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World Languages and Cultures
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

  1. World Languages and Cultures
  2. Educator Licensure

Educator Licensure

Are you interested in becoming a language teacher? We'll prepare you to become a licensed teacher in French, German or Spanish in all grades, pre-kindergarten through 12. We offer small classes, personal attention and lots of hands-on teaching experience.

At NIU, language teachers major in their target language and take additional coursework to meet the standards of the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). This includes three clinical courses where you observe in schools, two world language-specific methods classes and student teaching.

For more information, view forms and resources or our frequently asked questions.

If you want to teach a language, please contact Kathy Kuschman, assistant director at kkuschman@niu.edu or Nancy Dominguez-Fret, director at ndominguezfret@niu.edu.

Please contact us to request the pre-admission packet. To be considered for admission, the completed packet must be submitted by March 10 for fall admission and October 10 for spring admission.

Student Testimonials

"NIU's world language educator licensure program prepared me with teaching methods that I used during student teaching. I felt confident during the edTPA because in my coursework I completed two practice edTPAs before the real one. I also liked that we had weekly communication with our professors and university supervisor through a weekly reflection."

-Victor Estanislao '20

"NIU has one of the best preparation programs for licensure for world languages. It's hard to believe I will no longer take classes with teachers who poured their hearts and soul into making us the educators we now are. I will miss them and NIU!"

-Jennifer Klein-Chaney '20

"From the time that I started thinking about going back to school to get my teaching license, the staff at NIU walked me through what courses I would need to take and what the next four semesters would look like. They gave me confidence to pursue my teaching license and I'm so glad I followed through! The last couple years at NIU have prepared me so well for teaching, as was evident during my student teaching semester. The methods courses were great with small classes and hands-on learning experiences. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at NIU and recommend this program to other future world language teachers."

-Emily Kopp '20

Contact Us

World Languages and Cultures
Nancy Dominguez-Fret, Ph.D.
Watson Hall 114
ndominguezfret@niu.edu