An ESL Teacher is responsible for teaching English as a secondary language to students who speak another language as their primary form of communication. An ESL Teacher’s duties include preparing course materials, creating individualized learning goals and tracking student progress.
ESL Teacher duties and responsibilities
Typical job descriptions for ESL Teacher positions highlight the important role these instructors have in teaching English to non-English speakers. These teachers are tasked with helping students understand how to read, write and speak English. More generalized courses might teach conversational English, while other courses might focus on a subset of the language, such as English for business settings.
ESL Teachers develop lesson plans that adhere to the required curriculum, but they must also meet the needs of individual students. It’s usually a collaborative and creative environment, with ESL Teachers combining book-based tasks with interactive exercises and multimedia presentations to help students improve their language skills and overall comprehension.
On the surface, teaching English as a second language is a pretty self-explanatory concept. You’re teaching English. In many respects, it is that simple.
ESL teachers instruct students who do not speak English as a first language. They conduct lessons and create a stimulating learning environment while considering students' differences and needs.
For a newcomer though, there’s a lot of industry terminology that can be extremely confusing. What, for example, is the difference between ESL and TEFL? What’s TESOL? And why is it important to know the difference?
Some terms used in the industry are umbrellas for wider concepts. For example, TESOL covers both teaching English as a foreign language, and as a second language. Both might seem interchangeable and they are often used in such a way. However, it’s important to know the differences between the phrases before launching into the world of teaching English abroad.
Want to teach English as a second language (ESL)? An ESL teaching certificate is your key to unlocking exciting, rewarding and engaging teaching opportunities! Most employers require a 120-hour program - the industry standard - that equips you with all the skills you'll need: planning lessons, managing classrooms, and effectively teaching grammar, pronunciation, and other language skills. Choose an online course for flexibility, or dive into a traditional classroom setting for a more immersive experience.
There are also advanced courses, which take your ESL teaching credentials to the next level. Plenty of English learners are interested in learning Business English, for example, in order to progress their careers - there’s a course for that. In other cases, you might feel you need extra qualifications teaching young learners - there’s a course for that, too. Or, it’s about exam preparation, which many English learners need to either move to an English-speaking country, or get ahead at work, and needless to say, there are extra qualifications for teaching that, too.
Good Communication Skills
Teaching English arguably requires even better communication than other teaching roles. This is not only because your students may come from a variety of cultural and linguistic backgrounds, but also because the goal as an ESL teacher is to provide an immersive experience of the language – something which is difficult to do without an excellent grasp of English and the way people use it to express themselves.
Adaptability
Patience
Empathy
A love of learning and sharing knowledge
As an ESL teacher, you’ll probably learn nearly as much from your students as they will from you.
If you love your work, that’ll be reflected in your enthusiasm and the learning environment you create in your classroom, and that’ll make your students all the more eager to learn from you. Once they catch that passion and love of learning and knowledge from you, the job of teaching quickly becomes a lot easier.
Plus, teaching English as a Second Language isn’t always easy – you’ll need to truly be passionate about it to stay dedicated to this line of work, even when you’ve had a tough day or are far from home.
You may love teaching or the English language itself, but even if you’re not looking to earn massive amounts of money, the size of your monthly salary is still a valid concern. No matter what country you’re going to, everyone has to pay bills, eat and generally keep things ticking over.
Of course, your wages will depend on precisely where you’re working. We’re going to look at our two main prospects, teaching abroad and teaching online, to see what factors will affect how much you can expect to earn as an ESL teacher.
While exact amounts will vary depending on your specific job placement, here are some general guidelines to help you get an idea for ESL salaries in various rolesWhen you’re teaching English as a Second Language in a foreign country, your rate of pay will depend on where you’re teaching, your qualifications, and your experience. The good news is that, for the most part, as an ESL teacher, your pay will be good enough to live comfortably on, as salaries are typically adjusted to reflect the cost of living in the destination country.
As we said right at the start, there is a gigantic proportion of the planet learning English, for all sorts of different reasons, from infants to adult learners.
For many, it’s at school, where English lessons are a mandatory part of the education system. Others take up English in higher education, or to advance their career. In some cases, people take up learning English in order to pass exams like the IELTS to move to an English-speaking country. Or, others have had to move to an English-speaking country in times of political strife, and need to learn the language in order to get by.
More simply put, there are a litany of reasons to become an ESL teacher, and a smörgasbord of kinds of students who need help learning the language.
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