With the advancement of technology, wanting to teach English online has become more popular. You no longer have to travel to another part of the world to work on your dream job. Now you can teach ESL online from your home or from wherever you want, thanks to virtual classrooms. Moreover, teaching ESL jobs are freelance, so you can clock in as many hours are required.

There are countless reasons to love teaching English online. From virtually meeting different people around the world to controlling your schedule, you can have it all. And that is why more ESL teachers are joining this growing field. Not to mention, the job offers to teach English online are steadily increasing.

So, if you’re interested in becoming an ESL teacher but don’t know how to start, you’ve come to the right place. This article will be your step-by-step guide on how to teach English online and everything you need to get started!

Why Choose to Teach English Online?

When you consider the perks of teaching online, you can notice there are a lot of great reasons to choose to teach English online. A lot of the time, teaching English online can be a location-independent job. It means you can teach English online from anywhere, as long as you have a good internet connection. This makes it perfect for those who want to work from home or work while travelling.

Additionally, teaching English online gives you flexibility and control of your schedule. So, whether you’re looking to explore a new career or supplement your existing income, this profession will seamlessly integrate into your life.

Furthermore, teaching English online doesn’t have the real pains of working in a physical classroom. You don’t have to deal with mounds of paperwork, large unruly classes, and cleaning after your students. You won’t even have to face the hassle of commuting, which helps with having a better work-life balance.

Teachers can also save time on preparation since the online classes are generally discussion-based. So, it’s easy to see the appeal for both teachers and students. As a result, this form of teaching is booming and there are many major employers in this industry.

Not to mention, teaching English online can be a great way to “test the waters” with your overall teaching skills before taking the big leap to move abroad.

How do I Become an Online English Teacher?

There are many ways you can go about starting teaching online. The ESL teaching industry in the last decade has been changing with the pace of technology. You now no longer need to travel across borders to teach foreign students. You can teach English online via three different methods.

Additionally, you can teach with an online ESL company, or you could offer your teaching services on an open marketplace. You can also create your own online ESL business and work for yourself. Let us explore the options in detail below

Teach English Online with an ESL Company

Teaching online with an ESL company is arguably the easiest of the three options. It is ideal if you want to avoid getting into a large amount of leg work. Companies structured in this way often provide you with lesson plans and teaching materials that you can base your classes on.

ESL companies also have a large, global network of students looking for teachers to take lessons with. And that makes securing students less of a challenge for you. However, most ESL companies won’t let you set your own hourly rate. You will be assigned an hourly rate based on your experience and qualifications. The hourly rates can vary from anywhere between £8- £20.

Often the companies have incentive programs built into your salaries. Incentives may include bonuses like £2 pay extra per class if you take more than 45 classes every month.

Create a Teaching Profile on the Open Marketplace

How to teach English online, you ask? You could offer classes through online tutoring marketplaces. Open marketplaces are the type of platforms that help connect students looking to learn English with ESL teachers. Also, these online marketplaces only facilitate the interactions and payment transactions between you and students. That means rates, hours, etc. are totally up to you.

But first, you have to have a profile listed on the marketplace. The teacher profile should highlight your qualification, experience, and any additional training or certifications you have earned. In terms of qualification, you can include your TEFL certification course.

You can also include your degree information and where’d you obtain it from. Make sure to include the practice teaching component that you had to meet as part of your TEFL course, including the number of hours completed.

Another way to bring students into your profile is to make an attention-grabbing intro video. The video should showcase your accent, your abilities, and why you think you are a great ESL teacher. Sell your capabilities using the video, gain positive reviews and start building your client base. Initially, begin with a lower rate to attract new students and build up your reputation with positive feedback and reviews.

Start on Your Own

Starting your own online teaching business is the most challenging of the three options. This arrangement is ideal for the go-getters with the motivation and drives to follow through and ensure success.

With your own online teaching business, you have to hustle to find your own students. You will also be running the show from the ground up. That means you have to create your own website and choose which video platform you want to use for your classes.

You should also decide what age group/ demographic you want to teach and create your lesson plans based on that. The most challenging part of starting on your own is getting your name out there and marketing your business. You also need to figure out your rate of pay and a form of payment that’s acceptable across a wide range of countries.

