Being a mom is hard work, but it's even harder when you are trying to be a totally hands on mother while trying to still make an income to support the family. Teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) has truly been a God send and has afforded me the opportunity to stay at home with my son and not have to send him to day care! *happy sighs*
However, in my 5 years of teaching online I have seen many candidates who would've liked to teach online try and miserably fail because they simply don't know where to start or how to go about it. So if you're a stay-at-home-mom or maybe you work outside the home and looking to make an income from home so you can spend more time with your kids, then keep on reading for my 5 tips to getting into a successful ESL career.
1. Have the appropriate qualifications before applying!
This might sound kind of obvious but I've seen many candidates apply for online teaching jobs without the necessary qualifications on hand and they were immediately rejected. Please, please, please, if you're applying to an ESL teaching company/school make sure you have these qualifications BEFORE you send in that application!
- BA degree or above
For most companies/schools your BA degree can be in any field, they just care that you have one.
-TEFL/TESOL
Most companies require or at least prefer that their teachers have this specific certificate because it qualifies you to teach English as a foreign language to people who's first language is not English. This qualification will show your prospective employers that you are well-trained and know the processes and special techniques used in ESL teaching. There are many TEFL courses out there, some are expensive, some are cheap and affordable. Most TEFL/TESOL courses are 120-160 hours and does not take forever to complete. I know of people who have completed their TEFL/TESOL certification in one week and others in three months. It just depends on your schedule and how much time you can dedicate to it each day.
2. Be a fun, silly, bubbly and light-hearted person (at least in the classroom and during the your demo class to your prospective employers)
Guys, it's important to know that online ESL teaching is totally and completely different from teaching in a brick and mortar classroom. Nothing is the same! In the online ESL classroom, the lesson plans are meant to be supplementary to their English education at school, so it's a lot of vocabulary and conversation focused material with a bit of grammar here and there for reinforcement. The goal is to help the children to build their vocabulary, confidence and conversation skills.
You are expected to be very fun and bubbly during your classes because it helps the children focus more since being in an online classroom can become quite boring and uninteresting for a 5 year old, so you need to keep them engaged. One of the ways you can engage your students and make your employers happy is by showing a very out-going, fun and exciting personality in the classroom.
3. Use props in the classroom!
Props are incredibly important in the online ESL classroom because it helps the children to visualize the concepts you are trying to teach them. Remember, a lot of these kids may have very limited English speaking and comprehension skills, so using props (your kids toys make the perfect props, trust me!!) related to what you are trying to teach them is very, very important to help them learner faster, keep them engaged and help them to remember what they learned.
4. Have a stable Ethernet connection and wear a headset with a microphone attached.
Please do not underestimate how important it is to have decently fast internet, an Ethernet cable plugged into your laptop and a headset with an attached microphone. This is a necessity for successful online teaching and you will need to have all these things in order to teach in the online classroom. Some companies will not even hire you if you do not meet these specific technical requirements.
5. Have a neutral accent.
For a lot of well-paying ESL companies, this is a requirement and not an option for them. If you're interested in online ESL teaching and you're not from the USA and Canada, then you need to start practicing to speak without an accent (hehe). Accents can be quite distracting for young learners and it may even distort correct pronunciation of words and make it difficult for students to understand you.
I hope you guys like the tips I've shared in this post and find it useful. Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns. I would be happy to help!
Love,
Becky xoxo
