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Teach English Online – Introduction

By Josef Essberger
Getting started with teaching English online—whether you’re self-employed or working for a school
Online teacher

Why Teach English Online?

Teaching English (or any language) online is increasingly popular and will only continue to gain popularity. It is generally done one-to-one but more and more schools/teachers are also teaching small groups online. This introduction to the concept of online teaching—whether you’re self-employed or working for a school—looks at one-to-one teaching in particular.

Pros

Teaching online:

  • is flexible for you the teacher—and for the student too
  • let’s you teach anywhere—and your students learn anywhere
  • doesn’t involve wasted travel time or costs
  • focusses on listening and speaking skills

Cons

Teaching online:

  • is less good for reading and writing skills (though by no means impossible)
  • can be quite intense or stressful for you the teacher if you don’t have appropriate breaks

Business Considerations

If you are teaching online through a school or similar, then the business issues are taken care of for you. Otherwise, if you are self-employed/freelancing you will need to consider:

  • finding customers—anything from ads in local cafes/libraries to free or paid online directories and online advertising with language websites or Google/Facebook etc
  • a method for getting paid—the easiest and most popular being PayPal
  • running your own website or at least a social media page
  • having at least a basic contract that includes matters such as your cancellation policy

Hardware Needed

While it is possible to teach online using a tablet (think iPad) or even a smartphone (think iPhone)—usually with dedicated teaching apps—this article is restricted to the conventional computer (desktop/laptop).

It’s worth bearing in mind that although you may be teaching primarily with a desktop/laptop, you may sometimes want to additionally use a phone or tablet.

We’re going to assume you want to see and be seen while teaching online, not just hear and be heard.

Here is the basic hardware you will need:

  • computer, whether desktop or laptop
  • Internet connection (highest speed and most reliable possible)
  • backup power source if you are in an area of the world subject to power cuts (a laptop might give you sufficient battery power)

Whatever your computer, it will need:

AUDIO

For you to hear:

  • built-in speakers OR external headphones

For you to be heard:

  • built-in microphone OR external microphone

Instead of the above you could just use a headset, which is external headphones with external mike combined—probably the best of all options with good sound quality. A headset can be wireless too, giving you total freedom of movement. Highly recommended.

headset
The wireless headset—combined headphones and mike—offers superior sound quality and total freedom of movement

VISUAL

For you to see:

  • screen, which is usually part of your computer though it could also be an external monitor

For you to be seen:

  • built-in or external webcam

Software Needed

The “Platform”

Platform is a trendy term for something that helps you communicate and (in this case) “teach”. If you teach in a school, the school is your platform. If you ever taught by landline the public telephone system was your platform. Platform may also refer to the computer or operating system you use, as in the term “cross-platform” which means “can be used on various operating systems, for example Windows/Mac or Android/iOS”.

If you teach online, the most basic platform you need is a video chat system, and the Big Three are:

Skype
https://www.skype.com
The first and most obvious choice is Skype (now owned by Microsoft), which is generally free and cross-platform (PC/Mac, Android/iOS). You and your students will need a Microsoft account or Skype name to login.
Pros: it’s well-known and ubiquitous, has screen share, file transfer and IM (instant message) built-in
Cons: service sometimes unreliable

Google Meet (previously Google Hangouts)
https://hangouts.google.com
You and your students will need a Google account to login.  It is free and generally cross-platform (though a plugin may be needed depending on browser).
Pros: screen share, YouTube share with realtime controls, great for Google ecosystem users (Drive, Docs, Slides etc)
Cons: service sometimes unreliable; slightly more difficult to learn than Skype

Facetime
Apple instructions
This Apple video chat software comes built-in to Mac computers and iOS devices (iPhone/iPad). Login is with an Apple account.
Pros: very reliable with high-quality fast video, easy to use
Cons: no screen share, video share or link share, no integrated IM. Apple only

For teachers new to online teaching, getting familiar with two if not all three of the above is recommended, allowing you more flexibility depending on your students’ access and giving you a fallback in case of technical issues (which happen).