Besides, there are plenty of benefits to running your own online teaching business. For starters, you won’t have to pay commission from your earnings, as you do with most open marketplaces. Your students could also refer their friends and family through positive word of mouth to help build your student base.

Moreover, you can introduce your own referral program, where your current students benefit if they bring in new business for you. Finally, with your own online teaching empire, you call all the shots. You don’t have to worry about any contract to sign or minimum/maximum hours to commit.

How To Teach English Online?

It can be a daunting prospect to teach English online to beginners. It is especially true if you are teaching a monolingual group, and you know nothing of their language. On the other hand, teaching kids comes with its own set of challenges.

Regardless, it is still possible to teach beginners English, while making it the most rewarding level to teach. You need high-quality, engaging lessons to set your learners firmly on the path to increasing proficiency.

Keep the Instruction Clear and Simple

It can be tempting to explain activities in your politest language when addressing a class of new students. But a student who only knows a few words of English won’t appreciate or understand the courtesy of using big words.

Instead, use a few simple words as necessary to make instructions crystal clear. You can also gesture whenever possible and break down the instructions into smaller chunks.

Speak Slowly

Adults have this tendency to speak quickly and rattle off a lot of information while speaking to kids. However, for kids, it takes time to process and tune into the conversation even when it’s their native language. Now, just imagine adding a foreign language to the equation. Hence, it is wise to use shorter sentences and pace yourself.

While you don’t need to talk like you are playing a video in slo-mo, make sure to put in regular pauses. That would give kids a chance to keep up and ask questions. However, be careful not to speak loudly as you slow down your pace. Remember, the learners are not hard of hearing, they just need some extra time to process.

Use Props & Visual Aids

Many of the students learning English online are beginners and visual learning can help. You can’t always expect your students to listen to or read something and remember it.

So, bringing in props and visual aids can help them see the content in multiple ways. Not to mention, it provides more clues to retain the information in their memory.

Drill & Repeat

With beginners, you need to do a lot of repetition and drilling as they need to get a grip on a new language. Although it might seem boring, it is necessary to go over the same sentence again and again. While practising a new sentence, try back drilling. That is, break the sentence down into manageable units and build it back up.

When you work backwards from the end of the sentence to the beginning, it ensures that your intonation is natural. Also, you get elements of connected speech right this way. For instance, break down, “would you like a glass of water?” as follows

water> glass of water> like a> like a glass of water> would you> would you like a glass of water?

Learn Their Interests

The best way to engage your students is to bring in material that interests them. Talk to them about their hobbies, favourite movies, or TV characters. This would give you the chance to regularly bring in those elements as examples or as part of lessons.

For instance, if a student’s favourite colour is green, then you can write words on green construction paper or use green backgrounds for slides. If a student is a Marvel fan, then work the superheroes’ names into examples.

Establish Classroom Language

Classroom language is usually associated with teaching children, but it also helps with adult beginners as well. Learning a new language can be a daunting process, no matter how friendly and relaxed your classroom atmosphere is.

It can be especially true when the students are not following what’s going on. So, it is much better to equip students early on with classroom language that will help them navigate the lesson smoothly.

Avoid Meta Language

There is no point in students knowing the grammatical structures if they can’t use the actual structure or the words they refer to. So, you can’t just tell them how to say something, rather you have to show them. Give as much context and visual prompts as you can. Also, make sure you check they have understood by asking questions that test their comprehension.

Don’t Water it Down

It might be all too easy to listen to somebody speak broken English. But you should know that behind the errors and mispronunciations, it is a person with cogent thoughts. When the students are trying to share their opinions and ideas, remember they are well articulate in their native tongue.

To teach English online, you should be patient and alert to the reasons why certain errors are being made. You also have to be able to fill in the gaps in less than perfect communication.

Here’s a detailed video for your better understanding of how you should structure your classes.

Prepare and Keep them Practising

You have to progress slowly and repeat the language many times while teaching beginners. So, ensure you have a range of activities to use to teach English online. Also keep in mind, unlike with adults or higher levels, you can’t rely on conversations developing. It is because students don’t yet have the linguistic resources to engage in anything other than simple exchanges.

