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How To Teach English Abroad
More people are teaching English abroad every year. So how is it done, what do you need to know, and how easy is it?
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With every passing day, more and more prospective educators are finding out how to teach English abroad. With more access to English teaching qualifications, a globalised economy, cheaper travel options and international internet access, getting into teaching English as a foreign language has never been easier.
With the aid of TEFL course providers - like ourselves! - more high-quality teachers are heading out to new surroundings with accredited qualifications on their CVs. In turn, reputable employers around the world, in an increasing number of nations, are offering fantastic opportunities for English teachers who want to change their lives and head overseas for rewarding careers in education.
So, teaching English abroad - how’s it done? Is it really as easy as getting a TEFL certificate, packing your bags and heading to the airport? Well, no, it’s not quite that simple - but with our help, you can make your dreams of jetting off to new climes a reality. All you need to start with is a strong work ethic, enthusiasm, a clear idea of where you want to be, and the willingness to see it through.
So let’s guide you through what it takes to teach abroad!
Teaching English Abroad: an overview
Teaching English abroad is an immensely rewarding career that is open to just about everyone who speaks English fluently. Now, more than ever before, qualifications to become an English teacher to speakers of other languages are widespread. Teacher trainers are working around the clock to deliver high-quality courses both online and in classrooms around the world. Young people leaving school, graduates, career-changers, retirees and everyone in between are seeing the value of travelling, teaching and living life somewhere new.
After all, why not? International travel is so much easier than before, and it’s much less laborious to exchange money, speak to friends and family from overseas and, in general, live as you want to, where you want to.Over 1 billion people worldwide speak English to some degree, either as their first language or as a learner. The demand, from within English-speaking countries, to the furthest reaches of other continents, is enormous. Therefore, if you meet the requirements to teach English and are looking for a career with vast opportunities around the world, TEFL is extremely hard to beat.
How to Teach English Abroad
So, we know you’re curious about what it takes to teach English abroad. After all, you’re here! It’s time, then, to get into some more detail about what you’ll need to do to make your dreams of teaching in foreign classrooms a reality.
What are the first steps you need to take to start teaching English abroad?
Research
Research is absolutely crucial at every stage.
First of all, you need to investigate what it takes to be a successful English teacher. We’d recommend reading some of our student stories - they show you the exact path that our graduates have taken from dreaming of teaching to actually being in front of a class. What kind of skills do you need? What are you already good at? What’s on your CV that could help for future job applications?
If you’re confident that you might have what it takes, you then need to think about where you want to go. What is the demand for teachers like? How well does a particular country or city speak English? Resources, including The TEFL Org Guide to the World and the EF English Proficiency Index, are great for understanding the variety of job opportunities there are in a given country. Additionally, you can find out more about the cost of living, salaries and other important factors about a given TEFL destination.
Basic Requirements
What are the requirements to teach English as a foreign language? As a rule, 120 hours of TEFL certification is the industry standard for English teaching jobs abroad. It used to be the case that a CELTA qualification and a degree were the only ways to teach English abroad. However, there are opportunities to teach English abroad without a degree, and you don’t need to hold a CELTA certificate!
Fluency in English is, of course, an absolute must. That's obviously not a problem if you're a native English speaker. If you’re a non-native speaker of English, you can demonstrate fluency by holding a qualification like an IELTS or TOEFL. Or, if you have a degree from an English-speaking institution, this also demonstrates fluency in English.
Perhaps most importantly of all, you need to display a range of “soft skills” to thrive in the classroom. Patience, empathy, cultural sensitivity and understanding are all incredibly important tools in a teacher’s kit. The ability to organise, remain cool under pressure and be creative with lesson planning are also traits that the best English teachers have at their disposal!
If you have teaching experience, that's fantastic. Prior teaching experience can help you land jobs, even if you haven't any specific experience as an English teacher abroad. Teaching experience in general looks great on a CV, and it doesn't have to necessarily be in English, either.
Download our guide to teaching English around the world
Connect with other TEFL teachers
A big part of teaching English abroad is connecting with fellow professionals. Networking, maintaining relationships and seeking out advice are fundamental to a long, successful career in TEFL.How do you make those important first connections before you start to teach English overseas? Where are the best sources for advice and tips about teaching English abroad? Let’s go into a little more depth:
Connect with teachers online
Before you start making direct connections with teachers, or in fact start your career as an English teacher abroad, it’s a great idea to read and listen to stories of teachers who have been there and done it before you. Listening to people with prior teaching experience can help you to avoid any potential mistakes, and it's a great way to build confidence.
Listening to podcasts about teaching is a good idea - The TEFL Org’s ‘I Taught English Abroad’ for example! - and reading student stories can help allay any fears about teaching the English language for the first time. As previously mentioned, our blog is full of great stories from former students, but there are also great personal accounts of teaching experiences on websites like Reddit and on Facebook TEFL communities.
