Have you ever been in a classroom full of young learners?
When 20 or so preschoolers are in a room together, things can get hectic. Crying, running around, you name it.
How do you stop the madness — or prevent it from happening in the first place?
Classroom procedures are a lifesaver when it comes to class management! These systems streamline your class and keep everyone calm and organized: the students and yourself.
Read on to find out four classroom procedures you can use in your class, and discover four hassle-free tools that will help you implement them!
How Classroom Procedures and Routines Help Your Students Learn
Classroom procedures and routines, simply put, are systems you implement to help organize and direct the students in your class.
The students should know what your classroom procedures are and what different signals and instructions mean so that they can follow directions more easily, and so they know what’s going on in the classroom.
Having a routine allows students to be more self-directed, and it also gives them the opportunity to learn important leadership skills.
Classroom procedures also teach students how to recognize and follow patterns.
For example, they’ll learn that when you ring the bell at 11:15, that means to get ready for lunch and that every single day they need to follow the same pattern of tasks when they enter the classroom.
The routines that emerge from clear classroom procedures teach students about time management!
They’ll learn to mark the morning by a series of activities that take the same amount of time every single day and to use the time they have for an allotted task wisely.
Easy Classroom Procedures You Can Put Into Place Now
Here are some simple classroom procedures you can use to streamline your classroom — and tips for how to most effectively introduce them into your class! Try these tips out: you’ll be pleased to see how much more smoothly they make your class go.
1. Procedures for the Start and End of the Day
It’s important to develop standard, clear procedures for the start and end of the day. These will help the time in between go smoothly by anchoring students when they enter and leave your class.
Here are sample classroom procedures for the beginning and end of the day:
Morning Procedure:
Greet the teachers
Place shoes, coats, and backpacks in cubbies
Turn in homework to the homework box
Drink water and go to the bathroom
Grab a book
Go to circle time and read quietly while you wait for class to start
30 small kids running toward a door with no order or reason is, in a word, chaotic. It’s important to create a clear procedure for lining up so that your whole class doesn’t go haywire, and so that you can preserve some peace in your class.
When it’s time to line up, you can play a song alerting students to get ready. Have them clean up their desks, push in their chairs, and stand at their seats. Then, you can call students table by table (or girls, then boys, etc.) to come to the door and line up quietly.
Patience is key to this procedure. In order to facilitate orderly, quiet lining up, you should send students who are unruly or who try to cut to the back even if it makes things take longer. This will set a norm for classroom etiquette.
3. Restroom Procedures
How your restroom procedures will work really depends on the age of your students — if they’re super young, you’ll probably need a member of your teaching staff to go to the bathroom with them.
You can have students raise their hands or make a special hand signal for someone to come accompany them to the restroom.
If your students are a little older, though, you can have them raise their hands and ask to go to the restroom or take a bathroom pass when they want to use the restroom — the pass ensures that only one or two students can go to the bathroom at a time.
Make sure that students replace the bathroom pass and return quietly to their seats without disrupting others after they’re done going to the bathroom.
You can make restroom procedures (and other classroom procedures) more interesting by spicing them up and making them exciting for students. This list of 8 ideas for bathroom passes has some hilarious alternatives to your average boring bathroom pass!
4. Lunchtime Procedures
When your children break for lunch they might get rowdy and overactive, making lunchtime procedures particularly important. You want to ease students into lunchtime in a way that’s orderly and calm to avoid major headaches.
Maybe your class’s lunchtime procedure will look something like this:
Clean up and push the chairs in
Go to the bathroom and wash hands (not all at once!) Call students who’ve been behaving well first, or call them section by section.
Get lunchboxes and water return to the seat
Eat quietly without disturbing others
When finished eating, clean up section and push in the chair
Students who’ve finished lunch can go to the circle and quietly play with a designated toy while they wait for everyone to finish eating
5. More Procedures for Your Classroom
You can create procedures for every part of your day: cleaning up, getting ready for naptime, playing outside, doing group activities, and more.
Procedures don’t need to be complicated or fancy — just a routine that your students can easily learn the steps of and enact!
4 Tools to Implement Classroom Procedures Effectively
No matter what classroom procedure you’re enacting, it’s important to use clear signals and patterns to let students know what they’re supposed to be doing.
These four tips will help you enact any and every procedure easily and effectively!
1. Use Signal Songs or Bells to Transition Between Activities
Signal songs are a really fantastic way to signal to students that it’s time to pay attention and follow directions.
If you have a computer connected to speakers in your classroom, you can create a file with your signal songs in it so you have them on hand throughout the day.
Here are some suggestions for songs you can use for different classroom procedures:
Cleaning up: The Clean Up Song from Barney
Nap time: The Yo Gabba Gabba Nap Time Song
Circle time: Make a Circle from Super Simple Songs
Lining up: The Ants Go Marching from Super Simple Songs
Be creative with the songs you use and the activities you use them for! You can even use silly songs that don’t have anything to do with the activity as long as you use them consistently.
And if you can’t easily play music in your class, don’t worry! You can use bells, instruments, or even clapping patterns to signal activity changes. Look at this list of fun call and response patterns for ideas you can use as procedure signals.
The important thing is to make sure that you’re not just you yelling at your students when it’s time to pay attention — you want a sound that engages them and grabs their attention without being harsh for you or them.
2. Give Warnings Between Activities
It’s important to give students warnings between activities so that they have time to finish what they’re doing, clean up, and get ready for the next activity.
Giving students 5- and 2-minute warnings lets them finish up at their own pace and make sure that they wrap up their work in a way that satisfies them before moving on.
3. Use Teaching Tools to Help Students Remember and Follow Procedures
Visuals help students remember what they’re supposed to be doing so they don’t have to ask you or feel embarrassed if they forget a part of the classroom procedure.
They also enforce the routine so that students can’t veer from it and pretend they didn’t know what was going on.
Here are a couple of teaching tools you can use to enforce your classroom routines and procedures:
Illustrate Starting and Ending Procedures On the Wall
An example morning procedure
If every day students are supposed to enter the classroom and then immediately take their shoes off, put their coats away, drink water, and then come to circle time, you could create a chart with a picture of a pair of shoes, a picture of a coat rack, a picture of a glass of water … you get it.
Make it easy for children to look around the room and know what they’re supposed to be doing!
Appoint Student Leaders to Guide Procedures
Having class monitors or other students who assist in enforcing procedures will do wonders for your class’s behavior — and it reduces your workload as a teacher.
You can elect two new class monitor every week, following a pattern that ensures every student is a monitor at least once, or you can let the two students who got the most points the day before be the student leaders each day.
Whatever system you choose, make sure it’s consistent and clear.
Student leaders can guide and help peers who are having trouble or misbehaving, and they’ll learn about leadership in the process!
Create a necklace or vest for class monitors to wear so everyone knows who they are. Your kids will be clamoring to be appointed student leaders!
4. Introduce Clear, Simple Procedures and Routines — Over and Over and Over Again
Make a clear (classroom management) plan for what your routines and procedures will be, and practice them with students over and over and over at the beginning of the year and even after breaks and weekends so that students learn what’s expected of them.
It’s easy to forget the details of procedures — even for grown-ups. Make practicing routines fun and easy so that your classroom procedures don’t become scary or intimidating for students.
Do you have days — or weeks — when you feel like you’ve just hit a wall?
Students you usually think are delightful turn into little demons, every little thing makes you irritated, and you’re just plain overwhelmed with work.
It may not be in the DSM yet, but teacher burnout is real.
So how do you know when you have it, and what can you do to fix it?
Read on to learn the symptoms of teacher burnout as well as 6 mechanisms for coping with it when it hits.
And — real talk — we’re getting into what to do when you’ve really, really had enough.
Signs of Teacher Burnout
Teacher burnout is no joke.
It can manifest itself in ways as subtle as increased annoyance or exhaustion, or as drastically as depression or decreased appetite. It’s important to know the signs of teacher burnout so you can recognize them in yourself and remedy the problem before it becomes bigger than you.
Here are a few symptoms of teacher burnout:
Anger
Do you find yourself snapping at every little thing — at work or at home? Being annoyed when people talk to you while you’re working, finding yourself wanting to raise your voice at unruly students, feeling enraged when anything veers from the plan even slightly?
If you find yourself becoming more irritated and angry, you may very well be suffering from teacher burnout. We get it — teaching is no walk in the park.
Exhaustion
Exhaustion can manifest in many forms: not just yawning and feeling tired, but also feeling foggy-brained or unable to concentrate, or feeling physically and emotionally drained. If you’re consistently struggling to focus or stay awake while lesson planning (or while doing other things), your body may be telling you it’s had enough.
Teaching is a lot of work, and it’s important to listen when your body tells you that it’s worn out.
Negative Thought Loops
Do you keep telling yourself that you’re a bad teacher, that it’s not worth it, that there’s no point? It’s easy to get into this kind of thought cycle when you’re under a lot of pressure and you’re jumping through hoop after hoop with no end in sight.
These negative thought loops will feed on themselves and eventually eat you right up, so it’s important to recognize when your brain is being mean to you.
Changes in Appetite
When you’re stressed out or depressed it can affect your appetite. Everyone reacts differently to stress, meaning it looks different ways in different bodies. If you find yourself stress eating all the time, or if you struggle to make yourself eat because you’re just never hungry, you may have teacher burnout-induced stress.