So, the onus will largely be on you to keep them talking. Although beginners and kids are the hardest to teach, it is one of the most satisfying levels.

What do I Need to Teach English Online?

To teach English with ESL Teach Online, you’ll need to have at least a 40- hour TEFL certificate from an accredited source. It should be a general certificate rather than a skills-specific version, for example, a TEFL in Grammar. Additionally, the cost of the TEFL is not reimbursed. However, for a TESOL/TEFL certificate, there might be other criteria that you need to fulfil. Let’s take a detailed look at it.

TEFL Qualifications

TEFL is a teaching English as a foreign language qualification which is often essential to teach English online. Most of the online teaching platforms require teachers to have a TEFL/TESOL qualification. For many platforms, you need to have at least 120 hour-TEFL certification from an accredited course provider. With less than 120 hours, it might be difficult for you to find work on the teaching platforms.

Since online teaching is a specific type of TEFL teaching, you will find it beneficial to take a specialist course that focuses on teaching English online. It can be particularly advantageous if you don’t have a degree, as it’ll help your CV stand out and attract clients. Also, it will fully prepare you for the virtual classroom as well.

At Janets, we offer more than 180 hours of training and hands-on experience with ourTEFL (TESOL) Course. Learn everything about teaching English to non-native speakers – from planning lessons to classroom management and finding work! Set up your home office and get ready to teach English online to adult students around the world.

Teaching Experience

Like in the case of any other job, employers value experience. So, if you have taught ESL in person before, that would be great! And it’s even better if you have experience teaching English online.

FAQs about Teaching English Online

Here are some other frequently asked questions about teaching English online and their answers to make sure you have all the relevant info before you decide to go on your teaching journey.

How to Teach English Online with No Experience?

English teaching organisations, like most other employers, will look for candidates with appropriate experience. Yet, many employers won’t even inquire if you’ve ever taught English Online before, especially if you already have a 120-hour TEFL certificate to back you up. Even if you lack teaching experience, it is perfectly possible to teach English online with no experience.

Moreover, teaching online will give you the perfect opportunity to gain experience and enhance your resume for future teaching jobs in locations worldwide. Furthermore, even indirect experience can be included.  For example –

    Do you do presentations at your current job? 

    Have you ever looked after children? 

    Do you have any experience with on-the-job training? 

All of these abilities are useful and will help you distinguish out from the crowd.

How to Teach English Online without a Degree?

Many major online TEFL platforms insist on their teachers having a college diploma. You don’t have to worry if your degree isn’t in education or English because the degree can be for any discipline or field.

However, not all job prospects will necessitate a college diploma. There are some companies and platforms that place a higher value on your TEFL certification and English fluency. You should develop an outstanding CV without a degree and identify firms with more liberal standards to teach English online without a degree.

Can You Teach English Online if You are Not a Native Speaker?

Do not be worried if you come across online tutoring companies looking for only native speakers. A non-native English speaker can bring many advantages to the ESL classroom. Although many online teaching companies may look for teachers from countries like the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. However, there are a lot of companies that won’t care about your citizenship as long as you meet other requirements.

How Much do Online English Teachers Make?

Whether you’re working multiple jobs, juggling family life, or funding a passion project, teaching English online can help you meet your financial goals. Your salary to teach English online will vary based on experience and credentials. Most importantly, how much you earn will depend on the company you are affiliated with. You might also earn more or less if you are running the show solo.

Most online language schools’ starting rates are usually between £10 to £15. Some companies also offer performance and attendance incentives. Your pay rate might also increase when you stay with the company for a long time. On the other hand, teachers who work in an open marketplace or independently set their own rates.

The independent rate can hover around £15 to £25 an hour. Keep in mind that the rates will depend on the size of your client base and your student’s interest. Full-time online ESL teachers could earn between £1500 to £2500 per month.

Conclusion

To teach English online and watch your students go from knowing nothing to holding rudimentary conversations can be incredibly rewarding. When they enjoy their initial exposure to the language, you will have helped pave the way for further success.

Progression along with the accompanying increase in pay is not automatic in this position. However, the downsides are limited, and the upsides are pretty apparent. It is hard to beat the flexibility and variety. Not to mention, you get to be your own boss. All that makes teaching ESL online an exciting field to be explored.