When you start to look for work, LinkedIn and Glassdoor are fantastic opportunities for networking, or for finding out more about employers. LinkedIn will give you opportunities to find jobs in specific cities and countries and meet professionals from the TEFL world. You can message employers, hear from industry figures, and find out more about the industry as a whole. Glassdoor, meanwhile, is an employer review site, so you can find out from genuine employees whether the place you’re applying to is worthy of your CV, or has a questionable reputation!
Social media can definitely boost a TEFL career, especially at the start. While social media is a great tool for marketing yourself as an online tutor, it’s also ideal for establishing friendships in places you want to work and teach, exploring new locations from a distance, and getting recommendations for both work and leisure. Having a distinct online presence as a TEFL teacher can really help in the short and long term.
Connect with teachers in person
So you’ve started as a TEFL teacher overseas. Does the networking stop there? Absolutely not.
Depending on where you are, and how lively the TEFL scene is, you may have the opportunity to take part in conferences, meet-ups and other social opportunities. On the ‘I Taught English Abroad’ podcast, teachers talked about social gatherings, awards events, and conferences in locations including Spain, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
These kinds of formal networking opportunities are excellent for meeting potential employers, establishing friendships with teachers from other institutions, and making a name for yourself within a specific region as a TEFL teacher. They don’t just have to be big events, either - these groups tend to have more casual meet-ups on a regular basis.
It’s important to join these communities online prior to moving. When teachers find out you’re coming to work in the same city, they’re often keen to show you around and make you feel welcome - that can be so important during those first few days and weeks.
On a more local level, it’s crucial to work well with the teachers around you. When you start at a school abroad as an English teacher, it can be difficult - you might be the only English speaker there! However, as you acclimatise, and start to learn the local language, be sure to make an effort with your colleagues. They’ll want to hear about you, your life before becoming a teacher, and what your upbringing was like!
Job Search
It sounds like such a simple question: how do you get a teaching job abroad? The answer might sound like it’s far more complicated.
However, there are tried and trusted steps to finding rewarding, nourishing English teaching work abroad. Here are the steps we’d recommend you take to get yourself into an ideal teaching role.
Get TEFL certified
Again, we can’t emphasise the importance of being TEFL certified enough. 120 hours is the industry standard. Ensure your TEFL certificate comes from a reputable provider with accreditation - this way, you can be sure that you’re getting a high-quality learning experience, and employers know your certificate is worth something. Groupon TEFL certificates and other bargain options won’t get the job done!If you’re looking to really set yourself apart in the TEFL job market, you might want to consider Advanced TEFL qualifications. Completion of certain courses will make your CV stand out for particular roles. For example, a TEFL certificate in Teaching Young Learners will appeal to employers at schools. If you want to work with university-age learners, English for Academic Purposes is a good Advanced TEFL certificate to have in your arsenal.
Additionally, you can find career opportunities abroad through exam preparation classes. IELTS and equivalent English proficiency exams are incredibly popular for people looking to move to an English speaking country. Preparing people for those kinds of exams is an industry in itself, so completing an exam preparation TEFL certificate can be extremely useful in your job search.
Choose a destination
“Where do you want to go?”
It’s a good question, maybe a simple question on its surface. There’s a lot to it, though.
When you pick your ideal destination to teach English abroad, you need to consider a range of factors. Firstly, is it safe for you to go there? Is there an established culture of English learning in the country you’re moving to? Is there a network of English teachers you can communicate with? Do teaching salaries match well with the cost of living? Is there a high demand for English teachers?
Depending on your level of qualifications and teaching experience, some locations may be easier to find work in than others. Equally, there are some destinations where it’s easier to travel with family and some locations where it can be more difficult.
As ever, research is of paramount importance across your teaching journey, especially when it comes to picking where you want to be an English teacher overseas. Let your passion and spirit of adventure guide you, and then let research fill in any gaps.Prepare your CV and Cover Letter
When you’re looking for teaching positions, preparing your application is of paramount importance. Our first and most important piece of advice is to tailor your TEFL CV to each job you apply for. Use language from the job description in your CV where possible, and highlight your key skills and experience!
This is also true for your cover letter. Cover letters should be seen as an opportunity to pique an employer’s interest in you as a person, and to relate your career experience to what you’re like as a teacher. Again, use language from the teaching job description - employers will want to know you’ve really paid attention to what they’ve written - and make sure to emphasise the attributes that CVs don’t always cover. Traits like communication, organisation, creativity, problem-solving - all the things an employer wants!
If you don't have any previous teaching experience, you might wonder how your previous jobs can tie into English teaching. It’s not a bad question, but there’s more crossover than you might think. If you’ve had to give a presentation at work, then you have communication skills. If you’ve given training or worked with the public in a customer-facing role, you have transferable skills that employers will value. These are things to include in your cover letter if you're looking to teach English abroad without previous teaching experience.
Apply for jobs
Now it’s time to apply for jobs!
If you’re a graduate of The TEFL Org, you have lifetime access to the TEFL Jobs Centre, which is an ideal place to start your job search. Additionally, there are countless job boards online, many of which can be found on our fantastic blog.
