching, we have used numerous terms to describe the field such as:

  • TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language)
  • TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language)
  • TEAL (Teaching English as an Additional Language) and several other terms.

However, the field as a whole has never been able to agree upon one single term to describe our profession. In practice, there is essentially no difference between TESOL, TEFL, or TESL. All of these terms are used to describe the teaching of English to non-native speakers of the English language. However, Anaheim University has chosen to adopt the term TESOL, as it is currently the most widely recognized term used in the field of English Language Teaching.