MA in Applied Linguistics - TESOL

About the Program

The MA in Applied Linguistics / TESOL (MAAL/TESOL) is a multidisciplinary graduate program for professionals who work with language — or who want to. Drawing on linguistics, psychology, sociology, ethnography, and education, the program explores the relationship between language, culture, and society to address real-world challenges in language teaching, language assessment, and intercultural communication.

What distinguishes this program in the current moment is its integration of generative AI across the curriculum. Students do not encounter AI as an add-on or an elective topic — they work with it as a professional tool throughout their studies. By graduation, they are equipped to use AI critically and purposefully in language classrooms, assessment design, corpus-based research, and applied linguistics inquiry, and to help their own students and institutions navigate the same transition.

The program leads to two areas of specialization:

• Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) — advanced pedagogy, curriculum design, AI-enhanced classroom practice, and language learner development
• Language Testing — assessment design, evaluation methodology, AI-assisted feedback systems, and language measurement across educational and professional contexts

Both strands share a rigorous theoretical and research foundation, and both prepare graduates equally well for continued doctoral study or direct entry into senior professional roles in an AI-transformed field.

The program consists of 10 taught courses plus a thesis. Each course runs for 15 weeks and combines live and asynchronous learning:

• 90-minute weekly live video session via Blackboard Collaborate with the instructor and fellow students
• 9–11 hours of asynchronous study per week, including readings, assignments, discussion threads, and independent research

AI tools and methods are integrated across multiple courses — not confined to a single module — so that students develop applied competence progressively and in context. Class sizes are capped at 10 students, ensuring that every student receives individual attention from the instructor in every session.

View the complete MAAL/TESOL course catalog for course titles and descriptions.

Generative AI is reshaping every dimension of language education — how teachers plan lessons, how learners receive feedback, how assessments are designed, and how researchers analyze language in use. This program prepares students to work at the center of that transformation, not on its margins.

AI integration in the MAAL/TESOL program is practical and discipline-specific. Students develop hands-on competence across six interconnected areas:

AI-Enhanced Language Teaching

Students learn to design AI-assisted lesson plans and instructional sequences, use large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and Claude as interactive tutoring tools for learners, and critically evaluate the pedagogical affordances and limitations of AI-generated content in the language classroom. They develop the professional judgment to decide when AI supports learning and when it undermines it — and how to communicate that distinction to students, parents, and institutional stakeholders.

Graduates can design and deliver AI-integrated lessons, evaluate AI tools against pedagogical criteria, and advise colleagues and administrators on responsible classroom AI use.

Automated Feedback and Writing Development

Students gain practical experience with AI writing feedback tools — including automated essay scoring systems and LLM-based feedback generators — and learn to use, adapt, and critique them in the context of second language writing development. They develop frameworks for combining AI feedback with human assessment in ways that are pedagogically sound and ethically defensible.

Graduates can implement AI feedback workflows in writing programs, train learners to use AI feedback productively, and evaluate automated scoring systems against established writing assessment criteria.

AI and Language Assessment

Students examine how AI is being applied to language testing — from adaptive testing platforms to automated speaking and writing assessment — and develop the critical literacy to evaluate these systems as assessment professionals. They explore the validity, fairness, and washback implications of AI-driven assessment tools, equipping them to make informed decisions in institutional and high-stakes testing contexts.

Graduates can evaluate AI-assisted assessment platforms, contribute to institutional assessment policy, and apply validity and fairness frameworks to AI-generated test scores.

Corpus Linguistics and AI-Assisted Research

Students work with corpus tools and AI-assisted text analysis methods to investigate language in use across a range of genres and registers. They learn to use AI tools to accelerate literature reviews, identify patterns in large datasets, and support qualitative analysis — while maintaining the methodological rigor required for publishable research.

Graduates can design and conduct corpus-based studies using AI-assisted tools, integrate AI into their research workflows, and critically assess AI-generated analysis in applied linguistics contexts.