Depending on which part of the world you’re heading to, it may be a necessity to find work online and sign an employment contract before you move. This may be mandatory for visa purposes. Alternatively, there may be areas where it’s more prudent to find work in person - this is particularly true in parts of South America, where in-person job applications are much more common.
A word of caution: when you apply to a particular workplace, do your research. Sadly, scam TEFL employers exist, so before you sign anything read our post about how to avoid TEFL scams and bad employers! There are also TEFL courses abroad with “guaranteed jobs” at the end - read our blog post on them to see why they’re not all they’re cracked up to be, either!While being wary of dodgy employers is vital, don’t let that temper your excitement. There is a world of opportunity out there, and your ideal job might be just a few clicks away!
Travel Plans and Visa Arrangements
So now you’ve done your research, you’ve readied your job applications, your CV is looking excellent and you’re as informed as you can be. It’s time to ready yourself for the “going abroad” part of teaching English abroad.
Yes, it’s time to talk about travel and visas. This is possibly the most crucial part of all, and there’s a lot to get right, so without further ado:
Travel tips
The first thing you want to think about when it comes to travelling for a job teaching English abroad is cost. In some countries, including South Korea, it’s common for teaching contracts to include travel compensation, either in the form of a signing bonus or to be back-paid shortly after moving. However, this isn’t always the case, and it’s worth factoring travel into your initial budget.
In terms of practical travel advice, there are loads of amazing travel hacks to consider. It’s always a good idea to print out all of your essential documents (and make copies!), download offline maps on your phone, consider a portable wifi plan, carry a first-aid kit and use your time wisely when you’re sitting around in airports or on flights - it’s not always going to be exciting!
For more travel advice, read our Top 5 travel tips for TEFL teachers, or listen to the ‘I Taught English Abroad’ podcast.
Visas
The visa process can be either very straightforward, or quite complex, depending on where you move to, and their distinct immigration policies and procedures. Even in cases where an employer handles visa paperwork for you - and this is relatively common in the TEFL world - it’s worth researching the type of visa you would be eligible for.
Meeting visa requirements for a country is utterly crucial. Across many nations, having a bachelor’s degree and a TEFL certificate is vital for gaining entry as a TEFL teacher. In some countries, a bachelor’s degree is not a necessity. There are cases where a degree is necessary for a long-term stay, but not for a short-term TEFL job. Visas can be complicated - again, research is paramount, and befriending your nearest consulate is of absolute importance!
If you’re travelling as a family, it’s also important to know what kinds of visas are applicable. If you have children of school age, for example, you should be clear on whether your children would be entitled to state education. In some instances, only one member of a couple may be allowed to work on a particular visa, so that’s also an important consideration.
Research, as ever, is fundamental to a successful visa application, and finding what works best for you and - potentially - the people around you.
Settle in and start teaching English
Now you’ve made the leap: you’ve managed to get an English teaching job abroad, you’re in a new country and you’re ready for your first lessons.
Before we leave you to it, though, there are some more important things to think about at the start of your career as a TEFL teacher. Let’s dive in.
Settling in and culture shock
You’re in a new country - it’s the destination you dreamt of, and now it’s a reality. How do you truly settle in? Well, there’s no prescribed right or wrong answer, but we’d recommend you research culture and etiquette before you head somewhere new. South Korea and Japan, for example, have social customs that may take a little time to adapt to at first, but once you’ve been out and about a few times, you’ll find yourself adjusting.
Knowing some of the local language(s) can never be a bad thing. With all the language learning tools at our disposal these days, there’s really not much of an excuse for not knowing at least basic phrases. Given that you’ll need to address students in their native language at some stage, having some of the fundamental vocabulary down is important.
Those are two big, obvious things that anyone should think about before moving somewhere new. Beyond that, give yourself time. Adjustment can be hard both mentally and physically, and just because you’re finding it difficult, it doesn’t mean you’re ungrateful or you’re not enjoying yourself. It just means you’re somewhere new and things are a bit different. Allow yourself time and patience to settle, and remember that culture shock is common.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What qualifications do you need to teach English abroad?
With a TEFL certificate, you can teach English abroad in numerous fantastic locations. 120 hours of study is the industry standard. Some countries may require a bachelor’s degree to meet visa requirements, and employers will have specific requirements for individual roles.
Q. Do You Need a Bachelor’s To Teach English Abroad?
In some locations, you will need a bachelor’s degree to teach English, primarily to meet visa requirements. Some specific teaching jobs may ask for a teaching degree, but this isn't necessarily common.
Q. Which country is in demand for English teachers?
There is a high demand for English teachers all over the world! Countries including China, Japan, South Korea, the UAE and Spain all have immense demand for English teachers.
Q. How much do English teachers abroad make?
The type of salary that English teachers make depends on a variety of factors, including their qualifications, experience, location and the institution they work at.
Q. Can you teach abroad with just a TEFL?
A TEFL certificate is the key to teaching English abroad in numerous locations. 120 hours of study is the industry standard, and your certificate must be from an accredited and reputable provider.