Are you looking to teach English online? You might have your TEFL certificate (or maybe you don’t have one), and you are brainstorming about how to start teaching English online.
But the challenge is getting started.
We have put together a complete guide that will help you get started with online English teaching.
Do you need a degree to teach online?
Now, the most common question online tutors have in mind is, “Do I need a degree to teach online?
Yes, a bachelor’s degree is an essential requirement when getting started with online English tutoring.
But that depends on who you work for.
If you work for yourself, for example, you can teach English without a degree. In fact, you will soon understand that your potential students aren’t interested in your teaching qualifications but in your expertise alone.
However, when you are just beginning, your qualifications can be a barrier for your prospects to come to you as the market is flooded with lots of English tutors, and qualifications are the first thing students will need when shortlisting tutors.
Do You Need A Certificate To Teach English Online?
A lot of people will tell you even if you don’t have a degree, you need a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certificate to take online English classes without a degree.
This is true if you want to work with an English tutoring marketplace. If you are going to work for yourself, it isn’t mandatory, but it still would be helpful.
How Much Money You Can Make By Teaching English Online
Online English teaching is a lucrative career choice, but only once you establish yourself and have a good bunch of clients you will start earning money.
If you are a native English speaker, it is much easier to start getting paid, even if you don’t have prior experience.
If you are a first-time-only tutor with a degree or a TEFL certification, you can start earning $10-$20 per hour. If you have prior experience or if the complexity of your subjects is more, you can always charge higher.
Now, the pay differs according to different factors if you are working with an ESL company.
- The number of hours you work.
- Your academic qualifications and experience.
- The company policy.
- Your base pays and bonuses.
How To Start Teaching English Online?
Teaching English online is an excellent career choice as it is flexible; you can get started easily from the comfort of your home and need not have prior experience.
Here are the steps you need to follow to become an online English teacher:
Choose And Own Your Niche
If you want to get started as an online English tutor, you need to choose a niche. Selecting a niche will help you differentiate yourself from the crowd, understand your target audience, and determine your promotion strategy.
When choosing a niche, consider your teaching style, the age group you want to cater to, the gap in the market etc.
Here are some of the niches you can you can choose:
- Teaching English to preschool kids.
- Business English.
- IELTS exam preparation.
- Pronunciation and grammar
Get Certified
If you are serious about teaching English online and building a sustainable and profitable career out of it, you must get a TEFL certificate.
Besides TEFL, what are the other qualifications you need? You would need a degree in any field and valid experience in the industry.
Do not worry if you don’t have prior experience; there is always a start to everything.
Select The Method Of Teaching
To become successful in English teaching, you must find the preferred method of online English teaching.
Here are three ways by which you can take English classes online.
- Teaching on ESL (English as a second language) Platforms
If you are starting out with teaching English online, it is recommended to begin teaching on ESL platforms like Duolingo and Cambly, as the platforms take care of important aspects rather than doing everything on your own.
But it comes with cons, like a base rate of pay, and you won’t have control over your audience as well.
- Teaching English Online Privately
Are you brainstorming about getting started with teaching English online, you can also choose to tutor English independently?
But you will have to do all the work, including finding students to tutor, marketing your services, handling the lesson planning and creation, and everything you need to teach English online.
If you are interested in running an English tutoring business of your own, you must launch your own online tutoring website to host your classes. But how to build your tutoring platform with the customizations you need in a short time frame with your preferred budget?
It is recommended to choose online tutoring software like Pinlearn to build your customized online tutoring platform like Cambly or Duolingo so that you can host your live classes and get some practice to sell online courses as well.
Start With An Essential Setup To Reap Success
When getting started with teaching English online, you got to have everything that will help you become successful.
Besides the basic requirements like a laptop, an HD webcam, a microphone, high-speed Internet or Wi-Fi.
Here are some of the other tools you must own to run a successful English teaching business.
- A tutoring platform that’s user-friendly and simple to use.
- A whiteboard.
- Essential props to make your online classes fun and engaging
- Teaching resources.
Getting started with online English teaching can be a big and rewarding task. Unlike working in a classroom, there will be no one to assess your lessons and teaching style except your students.
If you are new to online tutoring, you could get some practice initially by tutoring one or two clients initially from your close circle.
This will help you get a grip on how the entire thing works and will help you understand the challenges and how to overcome them.
You could also keep these classes at low prices or even free, as the goal is to get some practice.
Conclusion
Teaching English online is a flexible and lucrative way to make money from the comfort of your own home, helping people improve their English skills.
Whether you choose to start by working for online tutoring marketplaces or build your own tutoring platform, if you keep up the good work, success will be yours in no time.
