TESOL has become an enormous international education industry. For instance, a recent British Council estimate indicated that half the world's population would be speaking or learning English by 2015, and that two billion people were expected to start learning English and three billion would speak it within a decade. More qualified TESOL practitioners will be required and recruited from English-speaking countries than ever before.

TESOL is available as a minor subject for several degrees. Taught by the Linguistics programme,   the minor will be extremely useful to students who intend to teach English as a foreign language in New Zealand or overseas, or to students who would like to seek temporary employment in English language teaching while travelling overseas.