Pay attention to the signals your body gives you, and make sure to nourish yourself — especially when it’s hard.
Physical Symptoms
Stomach aches, headaches, illness, and insomnia can all result from teacher burnout. This is because stress, depression, and exhaustion can make you physically ill.
The psychosomatic effects of our mental states have been documented and discussed, and they’re important to pay attention to.
If you’re constantly feeling ill or unwell, take time off and allow yourself the time and energy you need to heal.
You should also see a doctor or go to a clinic if you’re having mental or physical problems.
6 Effective Ways to Fight Teacher Burnout
Graphic of the ways to fight burnout: calming exercises, make time for yourself, exercise, ask for help, change up lessons, remind yourself why it’s worth it
If you’re suffering from teacher burnout, don’t worry: there are steps you can take to give yourself peace of mind and stop the suffering.
These 6 coping mechanisms will help you build a healthier life in and out of the classroom, and they’ll help you deal with the bad feelings when they inevitably come.
1. Do Calming Exercises
A great way to combat teacher burnout is to amass an arsenal of calming exercises that you can pull out when you’re under pressure in the classroom and in your daily life as preventative measures.
Calming exercises will help you reassess your emotional response to situations, and they’ll help you be more serene in the classroom and in your daily life.
Here are three calming exercises that are simple enough to be used in the classroom or as part of your daily routine:
Tapping
Graphic of points on the body for tapping — see picture in Trello board for example
Have you ever heard of EFT tapping? It’s a super easy technique used to reduce anxiety, and it’s just as simple as it sounds: basically, all you do is tap on specific points of your body rhythmically. You can recite a mantra while you tap if you want, or just tap tap tap away.
Tapping exercises are used widely to reduce anxiety — in schools, on battlefields, and everywhere in between. You can do tapping exercises anywhere, even in class!
Tapping is great for kids, too. Try leading a tapping exercise with your whole class — it’ll make you feel better, and it’ll give your students a tool they can use to reduce their own stress as well.
If you’re in class and under duress, try just tapping on the karate chop point (it’s on the edge of your hand, about halfway between your wrist and your pinky knuckle). It’s a subtle enough movement that you can really do it in any situation.
This video is a great tutorial on how to tap to reduce stress and anxiety.
Yoga
Yoga has long been touted for its calming and centering effects, and studies have shown that people feel radically less stressed out once they start a yoga practice.
If you’re self-conscious or are unable to access yoga classes in your area, don’t worry. The internet is full of beginner yoga tutorials like this one that you can do right in your bedroom (or maybe in your classroom during naptime? We won’t tell.)
Breathing Exercises
Breathing exercises are really fantastic because you can do them anywhere, anytime, and you can adapt them to fit you.
Do you have time for 10 minutes of deep breathing in the morning? Fantastic! Only have time to squeeze 3 deep breaths in? That’s fine!
Even a very short breathing exercise will calm you down when you just need something to help you find your center.
This Harvard Medical School article has some good ideas for how to start your own deep breathing practice, and it also talks a little more about the benefits of breathing exercises.
2. Make Time For Yourself
Making time for yourself is incredibly important — and it’s incredibly easy to neglect. Whether you’re hanging out with your friends, going to an art gallery, or just watching TV on the couch, you need time to unwind, recuperate, and just be.
Take the time you carve out for yourself as seriously as you take any other commitments: schedule it on your calendar, get excited about it, don’t make excuses for why you just don’t have time.
It’s not lazy or frivolous to spend time doing things just for fun; in fact, it’s essential to your very well-being. And besides, this is your one precious life. Shouldn’t you enjoy it?
3. Move Your Body
Exercise is seriously important for your overall well-being, and study after study shows that it improves your mental health, mood, stress level, and sleep, to name a few.
Whether you’re lifting weights at the gym, swimming laps, or just walking around the block, make sure that you’re making exercise part of your day. Your body, mind, and spirit will thank you.
4. Ask For Help When You Need It
You aren’t alone: your teaching staff, fellow foreign teachers, and school are all there to help you and be there when you need a shoulder to lean on.
Don’t be afraid to borrow lesson plans or teaching tools from other teachers if you’re feeling completely overwhelmed with work — they understand what stress is like, too.
Likewise, if you need to step out of the classroom for a moment when things are getting to your head, don’t be afraid to ask your co-teacher to take the reins for a minute. They’ll be happy to help you get recentered, and who knows? One day they might even ask you to return the favor.
It’s also vital to build a community with your fellow teachers. They’re in the same boat as you, and having an outlet where you all can talk about the ways in which you’re stressed out and overwhelmed will make you feel less alone. You all might even be able to brainstorm some ways to help each other out and make everyone’s situation a little better.
5. Buck the Norm! Add Some Fun To Your Classroom
If you just can’t stand the doldrums of teaching in the classroom day in, day out, change things up! Hold a class outside, take your class to visit another classroom in the school, or have a day where you halt regular lessons and just do silly activities and watch a movie.
Giving your students a break from the daily grind isn’t robbing them of education — it’s giving yourself and them a chance to reset, so everyone can return to the classroom energized and ready to learn.
6. Remind Yourself Why It’s Worth It
You probably became a teacher for a reason: because you love kids, because you want to help people learn, because you want to spread knowledge and make the world better.
Teaching is a noble and admirable career, but it can be easy to lose sight of all the good you’re doing when you’re stuck in the mire of all the work that surrounds you day-to-day.
That’s why it’s important to remind yourself of how awesome teaching is, and how much joy the classroom can hold.
Here are a couple of ideas for things you can do to remind yourself of why teaching is such a worthwhile thing to do, and why you love it:
Keep a Teaching Scrapbook
Keep a scrapbook of cute memories, gifts, and mementos from students. You can look back on all your happy memories and adorable kids when you’re at the end of your rope and be reminded of how much your students love and appreciate you.
Start A Gratitude Journal
Every night, write down three things you’re grateful for. They don’t have to be teaching-related, just anything you feel truly thankful for. You’ll start realizing how much there is to feel joyous about, and you’ll probably be surprised at how much of your joy and gratitude emanates from your own classroom.
Best of all, when you start gratitude journaling you’ll start thinking about gratitude more, and you won’t be able to help going through life noting down the things that are great, rather than the things you’re annoyed about.
The Greater Good Science Center has some useful tips for how to gratitude journal in a way that’s easy, impactful, and meaningful.
Remember Your Options
If you’re truly at the end of your rope, it’s important to recognize that. If you have day after day of unfulfilled misery, if you are just plain unhappy and exhausted, there is nothing wrong with changing schools — or even changing jobs.
It’s easy for teachers to stay in terrible situations for too long because they feel they owe it to their students, but remember that your livelihood is your top priority. You can’t help any students if you’re not in the mood to teach, and at the end of the day you only have one life — don’t spend it unhappy.
Your students will be sad to see you go, but students at all schools need good teachers, and finding the school that’s the right fit for you — that allows you to be the best teacher you can be — is the best for everyone.
And if you feel that you really hate teaching, that’s okay, too.
It’s a hard job and it’s not for anyone, and quitting in no way makes you a failure. In fact, recognizing your true self and having the strength and courage to say no to something that’s not working is gutsy and downright brave.
The most important thing is for you to find a life that makes you happy and allows you to contribute to the world in a way that’s fulfilling and good.
If you’re feeling depressed or out of control, remember that you’re not alone. No matter where you are or what your situation is, there is help to be found.
Reach out to a doctor or therapist in your insurance network. If that’s not possible, talk to someone on a free online forum.
You’re standing at the front of your ESL classroom (or sitting at your computer screen) and you’ve planned an amazing lesson out.
You have a great Powerpoint and you’re excited to teach, but when you ask the first question to the class…
Crickets.
Your students (or student) don’t say anything. They’re all avoiding eye contact, looking at the floor, or shuffling their feet.
Those awkward classroom moments are awful, but thankfully there’s a cure for them.
Icebreaker activities help your students become more comfortable in the classroom – and get to know one another, and you, a little more.
And the right icebreaker activity can transform your class, taking it from totally awkward to extremely fun and educational.
So, what is an ESL icebreaker activity?
Any game or activity you do at the beginning of class can be an icebreaker!
ESL icebreakers usually get your class speaking in English with one another so they start practicing using the language and getting comfortable in the classroom.
ESL icebreakers for kids usually involve more movement so the kids can get the wiggles out, while activities for adults might involve more free speaking and imaginative language.
Icebreakers for beginners may include more movement or simple activities involving identifying colors and shapes, while icebreakers for more advanced speakers will encourage students to form fuller sentences on their own.
Once you start implementing icebreakers in your class, you’ll get a better sense of what works for your learners.
The Best ESL Icebreakers for Any Age and Ability Level
Here are some of our favorite icebreakers for ESL students of all ages, in no particular order.
1. Name Game
Student level: All levels
Lesson type: Group
Setting: In person/Online
This is a great game to play on the first day of class to help your students get to know each other.
Simply have your students toss a ball to each other. Each one says their own name and then the name of the person they’re tossing the ball to – and no one can toss the ball back to the person who tossed it to them.
You can also ditch the ball and have students say each other’s names if you’re teaching online.
