Teaching Young Learners

As a TEFL teacher, there’s a very strong chance that you’ll instruct classes of young learners at some stage during your career. Whether you’re building experience right at the start of your career, or you’re decades into your teaching journey, the chances are you’ll either currently be teaching young learners, or you’ll have dealt with classes of youngsters at one time or another.

What do we mean when we say “young learners”? This can mean TEFL students from kindergarten age, right up to 10 years old - though in some settings, “young learners” can include teenagers up to the age of 16. That’s a vast range of proficiencies and ages, which means there’s a lot to learn for any prospective TEFL teacher who wants to inspire and motivate. 

That’s what we’re here for, though! Setting young learners on the path to English proficiency can set them up for success in academia, business, making friends worldwide and simply enjoying a language. It’s also a fantastic and endlessly rewarding way to make a living, so let’s take a deep dive into the world of teaching young learners.

What do you need to teach young learners?

A TEFL Qualification

So you want to teach young learners, but you’re not sure where to start? The best way to get moving is by signing up for TEFL qualification courses . Employers want prospective teachers to have at least 120 hours of TEFL study on their CV, as 120 hours is the industry standard. 

If you want to excel at teaching young learners, though, it’s a great idea to study for a specialised certificate. That’s why we’ve come up with the Teaching Young Learners course, one of our most popular advanced TEFL courses . It uses exciting learning techniques including quizzes, video learning, and activities to give you everything you need to start teaching children. Once you’ve completed an initial TEFL certificate, this course is the perfect boost to set your CV apart.

Do I need a degree?

Your need for a degree depends on a few different factors. If you’re teaching English abroad , some countries will require a degree as part of their conditions for a visa and/or work permit. In this case, you’ll need a degree to teach young learners. However, there are plenty of countries where you can teach English abroad without a degree . As long as a country doesn’t require a degree for a visa/work permit, and you have a job offer that doesn’t ask for one, you’re good to go.

If you’re teaching English online , and specifically hoping to teach young learners, you might need a degree, depending on the employer. Companies who hire teachers sometimes ask for a degree, but not all of them do - a TEFL qualification and some teaching experience might be enough. Online teaching platforms, meanwhile, don’t usually have specific requirements and are more of a marketplace for parents to hire teachers. However, a degree can help in attracting potential clients.

Experience

Can you teach young learners without experience? Yes, absolutely. For many teachers, their introduction to the TEFL world is working with young people, from kindergarten age to 9 or 10 years old. This encompasses everything from the total beginnings of English learning, including the alphabet, basic sounds and putting sentences together, all the way through to creative tasks and intermediate grammar exercises.

Of course, experience is always desired, but everyone has to start somewhere. 

How to teach young learners

Now, every group of youngsters will have different levels of English language ability, they’ll be different ages, and they’ll have different motivation levels. You’ll need to tailor each lesson you do, whether it’s for a class of 30+ or for one child. So, nobody’s suggesting there’s a tried-and-trusted method for teaching ALL young learners!

However, we do know a fair bit about the subject, and there are some general rules we’d advise you to keep in mind. Follow this advice, and you’ll find you’ve got a super-motivated student who’s whizzing through their lessons, or you’ve got a noisy class of engaged, excited kids who want to get better and better with each lesson.

It’s all about the atmosphere

Games, videos, stories, songs , podcasts - use whatever you need to maintain a positive, enjoyable atmosphere in your classroom, whether it’s for a large class or a one-to-one tutoring session. With young learners, keeping them engaged is half the battle (or maybe three-quarters of the battle?), and fostering an atmosphere of excitement and learning is extremely important.

Keep it direct

Young learners aren’t going to want to spend loads of time doing quiet, rote learning. Generally speaking, it’s not going to work. So, keep your lessons interactive, with plenty of activities that involve group work or direct participation, and make sure enough is going on to keep your learners focused.

Make it memorable

Sometimes, you’ll need to repeat yourself. Through repeating yourself, young learners will remember new words and phrases that are important to building their vocabulary and understanding of English. So, sometimes, you’ll need to repeat yourself .

Do you get the point yet? You will need to make your lessons snappy and engaging, yes, but you’ll need to cover the basics repeatedly so that your learners understand the absolute fundamentals of English. It doesn’t mean saying the same thing over and over, though - use the same lessons in different contexts, whether it’s games, arts and crafts activities, songs, or whatever you prefer.

Where can I teach young learners?

The answer to this is: wherever you can teach English, in general. All over the world, there’s significant demand for teachers of young learners in state schools, language schools, international schools, and private schools. Plenty of parents want to hire tutors for their young children. Kindergartens in numerous countries teach English as a foreign language from a very, very early age - there are TEFL jobs there.

Basically, where you can TEFL, you can teach young learners. The demand is massive, from megacities in China to rural classrooms in Papua New Guinea , where English proficiency is excellent and where levels are extremely low. 

If you’re able to teach young learners English, you will find work. It’s that simple.

What are you waiting for?

So, if you’re TEFL qualified - especially if you have a certificate in teaching young learners - and you meet the requirements to teach kids under 10 in the classroom or from home, you have an incredible opportunity. You can help mould a passion for English that can extend for lifetimes, something that young people can use to create all kinds of opportunities for themselves, and then pass along to the next generation.

With the academic and economic opportunities that learning English can provide, you’re offering young people a fantastic gift. All you have to do is use your qualifications, imagination and talent, and foster a positive atmosphere for learning. You can have so much fun teaching kids - we have countless funny, heartwarming stories about teaching young people on our podcast ‘ I Taught English Abroad ’. Whether it’s Patrick Smith being questioned about the cuteness of his hamster, or Richard Cullen telling us about a flamingo-sceptic turning up late to his class, there are loads of inspiring examples.

So if you’re eager to inspire a new generation of learners, there’s no better time to start than right now. The jobs are there, the right certificates just need your name, and the demand is incredible.

Ready to start your TEFL adventure? Check our range of self-paced, highly-accredited courses designed by experienced TEFL teachers, and take your first steps today.