Critical AI Literacy for Applied Linguists

Beyond tool use, students develop a theoretically grounded understanding of what generative AI can and cannot do with language. They examine how LLMs are trained, what their outputs reveal about language patterns, and what the implications are for theories of language acquisition, language use, and language assessment. This critical dimension equips graduates to contribute to the fast-growing scholarly conversation about AI and language at the level of research and policy.

Graduates can engage critically with AI and language research, evaluate LLM outputs from a linguistic perspective, and contribute to institutional and public debates about AI in language education.

Preparing Learners and Institutions for the AI Era

Students learn how to design AI literacy curricula for their own learners and how to advise their institutions on responsible AI integration in language programs. This includes developing policies, faculty training materials, and learner guidance documents — outputs they can begin producing before they graduate.

Graduates can lead institutional AI integration initiatives, design AI literacy programs for language learners, and develop policy frameworks for responsible AI use in educational settings.

Program Structure

The program consists of 10 taught courses plus a thesis. Each course runs for 15 weeks and combines live and asynchronous learning:

• 90-minute weekly live video session via Blackboard Collaborate with the instructor and fellow students
• 9–11 hours of asynchronous study per week, including readings, assignments, discussion threads, and independent research

AI tools and methods are integrated across multiple courses — not confined to a single module — so that students develop applied competence progressively and in context. Class sizes are capped at 10 students, ensuring that every student receives individual attention from the instructor in every session.

View the complete MAAL/TESOL course catalog for course titles and descriptions.

How Learning Works

Live Sessions

Each week’s 90-minute live session is structured for active engagement, not passive listening. Students participate in discussions, respond to polls, work in pairs and small groups using breakout rooms, deliver live presentations, and demonstrate applied tasks — including hands-on work with AI tools relevant to the week’s topic. Cameras are required to be on during all live sessions.

Asynchronous Coursework

Between live sessions, students engage with course materials hosted on Blackboard Ultra — including embedded readings, study notes, research links, action research tasks, and classroom simulations. AI-related tasks are embedded throughout: students may be asked to evaluate an AI-generated lesson plan, test an automated feedback tool against their own assessment criteria, or analyze LLM output using corpus-based methods.

Assessment and Academic Integrity in the AI Era

Examinations are administered electronically using a combination of AI and human proctoring through specially designed software, ensuring a secure and fair testing environment regardless of location. The program also prepares students to address academic integrity in the age of generative AI — both as a professional issue for institutions and as a practical challenge for the classrooms they will lead. Participation in both synchronous and asynchronous modalities is mandatory.

Unique Features

Small Classes, Real Attention

With a maximum of 10 students per course, this is not a scaled online program designed for volume. Every student participates, every week, in a live session where the instructor knows their name and their work.

AI-Ready from Day One

AI integration is not an optional add-on — it is embedded in the fabric of the program. By the time students graduate, they have worked hands-on with generative AI tools for teaching, feedback, assessment, and research across multiple courses and in their practicum or thesis. They leave with a professional skillset that is genuinely current and immediately deployable.

Electronic Portfolio

Throughout the program, students build an individual electronic portfolio that documents and showcases their best work — a recorded lesson, a syllabus they designed, an AI-assisted feedback protocol they developed, a research project they completed. The portfolio is formatted for use with potential employers and functions as a professional calling card from the moment of graduation.

International Tutor Certification

Students have the option to earn the International Tutor Training Program (ITTP) certification as a writing tutor from the US College Reading and Learning Association (CRLA) — an additional internationally recognized credential available within the program structure.

Certification Pathways

Advanced Diploma in TESOL — Level 7
The MAAL/TESOL program connects to a formally accredited certification that carries weight in European employment markets.

Pathway 1 — For MAAL/TESOL graduates: Students who complete the full MA program are eligible to sit for the ETECT Level 7 examination, accredited by ΕΣΥΔ (the Greek Accreditation Body). Successful candidates are awarded the Advanced Diploma in TESOL – Level 7.