This game isn’t terribly complicated, but it will get your students talking and help them all remember one another’s names!
2. Two Truths and a Lie
Student level: Intermediate/Advanced
Lesson type: Group or individual
Setting: In person/Online
You may have played this game before.
The rules are simple: Each player comes up with three facts about themselves. Two are true, and one is a lie. Everyone has to guess which statement is the lie, and whoever guesses correctly gets to go next.
This game is great because it can be adapted to many levels and since the students learn about one another while also practicing their speaking and listening abilities.
3. I’m Going on a Picnic
Student level: Intermediate
Lesson type: Group
Setting: In person/Online
This repeating game will have your class on the floor laughing while also challenging their memory skills and vocabulary.
The way it works is that you go around the circle and each participant says a picnic item in alphabetical order. Each participant adds on another item, while repeating the items mentioned before.
So if the first participant says “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing apples,” the second might say, “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing apples and a blanket,” and the third would say, “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing apples, a blanket, and cake,” and so on.
As the string of words to remember becomes longer and longer, your students will be giggling trying to remember everything they’re bringing.
4. Four Corners
Student level: Beginner/Intermediate
Lesson type: Group
Setting: In person
If you’re looking for a listening comprehension game that incorporates movement, you can’t do better than this game.
In this game, you’ll ask students a question like “What’s your favorite food?” Then you’ll assign a different answer to each corner of the room, like noodles, pizza, burgers, and chicken.
Students will run to the corner of the room that corresponds with their answer.
You can have students choose the questions and possible answers for this game, too!
5. Jeopardy!
Student level: Intermediate/Advanced
Lesson type: Group/Individual
Setting: In person/Online
This topical icebreaker is great to play online or in person. It’s better for intermediate to advanced students, but in general it’s pretty adaptable to meet your needs.
You’ll create questions ahead of time and your students will try to answer them individually or in teams, racking up points for each correct answer they get.
JeopardyLabs.com is a great online Jeopardy! quiz maker that you can use to make your very own Jeopardy! game.
You can make questions that are topical to your unit, about seasons or weather, or silly questions about your students themselves!
Everyone starts standing, and then the teacher (or an appointed student) starts making statements, like “Sit down if you have a younger sister” or “Sit down if you’re wearing shorts”.
If you’re in a zoom class, you can have students turn their camera off or lower their hands instead of sitting down.
The last person standing can be the next to make statements – or if your students are too young, you can continue to be the person making statements each round.
7. Organize Yourselves
Student level: All levels
Lesson type: Group
Setting: In person
This game works best in person with a group of students.
Have the students line up in a row, organizing themselves by height or birthday…without speaking.
They may not get much speaking practice in this game, but they will have to figure out how to communicate with each other and get along.
8. Riddle Game
Student level: Intermediate/Advanced
Lesson type: Group/Individual
Setting: In person/online
Students love playing this game, which can easily be done individually or in groups.
Choose a category like animals, and then have each student or team come up with something in the category and three clues to help others guess it.
For example, if a student chose an elephant as their animal, they might say “I’m gray…I have big floppy ears…I have a long trunk.”
Whoever chooses correctly will go next!
This is a great way to cover basic vocabulary like shapes and colors while also reviewing subjects you’ve learned in class.
Incorporating Icebreaker Games Into Your ESL Class
If you allot just 5-10 minutes at the beginning of your class for icebreakers, you’ll be astounded at the difference it makes.
So you’ve decided to teach English online to Chinese students – by the way, it’s a great idea: the demand is sky-high!
But you don’t want to start on your own, and you are not sure which company is right for you.
With tons of English teaching companies, it can be hard to figure out which one is best.
This post will discuss which companies are the best and the worst, breaking down the salary, teaching requirements, and teacher satisfaction at each.
It will also talk about what it takes to teach English online to Chinese students, as well as telling you what equipment you’ll need for the job.
The Benefits of Teaching English Online
Teaching English online to Chinese students is a great job for a few reasons:
Work is Abundant: Demand for online English teachers in China is huge, meaning that you’ll never be short of students.
No matter what your qualifications are, you’ll be able to find a job teaching that you can start now.
The job is flexible: You can work from home or on the go. As long as you have a quiet, well-lit space and a strong internet connection, you’re all set to teach.
You can set your own schedule: Choose the teaching time that works for you, and design a job that revolves around your life instead of vice versa.
This means that …
You’re in control of your salary: Feeling good about your finances? Want to take a vacation? Schedule fewer classes, or take a week or two off.
Crunched for cash? Just teach more! Open more teaching slots and watch yourself get scheduled.
You’re off the grid – your schedule, and your finances, are up to you.
It’s low-risk: Most of the tools you need to teach online you already have: a good internet connection, a white wall you can use for your teaching background, a friendly smile.
Because you don’t have to invest much to start your teaching career, you can try it out to see if it’s right for you before you quit your day job or spend a bunch of time or money.
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Finding the Perfect Teaching Company
The teaching market is flooded with companies you can teach for, which can make deciding where you want to teach overwhelming.
There are a few factors you should consider when deciding which company to work with.
Teacher Requirements
First, make sure the company you want to work with will hire you.
Some companies prefer teachers with certain accents (i.e. U.K. or North American).
Some places also only hire teachers who reside in or are citizens of certain places, due to payment and server requirements.
(Source: VIPKID)
Most companies require teachers to have a bachelor’s degree in any field and to be native English speakers. A TEFL certificate is also preferred, but not always required.
If you don’t have a bachelor’s degree or aren’t a native speaker, don’t worry. You may have to look a little harder for work, but there are companies that will hire you.
You’re probably thinking, “Great, I can get hired, but how can I choose the company that’s best for me?”
When comparing companies, you’ll want to consider a few factors:
Payment Model
Look at the salary range for the companies you’re considering, as well as how often you’re paid.
Are you paid per minute, per 25-minute class, or per hour?
Will you receive payment monthly or do you have to earn a certain amount before the company will deposit payment to your account?
Does the company use PayPal or another online payments system?
Make sure you won’t have trouble accepting payments to your bank account in your home currency – this shouldn’t be an issue with major companies.
Required Schedule
Companies vary widely in terms of how they schedule teachers. You want to make sure you choose a company that accommodates your needs.
Some companies require you to set a schedule and stick to it, and give plenty of notice if you want to modify it.
This model gives you less flexibility but usually ensures that you get paid for slots you have opened even if you end up not teaching during them.
Some companies give you control over your scheduling, letting you open and close slots until they’ve been booked, at which point you’ll be penalized for canceling because a student is counting on you to show up.
This model gives you ultimate control, but it can make it harder for you to get booked up at first.
It also can make it harder to commit to a teaching schedule if you’re not self-motivated because it’s easy to cancel classes and give yourself less opportunity to meet new students
Keep in mind that some companies have minimums on how many hours their teachers work.
You may have to sign up for at least 6 classes a week, for example.
Having minimum teaching hours helps you stick to a good teaching schedule, but it can also mean you have to plan in advance or give notice if you want to take a vacation where you won’t be teaching.
Working Conditions and Teaching Support
Read this, because this requirement is more important than it may initially seem.
You’ll probably want to work with a company that has good teaching support and a strong teacher’s community.
When you inevitably run into technical problems or have issues with students you’re teaching, you’ll want to have a community of fellow teachers that you can talk about your job with as well as professionals working for your company that can help you resolve issues.
Having good support will make your class run more smoothly, and it will help you make your classes better.
The Kind of Lessons You’ll Teach
Before signing with a company, consider what kind of work you want to be doing. Different platforms design different types of curriculums and cater to different kinds of students.
Most companies teach children and adolescents, but some work with all ages or only cater to certain populations, such as business people or high school students studying for standardized tests.
Consider also what kind of teaching you want to do. Do you want to converse, teach in a flipped classroom, or have complete control over your curriculum development?
Doing some research about different companies’ teaching styles and audiences will help you get a sense of which place is best for you.
The Best Companies to Teach English Online to Chinese Students
There are tons of online English teaching companies popping up all the time.
With all the choices out there, it can be hard to tell which companies are legitimate and which ones don’t have a clue.
Below, we’ll break down some of the most popular online teaching companies.
Applicant Requirements: Have a bachelor’s degree, the eligibility to work in the U.S. or Canada and one school year of teaching, tutoring, mentoring, or other educational experience
Note: Due to independent contractor laws, potential teachers who have California, New York, or Washington state residence can no longer sign with VIPKID
VIPKID caters to Chinese students between the ages of 4 and 12.
Teachers don’t have a minimum teaching requirement, although VIPKID recommends that teachers work at least 7.5 hours a week in order to maximize booking opportunities.
VIPKID provides teachers with lesson plans and a teaching platform complete with a points system, a feedback system, Powerpoints, and a conversation box.
Teachers don’t plan their lessons. Instead, they use VIPKID’s curriculum, which centers on the flipped classroom method of teaching.
VIPKID is a particularly great company to teach for because they have great teacher’s resources, including “firemen” that are always available to help out if you have problems in class.
For example, if you or your student run into technical issues, the fireman can help you. They can also help if either of you have trouble understanding technical things or if you have confusion about scheduling or lesson time.
Additionally, there’s a great teacher community for VIPKID. Teachers on online forums trade information about improving their classes, attracting more students, and creating classroom props. They also sometimes meet up for in-person gatherings of VIPKID teachers!
