TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) or ESL (English as a Second Language) is defined as a "variety of techniques and approaches for teaching English to students whose primary language is not English." (From: The Facts on File Dictionary of Education by Jay M. Shafritz et al. UNI Reference LB 15 S43 1988).
In addition to teaching methodology, the field of TESOL comprises a number of related disciplines, such as linguistics (syntax, semantics, phonology), second language acquisition, and language testing.
