ESL Master's

[amy gal]

TEFL
Comprehensive information thank you. I have just completed the TEFL 120 hours and was told that this would suffice with some agencies. After passing the interview with one popular agency (yes, they allowed me to do the interview and mock class!) however, they now demand that my 3 years Arts /Education independant school diploma is not acceptable and that I will need a BA Hons or Masters. Can I study for a Masters in TEFL? do you know any websites that offer such  Degree qualifications? OR is there a particular course or certificate that you know of that will suffice education needs instead of the degrees?

 



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So, I've been doing some thinking during this whole pandemic and might like to retire from my museum director position. I am looking at trying to find a legitimate teaching job from home. Maybe teaching ESL. Does anyone know anything about this? Do I need a master's? Maybe Certificate? Has anyone done this? I have never taught formally before but am ready for something new.
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You definitely have some options. You can pursue a Masters degree in TESOL or ESL or just obtain a graduate certificate in the subject. There are plenty of colleges and universities that offer them. On Groupon, there are companies that offer an online TESOL/TEFL certification that are inexpensive and takes much less time. Some companies that come to mind are TEFL Fullcircle and International Open Academy (their TESOL certification course). There are plenty of other online and in-person training options in addition to those two options. There is also something called CELTA, which is a top of the line, one month program that focuses on teaching English as a Foreign Language. The CELTA program is in-person and full-time for the month that you take it. If you decide to pursue your TESOL certification online, watch out especially since you haven't taught in the classroom or online. Teaching English is an unregulated industry. Some companies are very good with their online TESOL/TEFL and others aren't. Some claim dubious accreditation and others don't. When deciding which program you want to train from, find out if the online program will show how to create and present a lesson or have you create one at the end of the program and then evaluate you on it. If it doesn't, you may want to pass on it since you've never taught online or in the classroom before. That feedback is very useful to some one new to teaching. With your credentials right now, you could also apply to VIPKIDS or Cambly. If VIPKIDS accepts you, they would teach you how to teach TESOL/TEFL online and you would earn your TESOL certificate through them. Cambly basically takes any native English speaker as one of their tutors regardless of academic credentials but the pay is very low. You will, however, get experience with teaching and talking with foreign students. There are also a few companies that offer free online TESOL training. One of them is on the CANVASS platform. I can't think of the name at the moment; however, if you do a search of the courses on CANVASS platform, it will come up. The other free online TESOL trainings are called TEFL Professional Development Institute and English First Free TEFL certification programs. I don't know how good both of those training programs are but free is a good price to pay--plus, you learn something. Another option is Literacy Volunteers of America, which teaches tutors some English as a Second language technique in a 18 hour course. It is a volunteer opportunity, but after the training, you get a chance to tutor ESL and decide if it's something that you want to do without a lot of investment of time or money.  Well, I apologize for overwhelming you, but it does give you something to think about. Good luck!

[rachel83az]

IOA is really a bad option. I do not recommend this. You can get a TEFL certificate from ASU through Coursera for free right now if you have a .edu email address. Otherwise, i-to-i is pretty good and relatively inexpensive.

[innen_oda]

There is also something called CELTA, which is a top of the line, one month program that focuses on teaching English as a Foreign Language. The CELTA program is in-person and full-time for the month that you take it. If you decide to pursue your TESOL certification online, watch out especially since you haven't taught in the classroom or online. Teaching English is an unregulated industry. Some companies are very good with their online TESOL/TEFL and others aren't.

If you plan on teaching TEFL for anything more than a side-hustle, I would absolutely recommend getting your CELTA certificate. That one month of getting the CELTA will suck, but it will make every month after that so much easier. Even ignoring the quality of teaching or the approval that comes with having a CELTA certificate, having gone through the training will make YOUR life so much easier and less stressful. Teaching English to non-natives is an underrated challenge, and getting a reliable source of income that doesn't destroy your soul in the process requires you to have the skills to teach well and create satisfied students without spending half your free time lesson planning.
A CELTA also means being able to be a little more picky about the work you take, as well as having a much better idea of how to evolve as a teacher - both of which will reduce stress.

It's not going to make you a star TEFL teacher right out of the gate, but it will make you better than your competition - and also give you some keys to creating return students.

[satori]

Ok, that is a lot of information....I guess what I need to find out as well...what does it pay? I still need money but I am hoping to leave my current job.

While this list doesn't include all salaries and qualifications for online TEFL/TESOL teachers, it does give you an idea what the going rates are for various companies. 

https://www.teachaway.com/blog/teach-eng...e-best-pay

Cambly is at the low end of the pay scale (about $10-$11 per hour); however, with the Master's degree that you already have, I'm sure that you can expect higher pay elsewhere. I only suggested Cambly or some volunteer opportunities in the previous post so that you get some teaching experience under your belt if you have the time to do that with your current job. However, if you get sponsored through a website such as VIPKIDS, you could earn $22-$25 per hour. A teacher who currently works for VIPKIDS can mentor you during the application process. If you go on YouTube and look at the videos regarding online TESOL/TEFL teachers, you'll notice that some current teachers will sponsor an applicant for VIPKIDS, which helps new applicants get trained, certified, and hired to teach ESL for their companies. I'm sure other TESOL/TEFL companies do the same. I'm just not sure which ones. 

Another thing to know about teaching online TESOL/TEFL: When you work for most of the TESOL/TEFL companies online, you are considered an independent contractor. Many online TEFL/TESOL are not owned by Americans: therefore, you could see a 1099 or 1099 Misc at the end of the year since you're considered self-employed. Of course, this means that you will owe taxes instead of getting a refund and affects your net salary. It's definitely something to consider when determining your salary requirements. 