VIPKID also offers great personal development resources. They recently offered all of their teachers free TESOL certification. This certification can serve you well in getting other ESL jobs – online or in person.
They also offer lots of workshops and courses for improving teaching skills.
Teacher requirements: be a native English speaker from the U.S. or Canada, have a bachelor’s degree or be in the process of getting your bachelor’s degree; have a 120-hour ESL certificate
Teaching requirements: live in the U.S. or Canada, have a bachelor’s degree and a teaching license or English teaching certificate (like TEFL, TESOL, CELTA, ESL)
QKids has a 6-hour weekly teaching minimum, and requires teachers to have a bachelor’s degree and previous teaching experience.
If you teach for QKids you’ll have to work at least 6 hours a week, and your schedule will be set weekly. You’ll teach 1-4 students in each lesson.
QKids pays teachers $16-$20 an hour, including base pay and bonuses. You’ll receive half pay for lessons where the student doesn’t show up with QKids, and you’ll receive payment for classes you teach during the interview process.
QKids is an attractive company because it offers a competitive salary and, unlike many companies, compensates teachers for their classes during the interview process.
However, their scheduling is less flexible than some other places.
SayABC serves Chinese students aged 5-12. Teachers teach 40-minute classes to 1-6 students at a time.
SayABC has laxer teaching requirements than some other companies. Unlike many companies, they don’t have citizenship requirements for teachers.
However, while teachers used to be able to apply even if they didn’t have a bachelor’s degree, due to changing Chinese government requirements they now require all teachers to have at least a bachelor’s degree.
The biggest complaint SayABC teachers have is of having inconsistent bookings and sometimes not getting as many classes as they’d like.
italki is a great company to work for if you want lots of control over your teaching practice.
Anyone over the age of 18 can work for the platform as a Community Tutor, although Type 1 Teachers need a bachelor’s degree and references and Type 2 Teachers need a teaching license or ESL certificate.
Tutors on the site set their own pay, curriculum, and schedule, and italki collects a commission on your pay.
The site is basically just a platform that connects tutors with students. italki doesn’t have its own teaching platform. Teachers are allowed to use whatever platform they want, although most of the site’s lessons are conducted through Skype.
If you’re self-motivated and want to put the work in to really build a teaching practice, italki may be for you.
However, if you want to jump into a structured program that requires less work, you may want to consider a more traditional teaching platform.
Teacher requirements: Be a native English speaker with a neutral accent, have a bachelor’s degree, have experience teaching or tutoring and experience in the U.S. or Canadian educational system
Teaching requirements: be a native English speaker from the USA, Canada, or UK; have a bachelor’s degree; have a TEFL/TESOL certificate; have one or more years of prior online teacher experience
Consider a job with BOXFiSH if you’re a native English speaker with a bachelor’s degree!
The company pays $22-$24 an hour. If a student doesn’t show up for class, you’ll make 60% of your normal salary, which is higher than what most companies offer.
BOXFiSH teachers work with Chinese students from kindergarten to grade 12. The company offers 25-minute one-on-one classes and group classes with up to four students.
They also offer 5-minute review classes, during which teachers assist students in reviewing lessons that the students have learned independently.
BOXFiSH gives teachers lots of flexibility in creating their teaching schedule, like VIPKID does.
BOXFiSH also lets teachers conduct class via app, unlike many companies. This offers teachers more flexibility in when and where they can give lessons.
Many teachers like the company because it offers a good salary, a flexible teaching schedule, and a generous cancellation policy.
Teaching requirements: No requirements apparently (from what it looks like on their website); it seems like you do need to be a native English speaker, according to OET
Salary: $0.17 per minute or $10.20per hour; $0.20 per minute or $12.00 per hour on Cambly Kids
Cambly tutors make $0.17 a minute, which works out to around $10.20 an hour. If you opt for the Cambly Kids option, you can make 3 cents more a minute, which works out to $12.00 an hour.
The company seems to require its employees to be native English speakers, but doesn’t require tutors to have prior experience or even a bachelor’s degree.
As a Cambly tutor, you’ll chat with students rather than teaching formal lessons. You can choose to teach either children or adults.
Cambly gives you lots of flexibility and has a low barrier to entry, but it also pays less than many other companies.
UUabc has a four-hour minimum weekly teaching requirement.
The company doesn’t require applicants to be native speakers, so long as their English is clear and fluent.
If you work for UUabc you’ll use their provided materials to teach Chinese kids individually or in groups of four.
The company seems to offer pretty competitive pay, but it’s less established than other companies, which means you may not have great teacher support or steady working hours if you decide to teach for them.
As a teacher with EF, you’ll get to work with either children or adults, although most of the company’s students are adults. You may teach students 1 on 1 or in groups of 6-8.
EF teachers are given all the teaching material they need for class.
Teaching requirements: English speaker at an idiomatic level; teaching license, TEFOL/TESL certificate, or equivalent, bachelor’s degree, teaching experience
Salary: Not listed on the company website (Glassdoor reports pay ranging from $8-$17 per hour)
As a teacher with iTutorGroup, you’ll need to commit to teaching during 6 peak hours per week. Other than that, though, you’re free to set your own schedule.
So, while you’ll have less flexibility than you would with some other companies, you can still make your schedule work for you.
As an iTutorGroup teacher, you’ll be able to work with children aged 5-18 or adults aged 18_. The company provides all the materials you’ll need to teach!
iTutorGroup, doesn’t offer information about teacher salaries on its website.
DaDa (formerly DadaABC) is a platform for teaching children aged 4-16 English one-on-one.
Classes are 30 minutes long and teachers must teach for at least 10 hours a month.
Some teachers really love working for DaDa. However, others complain about not getting paid on time, and its lack of flexibility and transparency makes it less attractive than other companies.
LIKESHUO (out of business)
LIKESHUO Teaching Portal
Teacher requirements:
Native English speaker
Bachelor’s degree
Salary: Not listed on the company website (OET Jobs reports $16-$25 per hour for teaching children and $10-$18 per hour for teaching adults)
Glassdoor rating: 1.0 out of 5 stars
LIKESHUO splits their online English teachers into three levels based on experience and credentials. Requirements vary based on level.
The company requires most of its teachers to work at least 30 hours per month.
This company has scant information available and online and has a poor rating on Glassdoor. Some have reported having a good experience working with them, but overall, it seems that this might not be your best bet.
What Are the General Requirements to Teach English Online?
Being an online English teacher is easier than you think! All you need are native-level English, a bachelor’s degree, and a friendly attitude!
What English Abilities Do You Need?
Most online English teaching companies require their teachers to be native speakers. Some also require teachers to be from specific countries. For example, VIPKID requires its teachers to be from the U.S. or Canada.
Keep in mind that there are companies that only require that their teachers have a native level of English.
Does “Teaching Experience” Mean You Have to Be a Classroom Teacher?
Many companies don’t require their teachers to have prior teaching experience. However, if you have teaching experience or a TEFL certificate, you’ll be a more attractive candidate and may even be offered a higher starting salary.
Some companies do require teaching experience, but don’t worry. Often you can count tutoring, camp counseling, childcare, or leadership roles as prior experience.
Employers just want to know that you’re good with children and are able to be an educator.
What Personality Traits Will Help You Teach English Online to Chinese Students?
Perhaps the most important part of becoming an online ESL teacher is your personality.
To really shine through the screen and teach effectively, you should be a lively, fun person whom students can relate to and feel comfortable around.
In your interview and mock class, your employer will want to see you use TPR (total physical response). That means talking with your body as well as your voice, using gestures and signals to indicate that you’ve heard the student and to illustrate concepts.
Don’t be afraid to be expressive and let your personality shine through. Your employer will love it, and so will your students!
Can You Teach English Online Without a Degree?
Most companies require all of their teachers to have a bachelor’s degree or above. However, some do accept students in their last year of university or applicants who have an associate’s degree.
Additionally, some teaching marketplaces allow anyone to teach on their platform.
Do You Need TEFL Certification?
Most teaching companies don’t require teachers to have a TEFL certificate. However, some teachers do require teachers to have a TEFL/TESOL certificate, and others offer teachers who are certified higher base salaries.
A TEFL online course is a good option even if you don’t work for a company that requires its teachers to be certified, because the course will give you teaching skills and will look good on your resume generally.
Some online teaching companies, like VIPKID, offer free teaching certification to their teachers.
What Equipment Do You Need?
Besides CV requirements, you need a few technical requirements to be an online ESL teacher.
You probably have most of what you need, and everything else is pretty easily attained. Here are the physical requirements for teaching ESL online:
Internet Connection
Since your classes will be delivered online, you’ll obviously need a good internet connection to teach online.
Some companies ask teachers to have a wired internet connection to ensure stability, but overall you should be fine if you can Skype and do similar tasks easily with your internet connection.
You can also check different platforms’ websites to see their specific requirements for internet speed and system requirements.
System Requirements
Many companies require you to have at least 4 GB of RAM, as well as a newer OS.
If you have a reasonably new Mac or PC you should have no issues, but check specific websites tech reqs to make sure your current computer is up to snuff.
Your classroom should have good lighting and be somewhere quiet.
