Wesleyan's School of Education established the first ESL/bilingual program in north Texas over 20 years ago. Today Wesleyan is still one of only three universities in Texas to provide undergraduate and graduate level teachers who are able to meet the needs of limited-English-proficiency students.

The demographics of American public schools are undergoing a rapid and significant increase in the number of bilingual students. Moreover, the Hispanic student population represents the largest language-minority population, as well as the fastest-growing ethnic group in the nation. During the 1980's, the Hispanic population increased by 39 percent, and projections for the 1990s estimate a 46 percent increase. Texas, in particular, with a Hispanic student enrollment of 54 percent, will see the largest increase. This is compounded by the existing problem of a teacher shortage in the ESL/bilingual education field, thus the increased need for well trained, dedicated bilingual and ESL teachers.

Courses include:

Reading and Language Arts in Bilingual Education;
Foundations of Bilingual Education;
English as a Second Language Methodology;
Content Methodology for Bilingual Education;
Language Acquisition and Development.