I hope this helps. Good luck!

Out of curiosity, would other specialized knowledge impact pay?  Such as finance, science, or healthcare credentials or experience?  Thanks.

[PrettyFlyforaChiGuy]

Out of curiosity, would other specialized knowledge impact pay?  Such as finance, science, or healthcare credentials or experience?  Thanks.

Back when I was teaching in Japan, Korea, and the UAE, I did regularly come across full-time or one-on-one job postings in tracks like Business English and Medical English. They were more niche yet in-demand fields with more generous salaries offered.

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After passing the interview with one popular agency (yes, they allowed me to do the interview and mock class!) however, they now demand that my 3 years Arts /Education independant school diploma is not acceptable and that I will need a BA Hons or Masters. 

I may be misunderstanding you, but if you meant you have a traditional 3-year U.K. degree and your goal is to teach in another country, then you still qualify for a work visa in many locations. If you're talking about teaching from home in the U.K., then the company would have their own localized hiring requirements.

[lmwaters]

IOA is really a bad option. I do not recommend this. You can get a TEFL certificate from ASU through Coursera for free right now if you have a .edu email address. Otherwise, i-to-i is pretty good and relatively inexpensive.

There's good news. If IOA is a bad option for TEFL/TESOL training, there are plenty of other decent options that are low cost and a few that are free. Thank you for sharing your opinion of both IOA TESOL and i-to-i. Folks considering online TEFL or TESOL will find your opinion helpful.

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Ok, that is a lot of information....I guess what I need to find out as well...what does it pay? I still need money but I am hoping to leave my current job.

While this list doesn't include all salaries and qualifications for online TEFL/TESOL teachers, it does give you an idea what the going rates are for various companies. 

https://www.teachaway.com/blog/teach-eng...e-best-pay

Cambly is at the low end of the pay scale (about $10-$11 per hour); however, with the Master's degree that you already have, I'm sure that you can expect higher pay elsewhere. I only suggested Cambly or some volunteer opportunities in the previous post so that you get some teaching experience under your belt if you have the time to do that with your current job. However, if you get sponsored through a website such as VIPKIDS, you could earn $22-$25 per hour. A teacher who currently works for VIPKIDS can mentor you during the application process. If you go on YouTube and look at the videos regarding online TESOL/TEFL teachers, you'll notice that some current teachers will sponsor an applicant for VIPKIDS, which helps new applicants get trained, certified, and hired to teach ESL for their companies. I'm sure other TESOL/TEFL companies do the same. I'm just not sure which ones. 

Another thing to know about teaching online TESOL/TEFL: When you work for most of the TESOL/TEFL companies online, you are considered an independent contractor. Many online TEFL/TESOL are not owned by Americans: therefore, you could see a 1099 or 1099 Misc at the end of the year since you're considered self-employed. Of course, this means that you will owe taxes instead of getting a refund and affects your net salary. It's definitely something to consider when determining your salary requirements. 

I hope this helps. Good luck!

Out of curiosity, would other specialized knowledge impact pay?  Such as finance, science, or healthcare credentials or experience?  

When a person applies for an ESL job online or in-person ESL position and has additional skills such as finance, science, etc., he or she should be able to negotiate for a higher salary with the hiring manager or team. In the very least, the applicant is very versatile and can branch in the ESL industry more easily; for example, he or she can teach ESL in specific industry settings (business settings) in addition to teaching children or adults just ESL. I'm certain that the hiring manager or team will take such positive credentials into consideration when determining salary requirements. Usually, there is some leeway when determining the salary of applicants who are highly qualified in ESL teaching and also have other education and experiences. It definitely can't hurt and usually help a person's application to an ESL company.

[nykorn]

120 hour online TEFL certificate took me 7 hours to complete and cost $20 (on sale). With it I got ESL teaching jobs paying $5-$10 an hour. Online ones sometimes require proof of English speaking country citizenship or something but most don't. Offline jobs require an Associate's or Bachelor's, usually in literally any field, as a visa requirement.

Typically no possibility of pay raise, promotion, etc and most jobs are terrible and the companies involved do a lot of illegal stuff. They won't hire you if you don't act like a super energetic clown. You're normally singing songs or reading from a textbook, not actually teaching. Expect issues with employers lying about pay, job responsibilities or locations, avoiding getting you legal work visas, recording you during lessons without your knowledge, not training you but expecting you to teach as well as a guy with an MA in teaching, refusing to sign work contracts until you're literally in the country (NEVER accept this! I've had jobs pulled on me 3x!), and many other issues.

I'd highly recommend teaching ADULTS, not kids, to avoid pretty much all of what I wrote above. You can get "employed" at Cambly, iTalki etc with no qualifications and see how you like it. I love teaching adults but vowed to get a MA in Education so I'd never have to teach kids again. Like 90% of advertised ESL teaching jobs are for teaching kids. If you're serious about this career I highly recommend getting literally any cheap Education degree (such as a University of the People one) plus any possible certificates (such as Early Childhood Education or Child Psychology). Most countries don't care where your degree is from but they get so few applicants who actually studied teaching, you'll be a top pick.

Most jobs ONLY raise pay for people with an Education degree or people who are licensed teachers in their home country or the new country. They don't care if you got a PhD in Physics from Harvard or speak the local language fluently, they still won't raise your pay. I love teaching but the ESL industry is corrupt, especially in Asia.