Choose a room where you can close the door, and if there isn’t good overhead lighting make sure you have plenty of lamps. You can even buy studio lamps to better light your classroom.
Make sure you’re lighting yourself from the front and that the whole room is well-lit to avoid weird shadows or too much darkness.
Do You Need to Bring Your Own Lesson Plans and Worksheets?
Most companies provide you with all of your teaching materials, meaning you don’t have to do any curriculum planning or prep!
Some companies, however, do require teachers to create their own lesson plans. EF and italki, for example, give teachers the freedom to create their own lessons.
No matter what, there are a few items that you’ll want to prepare in order to make your classroom livelier and your lessons more engaging:
Teaching Background and Props
One of the most fun parts about teaching online is creating your classroom. You’ll want a fun, educational teaching background to keep your students engaged.
Lots of teachers like to decorate their classrooms with alphabet charts, points boards, and other fun wall hangings that attract students attention and help create an educational setting.
Teaching Props
Props help your students understand what you’re teaching, and they also keep them entertained during lessons.
You can use flashcards, realia, and other objects during class. Funny hats, puppets, pictures, and toys will also help you illustrate your lessons. Your students will also love seeing what wacky props you have in store!
Most companies allow you to set your own schedule. Some require you to keep a schedule that you set every week or month, while others let you open and close teaching slots at any time until they get booked.
Some companies having minimum weekly or monthly teaching requirements, while others let you teach as much or as little as you like.
A minimum teaching requirement can help you make sure you’re teaching enough classes to make good money, but it can also make planning trips or taking vacations harder.
Also, even though you can set your own schedule, you’ll still be tied to students’ schedules. As a teacher in China, you’ll have to work when students are around to take classes. Peak class times are in the Chinese afternoons, which means that you’ll be teaching late at night or early in the morning depending on what time zone you’re in.
How Much Is The Pay?
How much you’ll make depends based on what company you work for, but most teaching platforms pay somewhere between $10 and $25 an hour.
Your pay will probably include your base salary as well as incentives for things like starting class on time and hitting a certain number of teaching hours per month.
If you work for a teaching marketplace, you may be able to set your own salary.
What’s the Application and Interview Process Like?
The process of applying to teach English online varies based on what company you’re applying to, but most companies have roughly similar application processes.
You’ll most likely start the process by filling out an application form where you give some basic information about yourself, like what country you’re from, what your education level is, and whether you have any teaching experience.
Next, you’ll do a video interview with someone from the company – either an employee or another teacher. You’ll probably just talk a little with them and go over a few of the things from your resume.
After the interview, you’ll have one or two demo classes. The company will give you some materials to review, and then you’ll use them to teach a mock class to a teacher for the company. The teacher will grade your performance and give you feedback for how you can improve.
During the interview and the mock classes, make sure you look your best, speak clear, fluent English, and are enthusiastic, collected, and prepared. This is your chance to show the company how great of a teacher you are!
After the mock classes are over, you’ll most likely receive notice that you’ve been hired! You’ll be offered a starting salary, and if you accept it you’ll sign a contract for somewhere between 3 months and a year.
After that, you’ll create a profile on the website and start teaching!
Can You Teach English Online While You’re Traveling?
YES!
However, make sure that you’ll have a quiet classroom and a stable internet connection before you start adventuring.
You can set up a classroom anywhere that’s bright and quiet: a hallway, a broom closet, a bathroom, whatever. If there’s no strong wifi, though, you’re out of luck.
You also need to be extra disciplined if you’re planning on traveling while teaching. Keep track of time change differences and scheduling to make sure you don’t accidentally miss class and get penalized.
You Don’t Speak Mandarin – Can You Still Teach English Online?
YES!
Most companies center on an immersion-based language curriculum, encouraging students to hear, speak, and think in English during class time. You won’t be required to speak Chinese at all.
Using props and body language will help you convey ideas to young learners without speaking the same language as them. And you’ll be surprised by how well many students speak English!
What’s it Like to Teach Chinese Students Online?
There are some bad misconceptions floating around about what it’s like to teach Chinese students. Don’t listen to stereotypes: your students in China are probably pretty much just like the people you know in your home country.
Teaching will be a little different depending on what age group you teach. Think about what kind of students you want to teach, and then apply to a company that caters to that group.
Children
Teaching kids is super fun, but it can be draining, too. When you teach children you’ll want to speak slowly, use lots of fun props, and make class interesting and exciting. If you’re bubbly and high energy, you’ll love teaching children!
However, if you’re more serious or staid, you may want to consider working with older students.
High School Students
High school in China can be pretty intense, meaning that your students may be totally slammed with work. They’ll probably pay attention well in class and have good English skills, but they may not give your ESL classes as much attention as you’d like because they have so much other work to do.
Pre-College Students
Students who want to go to university in the U.S. need to pass a language test in order to get admitted to school.
You need to be familiar with CELTA, TOEFL, or other tests to teach these students, but if you’re good at teaching to these tests you can make a pretty high salary.
Keep in mind, though, that teaching to a test is more stressful than other types of teaching because your students are relying on you to get into university.
Adults
Adults take English lessons for a number of reasons. Some simply want to practice their English, while others are specifically looking to learn English for business purposes.
If you’re teaching business English you can make a lot of money because it’s a niche field.
Teaching regular adults is also rewarding because you can develop a good relationship with an adult language learner. They’ll probably also be vocal about what they want in their lessons, making for a more collaborative teaching process.
Is Teaching English Online to Chinese Students Right for YOU?
Teaching English online is a lucrative and flexible job, but it’s not for everyone.
Thankfully, applying to teach online is pretty low-stakes, but you might want to consider whether the job is right for you before you apply.
Here are some traits you should have if you want to be an online English teacher:
Be Self-Motivated
There’s high competition in the online teaching market. Therefore, you should be able to market yourself and persevere to ensure that you get a good student base and regular lessons.
You also need to be able to set and stick to your own schedule, and to wake up early or stay up late to teach.
You’ll be on your own when you teach online. Although this gives you a lot of freedom it also means that you need to be your own boss in lots of ways. No one is in charge of you but you.
Have Thick Skin
Teaching online is a lot of fun, but it’s also a wild job. You might get bad reviews from parents, or have to deal with unruly or even mean students.
Being able to roll with the punches and bounce back from criticism will help you keep going even when the job gets tough.
Be Personable
Your personality is your biggest asset when you’re teaching online. Being able to captivate students, even students who are distracted or don’t want to be in class, is what separates great online teachers from poor ones.
If you are happy and have a sparkling personality, your students will love you and their parents will too. And you’ll probably have a great time teaching if you’re smiling, too!
Online Teaching Might Just Be for You!
If you think you meet these requirements and you love teaching, children, or interacting with people from different cultures, then online teaching is perfect for you!
The job is mobile, person-to-person, and flexible. If that sounds like a great setup, then don’t hesitate… apply to teach English online now!
I’ve come across countless students who have a decent understanding of English grammar, writing, and vocabulary.
However, many of these same students continue to struggle with speaking and have difficulty being understood by native English speakers.
What is the reason?
They have not taken the time to tackle word stress. What exactly is the concept of word stress in English language, and why is it so important to master?
Brief: What does word stress mean?
Word stress is crucial to properly pronounce words in the English language. It means, that in multisyllabic words, some syllables are spoken with greater emphasis than others.
If you get word stress wrong, it might be difficult to understand you, as there are several words which sound similar and can only be distinguished by word stress (in spoken language).
What Is Word Stress?
English is not a flat language, but one of stresses and varying intonations. And here’s how it works:
Each word in English is broken into a number of syllables.
Short words like dog, car, box and so on are one syllable words. Meaning each of these words only has one sound.
Words such as pretty [pret-ty], quiet [qui-et] and export [ex-port] are broken up into two syllables.
Then there are words with three, four and even five or more syllables. Think of the words important [im-por-tant], realistic [real-is-tic] and communication [com-mun-i-ca-tion].
Each syllable needs to be pronounced, but some syllables are stressedor emphasized on more than others, depending on the word.
Examples:
In the word ‘important’, the second syllable is stressed, so it is pronounced stronger and should read imPORtant.
The syllables which are not stressed are called the weak or quiet ones.
This is not only a difficult concept to grasp for Asian speakers studying English, but generally for all English as a second language students.
Even if one understands that importance of word stress, knowing exactly where to emphasize stress is no easy task.
General Rules and Patterns for Word Stress
This video lesson provides an introduction into syllable and word stress rules:
English is a very inconsistent language when it comes to rules. Since it is littered with exceptions, you should always keep in mind that there are no definite rules to English, but general rules and patterns that can be followed.
First, only one syllable can be stressed in an English word regardless if it has two, three, or even four or more syllables.
Two-Syllable Words
In most two-syllable nouns and adjectives, the stress comes in the firs syllable of the word.
Rule: stress on first syllable
Example
Nouns
PRESent, TABle, DOCtor
Adjectives
GIant, UGly, WASTEful
For most two-syllable verbs, the stress is in the second syllable.
Rule: stress on second syllable
Example
Verbs
exPORT, reGRET, proNOUNCE
Adjectives
GIant, UGly, WASTEful
Three- or More-Syllable Words
For words that have three or more syllables, understanding where to place the stress becomes a little more tricky, but there are some general patterns that can be followed.