Pathway 2 — For non-degree applicants: Candidates who do not meet full MA enrollment requirements may attend six designated courses (including a Practicum) and sit for the same ETECT Level 7 examination. Successful candidates receive the Advanced Diploma in TESOL – Level 7 without completing the full master’s degree.

What the diploma unlocks: Holders of the Advanced Diploma in TESOL – Level 7 are eligible to apply for ESOL teaching positions in summer schools in the United Kingdom.

Degree Recognition in Greece — D.O.A.T.A.P.

The MAAL/TESOL degree program has received formal recognition from Greece’s National Registry of Foreign Recognized Higher Education Institutes, maintained by D.O.A.T.A.P. (Hellenic NARIC) in accordance with Law 4957/2022. Graduates who meet D.O.A.T.A.P. prerequisites are eligible to apply for official recognition of their degree — a critical step for academic appointments and public sector roles in Greece.

The Practicum

Who It’s For

The Practicum is designed for students with little or no prior experience teaching English to speakers of other languages. It is optional — students choose between a Practicum track and a Thesis track depending on their academic and professional goals.

What It Involves

The Practicum is built around three interconnected activities: teaching, observation, and reflection. Students observe experienced cooperating teachers of English Language Learners — both on-site and online — then teach and record their own lessons, receiving written feedback and summative assessment from both the HAU Practicum coordinator and the cooperating teacher at their placement school. Where appropriate, students are encouraged to integrate AI-assisted teaching strategies into their observed and supervised lessons, with structured reflection on what worked, what didn’t, and why.

The End Product

Practicum students produce a reflective journal documenting their development as teachers — complete with detailed lesson plans, samples of student work, assessment tasks, and a supporting bibliography, alongside written reflections on each lesson taught. AI-assisted elements, where used, are documented and critically evaluated as part of the reflective process.

Practicum Hours and Structure

The Practicum totals 180 contact hours, structured as follows:

• ESOL classroom observation: 20 hours
• Supervised classroom teaching: 4 hours
• Unsupervised classroom teaching: 156 hours

Placements can be completed in Greece, the United States, or internationally.

Career Development and Prospects

Students receive personal academic and professional support from a designated faculty mentor throughout the program. The Career Development Office provides career counseling and networking opportunities during and after graduation.

The labor market for applied linguists and language education professionals is being reshaped by AI — and graduates who understand both the discipline and the technology are in a position of genuine competitive advantage. MAAL/TESOL graduates are qualified for roles including:

• Language teachers and curriculum designers who integrate AI tools purposefully and critically in schools, language institutes, and higher education
• Language testing and assessment specialists evaluating and deploying AI-assisted assessment platforms in educational agencies and examination boards
• AI literacy educators and curriculum consultants advising institutions on responsible AI integration in language programs
• Corporate language trainers and communication coaches working with AI tools in international business and organizational settings
• Educational technology specialists designing and evaluating AI-enhanced language learning environments
• Writing center tutors and coordinators supporting academic writers in AI-aware institutional contexts
• Doctoral researchers investigating AI, language acquisition, assessment, discourse, and related questions at the frontier of the field

Pathway to Doctoral Study

The MAAL/TESOL is explicitly designed to prepare graduates for PhD-level research as well as professional practice. The growing field of AI and language — spanning acquisition research, assessment theory, corpus linguistics, and critical discourse analysis — offers a rich set of doctoral research directions for graduates who wish to continue. Students are well positioned to apply to the Hellenic American University PhD program in Language and Communication or Applied Linguistics.

Admission Requirements

Admission follows the standard Hellenic American University graduate admissions process. For full details, visit Graduate Admissions.

Download the Program Brochure

• Download the MAAL/TESOL Program Brochure (PDF)

Ready to apply? Visit Graduate Admissions or contact us to speak with an admissions advisor.