What Skills Can You Get By Working as An ESL Teacher?

Through some research, I guess you already understand what proper nouns such as "ESL" and "TEFL" mean. But when deciding whether to be an ESL teacher, most people would think about the question, "what can I get from ESL work?"

The answer is useful and transferable skills.

 1. PUBLIC SPEAKING

At the thought of speaking in public, someone begin to feel nervous, heart beats faster, and hands and feet tremble uncontrollably. Public speaking is actually a common fear of human beings. We are afraid of being stared at by a group of strangers and being laughed at for making mistakes in our speech. For the new ESL teacher, public speaking is torture. But as time goes by, you will find that this is a piece of cake.

2. COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Good communication skills are the core skills that every ESL teacher should have. The reason is that you should teach the teaching content in English within 15-30 minutes, and make sure that your non-native speakers (students) can understand and master something they should know. At the same time, as a teacher, you have the responsibility to ask the students what happened in an appropriate way when they feel down and sad, and give you advice or comfort. If you can both use verbal language and body language effectively, you will be an excellent teacher.

3. SALES SKILLS

Good salespeople can always sell you things you don't need---they introduce the product to you, show its advantages, and tell you that it will benefit you and solve your problems. This is the "sales skill" that ESL teachers need to master. A knowledgeable and enthusiastic teacher can sell "knowledge" to students so that they want to continue to use the excellent product "language" even at the end of the course. And that is the real learning.

4. TIME MANAGEMENT

There is no free slot in ESL teacher's class schedule during peak teaching hours and summer vacation (or winter vacation). Managing schedules and making teaching plans effectively are essential skills for busy ESL teachers. Analyzing the key contents of the course, allocating the time reasonably and meeting the needs of students through the teaching materials.

5. PROBLEM SOLVING

Everything is planned, and you know everything will be fine as you imagine. However, emergencies always happen. The enthusiastic students began to look tired, most of them were distracted, and then the whole class fell into a terrible silence. At this point, as a teacher, you have to start taking actions. Enter brainstorming, quickly come up with a solution, lead the students to try new things, and let them return to the normal state of learning. If none of this works, don't put yourself in a state of panic and try to get them to do something else. The way of quick thinking and keep calm under pressure is honed in classroom crises, and they are priceless.

 Mastering some core skills and continuing to develop them in teaching will keep ESL's great career moving forward.