The stress comes in the second to last syllable in any word that ends in -ic, -sion or -tion.
Rule: stress on second to last syllable
Example
Words ending in -ic
GRAPHic, geoGRAPHic, geoLOGic
Words ending in -sion and -tion
teleVIsion, reveLAtion
For any word ending in the suffixes -cy, -gy, -phy, -ty or -al, the stress comes in the THIRD syllable from the LAST.
Rule: stress on third to last syllable
Example
Words ending in -cy, -ty, -phy and -gy
deMOcracy, dependaBIlity, phoTOgraphy, geOLogy
Words ending in -al
CRItical, geoLOGical, histORical
Example: Here’s a tricky one!
Photograph – PHOtograph (3 syllables, first one is stressed)
Photography – phoTOgraphy (4 syllables, third to last one is stressed)
Photographic – photoGRAPHic (4 syllables, second to last one is stressed)
Why Word Stress Is So Important
Why exactly is correct word stress so important when it comes to conversing in the English language?
Here are some reasons:
Word stress heavily affects the sounds of the vowels in a word. Different word stress can make a word sound completely different.
Native speakers rely on word stress to identify words. Thus, incorrect word stress patterns can lead to miscommunication between non-native speakers and native speakers.
Overall, the skill to stress words correctly will help ESL learners more to converse more confidently in English and enjoy it!
While some languages have little or limited stress – like Mandarin –, English is a heavily stress-based language.
Unfortunately, the majority of ESL teachers and students ignore the necessity to practice word stress.
Word stress is not something extra that students should study if they have time. It is an essential part of learning English because it is a major component of the English language.
If I had two dollars for every student I’ve met who was frustrated that his or her speaking skills weren’t improving despite significant gains in the areas of grammar, writing, and vocabulary, I would have a decent amount of savings.
If you are a student out there, then you need to be studying word stress.
If you are a teacher, then you should take time each week to practice it with your students.
How to Practice Word Stress
I wish I could tell something else, but besides the few rules students just have to memorize the correct stress for each word in English language.
They should listen to native speakers – watch movies, listen to podcasts, etc. –, and then repeat the words they’ve heard, imitating their pronunciation. Or they can use the read-aloud function in language learning apps.
Every language teacher knows that speaking is a core skill to teach and practice, but sometimes it can be challenging coming up with creative or engaging ESL speaking activities and games. You can use them to improve the community feeling inside the classroom, too.
Let’s dive into nine quick, easy, and fun ESL speaking activities for teenagers and adults you can integrate into your lessons or use in speaking clubs.
They are designed to be high-quality and enjoyable – and mostly suitable for online lessons, too.
They don’t need much preparation, but will get your students talking and help them to hone their conversational skills without even thinking about it.
Student level: Pre-Intermediate to Advanced Type of Lesson: Group or Individual
This is a great one for students to have fun and be creative. Put students in pairs, or you could also carry this one out in a one-one lesson.
Students choose one person they want to interview. It can be anybody of their choice, and the person doesn’t necessarily have to be alive still.
I tell students to choose someone they know a lot about or who they admire because then they’ll have more material to talk about when the speaking part of the activity comes around.
Give each student a list of ten to fifteen verbs. (Can be the same list or different) See the example:
Decide
Hate
Love
Offer
Prefer
Move
Win
Continue
Buy
Wait
Consider
Change
Each student has to choose five verbs from their list.
They make a different question using one of their five verbs in each question; these questions are made for the person they want to interview.
Each question will have a different verb.
For example, let’s say a student chooses Barack Obama. They have to make five interview questions for Barack Obama, each question using a different verb from their list.
Here are some examples:
How did you decide you want to become president?
Did you want to continue being president after your term finished?
What did you love about being the president?
What would you change about the USA?
What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment as president?
While I usually just come up with the verbs myself, you can also find some verb lists online, along with a list of people for your students to choose from.
While the students are making their questions, go through the class and help students fix the grammatical mistakes.
This is a great activity if you are practicing question formation as a grammar topic with your students.
The students then give their partner the questions that they wrote and then assume the role of the person they wanted to interview, while their partner asks them the questions they just made.
So this means that each student answers the questions from the perspective of the person they wanted to interview, as their partner asks them the questions.
Go around and listen for mistakes.
You could also then have students report to the class the person their partner chose and how they responded to the questions.
2. Word Racing
Student level: Pre-Intermediate to Advanced Type of Lesson: Group
A very interactive and high-energy ESL speaking activity. Many students get so into it and excited that they won’t even notice they are speaking in a foreign language and won’t even have time to think about making mistakes.
All you need to prepare for the game is to write down 15-20 vocabulary terms you want to practice with your students, each term is written on a different small slip of paper. Give a stack of these slips to each group.
You can also let the students write down the vocabulary (for example on the last topic they’ve learned) but then some words might be double and they also might not think of the words you want them to practice.
Divide your students into groups of three or four and explain the rules of the game.
One player from the first group starts. This student then has one minute to explain or define as many words written on their slips to their own group as they can, without saying the word they have on the card.
They want their group to guess as many words as possible in one minute.
Each time the members of the group guess a word, they put the card down, which gets them a point, and then they take a new card and repeat the same thing.
Once the minute is over, the next group takes their turn.
After the minute is up, each group counts their points and the group with the most points wins that round.
If you have time to play more rounds, after all, words are guessed, put them back in the basket and let them play again, although this time they can only use one word to explain the word on the card, for example, a synonym or a word they associate with the word on the card.
An example might be that if the word on the card is ‘handcuff’ then they say the word ‘police’ and the other students have to guess the word ‘handcuff’.
Students only get one guess. Once a student guesses, the student must move on to the next card, whether the word was guessed correctly or not.
In the last round, they act out or pantomime the words on their cards.
While there are many other good vocabulary-charades type games that can be done with both younger and older students, this one has been my favorite.
3. Guess Who or What I Am
Student level: Pre-Intermediate to Upper-Intermediate Type of Lesson: Group
This is a very simple but effective activity with no preparation needed and can be played in two versions.
It’s usually more suitable for lower-level students but can also be used in intermediate or upper-intermediate students, especially for the other variation of the activity described below.
In version one, one student thinks of a person – it could be someone in the class or a famous person, someone that everyone is likely to know – and the rest of the class asks them yes or no questions about the person until they can guess who it is.
The student who guesses the person with the least amount of questions wins.
In version two, one student goes in front of the door, while the rest of the class decides on a person. Then the student comes back in and has to ask the class yes or no questions until they can guess who the person is.
Another variation of this game is to put students in groups and describe themselves from the perspective of an object, and the other students must guess what that object is in the quickest time possible.
Each student in the group writes down an object and then speaks from the perspective of that object as if they were actually that object.
For example, if one student chooses ‘handcuffs’ they would say something like:
“The police put me around somebody’s wrists when they break the law.”
“I have two round rings with chains connected them.”
“I am on a person on their way to prison.”
Students shouldn’t do any gesturing or acting on this one because that will give it away. The student who is able to guess the most objects correctly wins.
The reason I like this one more is that the students have to get a little bit more creative about expressing their ideas and they also tend to have more fun with this one.
4. Would you rather…
Student level: Intermediate to Advanced Type of Lesson: Group or Individual
This is a great way to practice ‘would’ in the conditional form.
There’s a lot of different ways you can organize this one. One of the easiest ways is to just come up with some of your own ideas (5-10 should be enough), type them out, and cut them up into cards.
Go around the class and have a student draw a card, read it aloud, and then call on another student to answer it.
The goal is to make the “Would you rather” questions funny, crazy, interesting, or controversial. Think about what kind of questions you think would be fun to discuss if you were learning a foreign language.
Would you rather give up your mobile phone or your pet?
Would you rather have $50,000 that is legal or $150,000 that is illegal?
Would you rather be the funniest person in the room or the most intelligent?
Would you rather have your first child when you are 19 years old or when you are 45?
As stated before, you can make up your own. If you are doing a specific topic for your lesson, then you can try to make them as closely related to the topic as possible.
For example, if the topic for your lesson is Meet the World’s Oldest Ice Hockey Player, then you might want to prepare some ‘would you rather’ questions about age or about hockey:
Would you rather stop aging at 17 or 35?
Would you rather date someone ten years older or ten younger?
Would you rather be a famous football player or a famous hockey player?
Give each group or pair of students the same card and have each of them state their opinion about the topic on the card.
You can give them a few minutes to take notes on their opinion and what they want to say before starting. Then students go around and say their opinion and support their argument.
This is one is sure to bring some good conversations and even laughs in your class.
You can also teach phrases on how to express opinions, such as:
“In my opinion…”
“I believe that…”
“In my eyes…”
“From my point of view…”
In addition to this, you could also assign students to make their own “Would you rather…” topics for the class or other groups. Make sure they keep them appropriate!
Help facilitate the conversations and ask follow-up questions while students are speaking.
5. How-to Presentation
Student level: Pre-Intermediate to Advanced Type of Lesson: Group or Individual
This activity is great for a number of reasons: it’s simple to assign and explain, effective for students to develop speaking, and fun because it’s on a topic they’re interested in.
It’s also practical because they’re teaching the class how to do something or how something works.
Basically, all you need to do for ESL speaking activities like this one is have students choose some topic. It can be any appropriate topic according to their wishes.