There are other, more exotic and less ubiquitous platforms, some of which are dedicated to teaching online, and some of which are more proprietary in the sense that they get in on the act, perhaps providing their own marketplace for students and teachers to find each other and/or handling payments and taking a cut (more like being employed by a school). Here are a few worth exploring, in alphabetical order:

Other Programs

Any other software programs you use are largely your own choice and decision, but many teachers like to use some version or other of the following:
  • Presentation software such as MS PowerPoint or Apple KeyNote (can also be online as in Google Slides)
  • Word Processing software such as MS Word or Apple Pages (can also be online as in Google Docs)
  • Audio Recording software (if not built into your platform) such as cross-platform Audacity or Apple Garage Band
  • Email program online or offline which you undoubtedly have

Teaching Considerations

In many ways, the same principles apply to actual online teaching as to offline or face-to-face teaching, principal among them:

  1. Prepare! Have a lesson plan, even if it’s on the back of an envelope. A lesson going off the rails or running out of rails is always embarrassing, even more so online where it may be more difficult to improvise.
  2. Don’t talk too much. Put another way, learn to shut up. Give your student thinking time, and reply time. Don’t be afraid of the sound of silence.
  3. Use warmers, just as you would in class. Be prepared for all eventualities by having plenty of fillers available.

Points relating more specifically to online lessons are:

  1. Make sure your online lessons are not too long. One hour (which really means 50 minutes) would be an absolute maximum in my opinion.
  2. If appropriate, send materials to students in advance so that they can read and prepare without wasting lesson time.
  3. Make liberal use of high-quality online resources. These can include audio, video, games, quizzes. Some of these might be used for homework rather than lessonwork—you will be the judge. You can send the URLs to your student before or during the lesson as required.

While teaching online can be applied to all four macro-skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing), it is especially useful for the aural/oral skills:

  • listening
  • speaking

It also lends itself to the teaching of micro-skills like:

  • grammar
  • vocabulary
  • pronunciation

Teaching Listening Online

Apart from the obvious possibility of your student listening to you (not too much please!), online teaching makes it very easy to have your student listening to all kinds of English, using podcasts and videos from the web. Clearly these days you can find endless “authentic listening” (though mostly at higher levels), but there are also sites with audio and video made for learners at the appropriate level. Some of these have additional activities such as gap-fills and quizzes to test learners’ understanding. In other cases, you can prepare your own questions (for example using PowerPoint) and share them with your student using your desktop as a virtual whiteboard. Or of course ask questions orally. Listen & Learn with Jackson Peacock is a wonderful collection of fun stories in easy English with vocabulary, gapfill, audio and quizzes to inspire your students’ English—an excellent and weekly listening resource.

Teaching Speaking Online

Teaching online allows you to concentrate on pronunciation and fluency. You can very easily record your student speaking and play it back right there and then, or later. (Depending where you are in the world you may need to have explicit permission before recording your student.) The online classroom is ideal for conversation that builds confidence, but also for homing in on language points (and errors) and focusing on any pronunciation problems.

Teaching Grammar Online

If a student particularly wants to study grammar (or perhaps has some grammar points for you to clarify), you can use tools such as PowerPoint and share the details on your virtual desktop (whiteboard). In addition of course, you can visit many online grammar pages with your students and go over various tutorials or have them do grammar quizzes online (though this may be better reserved for homework).

Not Forgetting Homework

If you believe in homework, there are plenty of ways to do this for your online students. The most basic way is to send printable worksheets for your student to complete and return. But really you can be as creative and ingenious as you want. Send your students to website activities such as quizzes or ESL games to revise what you have just taught, have them practise dictation online, or read an online text in preparation for your next lesson.

