Use Your Language Skills To Teach Others
It’s a gift to teach & a skill to inspire
Teaching is an art, a teacher is an artist which invites their learners to join in the creativity of imagination, exploration, ideas & more wonders of the world.
There is a great demand for foreign language teachers especially online and it is a very rewarding profession to have!
Today we are going to look at ways to becoming a foreign language teacher. What are you waiting for? Let’s jump right in!
The Independent Freelance Route
There are some routes to becoming a foreign language (FL)teacher that merely require you to be a native English speaker (or whatever native language you are teaching).
Sites such as Cambly are free for you to register, you set your schedule & rates & you upload an introductory video & wait for their review. This requires you to be native in the language you are going to teach or at least at a good level in another language.
Another method is to freely advertise your services as a freelance FL tutor via sites like LinkedIn, Fiverr, Upwork, Facebook groups. Create a zoom link and collect payments through PayPal/Payoneer/Stripe etc.
The Journey Of Developing Language Knowledge
Tutoring is in high demand so it is of a huge benefit to have other factors besides being a native speaker to stand out or have access to more tutoring sites where you can offer your skills & knowledge.
There are sites which require a degree, or teaching/tutoring experience.
It’s never too late to acquire these qualifications & experience, continue to read to learn how…
Become Certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language
If you decide to teach EFL (English as a Foreign Language) and desire to work online or abroad. The great thing about doing this field of work is that you can train online for a great price with a TEFL company & you will not need previous teaching experience or a degree to do so . I highly recommend TEFL UK. You can use this certification to teach online or at many educational establishments worldwide.
TEFL UK is an accredited company which specialises in training adults to become certified English teachers. They offer a range of courses, the minimum hours required to become recognised worldwide as a TEFL teacher is 120 hours. The amount of time it takes is dependent on you. They also provide a section for TEFL jobs once you’re certified.
Use this code AB8741FB to get your 10% discount on any courses.
Choose the Language & Do a Course
The first step is to choose which language you desire to teach. This may be your native language or a foreign language that you’ve previously learnt.
When you have decided the target language, you need to reflect on your level of fluency in the areas of speaking, listening, reading and writing as these are the core skills that you will be teaching your students.
You don’t need to be at an advanced level to teach a language yet you will need to at least be at an intermediate level in order to teach at a beginners level.
There are courses you can do to improve your level of language skills. Here are my highly recommended online language courses:
Improving in any language:
italki offers lessons based on your goals and interests. It offers one-one lessons in 24 languages such as English, French, Mandarin, Portuguese, Turkish and more… You pay per lesson and there are over 10,000 native teachers ready to help you progress in your language learning.
Improving Spanish:
Spanish VIP offer 3 programs; Starter (1 month), Conversational (3 months) and Fluency (6 months). Their teachers are native Spanish speakers who are fantastic at helping students progress confidently in their Spanish learning. They offer a free trial lesson and brilliant discounted rates. To visit their site click ==>HERE<==
Improving Hebrew/Japanese /Russian:
LinguaLift specialise in Hebrew, Japanese and Russian. They offer a free first lesson and promise to help their students learn in an engaging way without the use of ‘boring lectures’. To find out more info click ==>HERE<==
3 key decisions
It’s important to think about these 3 key decisions; the age group, which level you want to teach & where you want to teach.
1. The age group you want to teach e.g. children, teenagers or adults will determine the teaching course you do & the level of knowledge required.
2. Think about which level you want to teach; beginners, intermediate or advanced, again this will impact on the teacher training that you do.
3. Where you want to teach is an important aspect of your decision-making. Do you want to tutor (online/at students’ home) or teach at an educational establishment? This will help you with researching which teaching course is right for you or required in order to teach.
Bonus tip: Get experience
If you want to teach in an educational establishment, it’s advisable to gain experience (minimum of 2 weeks is usually required if applying for a University teaching degree) of volunteering in a school/college. This is because this experience will give you an insight into what it is like to work in a classroom environment.
You can start by observing lessons and assisting the teacher and then ask if you are able to do a short lesson and gain feedback.
While at the establishment, take the opportunity to ask the educators questions about planning, school policies, teaching methods etc.
If you have any questions/need advise leave a comment below.
All the best in becoming a foreign language teacher!
There is power in languages!
Thanks for reading.