Then they give a five-minute presentation on that How-to topic.
In order to get students cooperating together, you could also put them in pairs and have them decide on and organize the speech together.
Here are some of the ones my students have done before and they turned out to be great:
How to cook [a food]
How to play [a sport]
How to travel cheap
How to do a magic trick
How to live healthily
There are some great tips you can share with your students on giving a presentation in a foreign language.
Have students prepare the speech at home or during the lesson, and then have them present their topic during the next lesson.
You could take notes on their speaking or pronunciation mistakes while they present and go over them after the presentation.
6. Living Memory
Student level: Pre-Intermediate Type of Lesson: Group
This is a game based on the classic board game “memory” designed for lower-level students.
Two students go out of the room (Student A and Student B). The rest of the class gets together in pairs.
If you have an uneven number of students, one group can be in three.
Each pair chooses a word according to the learning objective.
For example, if your students are learning about food, then in pairs they will mutually agree on a meal or a food they both like. Then the two students come back into the classroom and these two students play against each other to gain points.
To gain points, Student A starts off and asks any student in the class “What do you like eating?” and that student answers “I like eating…”, and then Student A asks another student what they like to eat.
If the second student likes the same thing, then Student A gets one point. Then Student B goes and tries to match the pairs based on the food they mutually chose together.
This is a fun game to practice vocabulary and simple phrases.
You can make the game more interactive if students make gestures and movement demonstrating the type of food. For example, they gesture peeling a banana if the food they chose is ‘banana’.
Other good questions are:
What is your favorite subject?
What do you like doing in your free time?
What time is it?
7. Video Talk
Student level: Pre-Intermediate to Advanced Type of Lesson: Group or Individual
Find a YouTube video topic that you think would be interesting for your students. I would choose a relatively short video (two to five minutes), or something like a TedTalk.
Make some preview discussion questions about the topic presented in the video, go through them with students before watching, and then watch the video together.
You can then have some questions prepared based on the video content and some post-discussion activities while going through some of the important vocabulary terms from the video.
Students tend to love working with videos and there are so many good ones out there nowadays.
Using video is effective because it brings the outside world to your students, and they can generate some great discussions in class, inspiring students to speak their mind and share their opinions and ideas.
Student level: Beginner to Intermediate Type of Lesson: Group
This activity is a better choice if your students are happy talking but maybe are a bit nervous speaking in front of a class:
Split the class into pairs.
Students need to discuss their weekend with their partner.
Use only English!
You need to be observant with this type of activity. Keep an eye on each student’s talk time.
If you are finding some students are much more talkative than their partners, maybe set a time limit for how long each student can talk for before switching. This ensures that everyone gets a fair chance to practise.
Student level: Pre-Intermediate to Advanced Type of Lesson: Group or Individual
This is another simple yet great activity for building confidence in speaking!
Give the student a topic card, for instance, “Talk about your favorite place.” or “What’s your favorite band or artist?”
The student has a certain amount of time to prepare some ideas for what they will say.
The student then has to talk about that topic for a chosen amount of time.
When starting out with this activity, make sure to give more time for preparation and less time for the presentation. 5 minutes of preparation time and 1 minute of the presentation should be plenty.
With time, you can reduce the preparation time or increase the presentation time.
10. Debating Club
Student level: Intermediate to Advanced Type of Lesson: Group or Individual
Prepare a list of controversial topics, and two opposing views about each topic.
Split your students into pairs or small groups (each with an even number of students). Split each groups into two parties. Assign a topic to each group: each party has to hold an opposite view.
Give them some time to prepare arguments for their standpoint. 5 to 10 Minutes should be enough.
Then let each group debate their topic in front of the class. One party starts voicing their first argument, then the other answers.
Each statement shouldn’t exceed 30 seconds – use a stopwatch with a countdown, so students know when they have to stop.
The debate is over after a set time – for example 5 minutes – or when the parties stated all their arguments.
After each debate, the whole class votes which party was more convincing and won the debate.
If it’s an individual lesson, you and the student play the opposite parties – no final vote then.
Make sure to prepare topics according to the fluency level of your students. The topics can be rather serious and controversial, or fun and weird.
Here are a couple of examples:
Current and serious topics:
Classroom instruction vs. Homeschooling
Self-driving cars: smart or dangerous
Buy local vs. buy online
Death sentence: yes or no
iOS vs. Android
Fun and weird topics:
Vanilla vs. chocolate ice-cream
Get up early vs. go to bed late
Have no kids vs. have 5 kids
Travel to Mars vs. to the earth’s core
Sommer vs. Winter
11. Taboo Words
Student level: Beginner to Intermediate Type of Lesson: Group
Finally, and absolute classic activity. Split your students into groups, each with at least 3 three students.
Prepare a list of words. For each word, think about 3-5 words which can be used to describe the original word. These can be synonyms, adjectives or any kind of related terms.
Example:
Weather – rain, cloud, sun, forecast, outside
hungry – food, stomach, eat, restaurant, thirsty
to run – fast, quick, walk, race, legs
Write the words on cards.
Now, one student has to take one card and explain the word to the other in their group. Here’s the catch: He must not use one of the words on the card (also, no parts or variations of the words.). He must not use gestures, facial expressions or voices. He has to circumscribe the word using other verbal expressions.
The rest of the group have to guess the word. Set a time for each round, like one minute. One group has to guess as many words as possible within that time; each guess is one point.
When the explaining student uses one of the taboo words (or other taboo means), he has to skip the current word and continue with the next card.
Count the points after each round. Then, the next group has its turn. The game is over, when each student in each group had their turn to explain words. Sum up the points; the group with the most wins.
Other possible game modes: Let the groups guess one word alternating, and set a 30 seconds time limit for each guess. Or let a student explain a word to the whole class, and who guesses it first, gets a point.
12. Story Chain
Student level: Intermediate to Advanced Type of Lesson: Group
This activity does not only help students develop their speaking and listening skills, it also fosters critical thinking skills, creativity, and imagination.
Here’s how it works:
Divide the group into small teams of 3–4 people each.
Give each team a starting sentence, such as “Once upon a time, in a land far, far away.”
Set a time limit, such as 5 minutes.
Each team must take turns adding one sentence to the story, building from the previous sentence.
The team that completes the most coherent story within the time limit wins.
To make it more challenging, you can also include a specific vocabulary theme for the story, such as “animals” or “travel”, or you can include a twist, such as “the story must be a horror story”.
After the activity, teams present their story to the class.
Encourage the class to ask questions about the story to the teams.
The demand for ESL teachers throughout the world increases each year and teaching ESL – online or in a classroom – has become a popular career among English speakers.
The good news is: It’s not difficult to become an ESL teacher.
However, being a great ESL teacher certainly is.
How do you know that YOU are a great teacher – and make your students wanting to never stop learning?
In this post, you’ll learn the 13 rules which help you to teach ESL effectively, together with info on how to become an ESL teacher in no time.
Teaching Is Not Just a Job!
Learning English empowers people from all over the world to pursue a successful career and to connect with other people and cultures internationally.
That’s why teaching ESL is such an attractive job: As a native English speaker, you can find employment nearly anywhere, travel the world, finance yourself and make a difference in other peoples’ lives.
Teaching ESL is not just a job. It’s not about you, it’s about your students.
Once you decided to become an ESL teacher, you should strive for constant improvement and not settle for anything less than providing great ESL classes to your students.
Besides mastering the language and teaching techniques, what really makes a good ESL teacher?
Before we dive into the 13 rules on how to be a good ESL teacher, let’s talk about what teaching ESL is and what the basic requirements to become an ESL teacher are.
What is Teaching ESL?
Teaching ESL (TESL) means “Teaching English as a second language”. Others use the term “Teaching English as a foreign language” (TEFL).
Both terms are more or less interchangeably.
ESL teachers teach English to people whose mother tongue is any other than English.
The highest demand exists in China and the rest of East and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. You can teach ESL to immigrants in native English countries like the US or Canada as well.
Due to the recent travel restrictions, many teachers and student moved online and conduct their lessons through video, instead of meeting in person.
The majority of jobs are to teach English to children and teens in Kindergartens, private or public schools. If you want to teach adults, language training centers, community schools or business classes are the options to find teaching jobs.
On online teaching platforms, you can find any type of jobs, from teaching little students to professional business people who want to hone their negotiation skills.
Teaching ESL is different than teaching English. It is more than merely teaching grammar, writing, or vocabulary.
First of all, English language learners want to get the possibility to talk with a native, learn to imitate their way of pronunciation and accent and learn about the culture in Western countries, too.
That’s why conversation and speaking practice are the most important parts of ESL classes by far.
How to Become an ESL Teacher?
Teaching ESL is a responsible profession, so you should be well-prepared and -educated before you teach your first ESL class.
But worry not, the requirements to become an ESL teacher are not too high.
Teach ESL in Your Home Country
If you want to become an ESL teacher domestically, inform yourself about the requirements of the country or state you live in.
Most likely, they don’t differ too much from the requirements set forth for teaching other subjects in schools.
You may have to acquire certain degrees and get certified by the responsible authority.
Of course, you can freelance and offer private ESL lessons without teacher certification, too.
Teach ESL Abroad
To teach abroad, the requirements heavily depend on the country you want to teach in.