Are you teaching English online? Or perhaps you’ve studied a language online? Any comments you have about your experiences welcome below in the comments ;)

Resources Online

How to Teach English with EnglishClub

Talking Point Lesson Plans

Online Games covering Vocab, Grammar, Spelling, Pronunciation

Online ESL Quizzes

BabelTEQ – marketing for online TEFL teachers

Further Reading

TEFL.net Online Teaching Centre

Teach English Online – Introduction

Online English Teaching Tech: Apps and Platforms

About Online English Teaching Jobs in China

Teaching Online – Tools and Tips

Written by Josef Essberger for Teflnet August 2018
Josef Essberger, founder Teflnet and EnglishClub Contributor: Josef Essberger, founder of Teflnet and EnglishClub. Originally from London, England, Josef is the author of several books for learners of English including English Prepositions List and Learn English in 7.
© Teflnet

13 Comments

  • DABO says:

    Nice one

  • Shilpi Roy says:

    I will do my best for teaching on line. Thanks for your support.
    Thank you.

  • Tim Mellor says:

    I notice a lot of South Africans commenting here, and all I can say is that it is hard for all teachers to get new work online. It doesn’t seem to matter if you have experience or not, it is a very competitive market.
    If you can, try to find some work initially with a reputable school in your own country, or one you can get to, and build up the necessary experience that all schools like their teachers to have. This is more true for those just starting out, and then record your own video presentation (for Asia this seems mandatory) and WATCH IT! If you don’t trust your own judgement on that video, get a friend to watch it and feedback to you. Remember your audio-visual appearance and delivery is vital in online teaching

  • Arm says:

    @Kasturi
    I’ve been hearing it’s tough getting those online jobs these days, they only hire 5% of people who interview. A lot of people are looking for jobs from home since Covid these days. Also, I heard about racism towards South Africans, especially in Asia, making it really tough. You could specialize in a specific area (Business, Banking, Finance English?) or post job adverts on craigslist. If you can’t get hired directly, you could find your own students and if you’re good they will refer you to friends. Most of the teachers I know get private students by referrals and get busy that way. A lot of those online jobs from Asia are to teach really young kids, it’s more like daycare than teaching to be honest, most kids are like 5 years old. I tried an interview and did not like it. It’s not really teaching, it’s like watching cartoons and asking about colors etc. If I get more ideas, I’ll let you know!

  • Kasturi Yellan says:

    Hi my name is Kasturi I obtained my Level 5 TEFL certificate and 20 hours Classroom certificate last year in March. I have applied aggressively for teaching online jobs through The TEFL Academy job portals since November last year and as yet have not been successful. Most of the employment companies do not want South Africans. I spend so much time doing intro and demo lesson videos only to be rejected time and again.

    I come from the banking industry and have tutored new recruits for over 10 years, so mentoring and teaching is not the problem for me. I cannot understand when job adverts say “No experience is required”, even though I hold a BA Degree, but I guess I am rejected because of no experience. It’s been very tiresome and frustrating and this is the reason I am asking for help. Are there any online sites that will take South Africans and not reject us because we are South Africans who are in my case Indian even though I do not have an Indian accent.

    Please help and direct me in fulfilling my goal of being an online teacher to young learners or even adult learners.

  • David Somers says:

    I am looking for online EFL teaching to adults.

    Can anyone help?

    David

  • Gean Desai says:

    Hi my name is Gean Desai I am from South Africa I have just completed my 120hr TEFL course. I would like to teach English online.

  • Lorein Young says:

    I would love to register as a english tutor please?

  • Chanelle says:

    Thank you for this valuable information. I am qualified as an TEFL teacher and would please like to apply to teach english online.

    Any feedback would be appreciated

  • Lourdes says:

    I will do my best for teaching on line. Thanks for your support.

  • Lyn says:

    Teaching English whether online or in-person is definitely in demand now. I just want to share my experience with TUTOROO, they made it easy for me to find an English tutor. The staff was friendly and accommodating, and my tutor is patient, kind and knowledgeable.

    Would love to hear your stories as well.

  • Anzal ali farah says:

    Thnkz allot

  • JoY says:

    Thank you for recommendations and names of programs! About Paypal I can say that unfortunately, this service does not support some countries and mine as well. What else could be done to deal with it?

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