However, the requirements you must meet are quite similar anywhere in the “hotspots” in Asia or Latin America.
To get an ESL teaching job abroad a candidate must:
Have a passport from a native English-speaking country
If you teach ESL online on your own and find your own students, everything is up to you.
If you want to teach via an online tutoring platform or a become a contractor of an online ESL teaching company, have a look at their requirements; they vary.
13 Rules on How to Be a Good and Effective ESL Teacher
Enough of the introduction now – the reason you came here is that you wanted to know what qualities actually make a good ESL teacher.
Or, in other words, how you can become an effective ESL teacher, wow your students during your ESL classes and help them to achieve a proficient English level quickly.
Here are the 13 rules on how to be a great ESL teacher:
1. Don’t Be a Dictator When Teaching ESL
As a teacher, the classroom is never about you, but only the students. This is not to imply that you should let students walk over you or that they shouldn’t conduct themselves respectfully.
What it means is that you should create a classroom environment where the students feel comfortable to speak, ask questions, be creative and engage not only with you but with their fellow classmates.
It is not your job to get up there and lecture and talk down to the students. If you are a person with control issues, then you ought not to be teaching ESL or any subject for that matter.
If you are teaching adults, remember that your students are adults and never treat them like children. Just because they speak English at a low-level doesn’t mean they aren’t well-educated and dignified in their own language.
If you are teaching adults at a private language school, the reality is that if they can afford to take your course, then they are probably a hell of a lot more successful in life then you are, so give them their respect.
2. Maximize Your Students’ Talk Time
This one is somewhat related to the first tip. If you are a dictator in the classroom, then your students aren’t talking enough.
Whether it’s English, Spanish, Chinese or any language, class time is for the students to talk as much as possible and not for you to carry on about some nonsense.
Remember that if you are teaching at a private institute, the students are also paying customers who are eager to practice the language. If the language learners aren’t talking, then they should demand a full refund or complain to management.
I’ve walked by many classrooms where the students sat in complete boredom as the teacher kept droning on about some minute grammar point.
Obviously, a good instructor has to have a firm understanding of grammar and writing structure, but the bottom line is that the ESL students have to speak during the class.
In an ESL class or any language class for that matter, the students should be talking at least 60% of the time and the best teachers get their students to speak 75% of the time. In other words, if the class is sixty minutes, the teacher roughly speaks for twenty minutes and the students speak for forty minutes.
Learn to Be Quiet and Let the Students Do the Work
So how does a teacher get his or her students to talk for the majority duration of the class?
The first thing that teachers should remember is to learn to be quiet and stop talking! If you are new to teaching or just a teacher that talks too much, learn to talk less and listen more.
If you are teaching grammar, show them a few examples on the board, check their understanding and then have them engage with each other in pairs or find other activities.
Every opportunity to speak in the classroom should be afforded to the students. If someone asks a question about vocabulary, ask a more advanced student to explain the answer.
Don’t read directions of an assignment, but have a student do it.
In other words, make the students do as much work as possible, which ultimately will make your job easier and provide them with more opportunities to speak.
By the time the class finishes, they should feel slightly exhausted from speaking so much in another language.
Teaching English as a second language or any language is not really about being an instructor in the traditional sense.
You should never be lecturing or have a regimented structure for your class. Instead, your class should be fluid, creative, innovative and open.
While doing so, you have to learn to be a coach. Each student and class has different needs, strong points, and weak points. It is up to you to identify needs and proceed from there.
The mentality in your classroom should not be that they will master English in 60 minutes, but rather that you as the teacher-coach introduce a grammar point, vocabulary or pronunciation patterns and it is up to the students to practice outside of the classroom.
As a coach, you should provide feedback on a weekly or biweekly basis.
Point out positive things that they are doing and remind your students of their weak points. While reminding them of their weak points, do so in a constructive way and offer advice on how to rectify them.
I feel that this is one key component of teaching English that is ignored too often.
There are some Westerners who feel that they must be uptight and on some kind of power trip when instructing a class. But being too serious in the classroom is the worst thing you can do when teaching ESL and such an attitude will antagonize a lot of students.
In reality, teaching ESL is half teaching and half entertaining. This is not to say that you have to be a clown and you should never be a clown. There is a qualitative difference between being a clown and being humorous and funny.
It’s perfectly fine to make jokes, tease students and allow the students to act in a humorous way with each other. One way of creating a class full of humor is to use a lot of activities.
If you are teaching adults, have some interesting, yet funny discussion questions and implement some creative group exercises into the mix. If you are teaching kids, make sure to have plenty of fun ESL games and never be too serious with them.
From my experience, the most successful ESL teachers have always been the ones that are good at injecting tasteful humor into the class.
Most importantly, a good laugh here and there will allow your students to relax, stimulate the creative parts of their brains and feel more comfortable speaking up in front of the class.
A note: Never let your personal problems show in the classroom.
This can be quite difficult at times since teaching does not afford the opportunity to zone out as you can working in an office.
There are days when you don’t want to speak to anyone and don’t feel like joking, yet it is your job to be active and to engage with your students for hours at a time.
It is difficult to keep a smile on your face and to be cheerful when dealing with a personal issue.
However, you will lose credibility quickly with your students if you appear to be irritable, upset or aloof. Sometimes you just need to power through.
5. Be a Creative ESL Teacher and Make Lessons Fun
I have honestly met some teachers who believe that learning should be hard. I’ve also met teachers that believe it should be fun, but don’t always show the evidence of that in class.
Think back to a few boring classes you had in high school or university. Can you remember a class or two where the instructor was painstakingly dry, mundane and seemed to drone on and on for eternity? I’ve taken a few Spanish and Japanese courses in which I felt I was being held hostage for 60 minutes.
Never let your students feel in this way. Your ESL classroom should never resemble this scenario in no shape or form.
Learning should be made fun where possible.
As stated before, you should never be lecturing up there even when teaching grammar. The ESL classroom has to be fluid, fast-paced, engaging and active.
A good time in class is likely to keep students coming back, although naturally, it is equally important that the good time was achieved while some learning was going on.
Traditional teaching methods do not work when it comes to language instruction.
It is your job as the ESL teacher to construct a classroom setting around creative activities, exercises, and discussion questions.
Admittedly some things are inherently less fun than others – English language learners often moan at the mention of writing, and exam classes can feel incredibly dry. Even still, it’s not hard to ensure that at least some moments in the class are fun.
Teaching grammar is no exception. It’s ok to show them a few examples on the board and explain it, but do it quickly and efficiently.
Find creative ways to allow them to practice the language during class time, so they can effectively use it outside of school.
It would be impossible to make every moment the best – peaks and troughs are natural and to be expected – but make sure your lesson isn’t a two-hour trough!
The devil makes work for idle thumbs, so they say.
It’s absolutely true in a young learner class and a sure-fire way to have kids misbehaving. Even in adult classes, the students might tolerate it, but only for a while.
Ensure that students always have something to keep them occupied: whether it’s an extra question, coloring (for kids, I hope that was obvious!) or finding difficult words in a text.
Keep ’em busy.
Equally, don’t allow the strongest students to dominate any whole-class activities. This means that some students are not being involved as much and again these students could cause problems for you.
If students are being quiet, try to include them in the conversation. If their level is low, look for opportunities to build their confidence by asking them questions to which you know they have the right answer.
For new teachers, this isn’t usually a problem as it’s all new!
But teachers do face a danger of slipping into always doing things the same way.
When this happens they become less willing to adapt and perhaps start to get frustrated as they notice the problems in their teaching but simultaneously refuse to change.
There are no perfect teachers, no perfect lessons, students, techniques, approaches or activities. If we’re lucky, something might occasionally work so well it feels perfect, but it’s unrealistic that this will happen all the time.
However, the more we tweak our methods, our lessons, and our set of ESL resources, the more frequently we can enjoy these moments where we seemed to get everything completely spot on. Experimentation is key.
8. Reflect and Seek Feedback
As with the previous point, good teachers reflect on their lessons.
Even after good lessons, it is important (and more pleasant) to reflect on what worked and what didn’t and the reasons why that was. Teaching is a never-ending cycle of improvement, so long as we keep the wheel turning by reflecting.
Reflecting can take many forms. It can be sitting on the bus or metro thinking to yourself, it could be keeping a journal, meditation or recording your thoughts with a digital recorder.
To help with reflection, good teachers seek out feedback from their ESL students and other professionals.
Mediocre and bad teachers are afraid to be told how mediocre and bad they are. Good teachers are not afraid because they will generally be told they are good, or they will turn it into good feedback next time.
There are many ways to collect feedback besides the standard evaluation forms.
Many can be incorporated into classroom routines. Collecting feedback from colleagues and bosses generally tends to involve observations, but could equally come from discussion, sharing resources and lesson plans or perhaps even demonstrating techniques to each other.
9. Look Presentable as an ESL Teacher
This might seem like a no-brainer, but you would be amazed by some of the things I’ve seen over the years.
How you look in the eyes of the student has a significant impact on how they perform in the classroom. If you make an effort to look presentable, the students will be more inclined to work hard.
Think about it. Would you want to take a language class from an instructor with wrinkled clothes, messy hair, who is unshaven and wearing tennis shoes?
I am not saying that you have to dress in business attire. In fact, I am quite opposed to wearing a suit while teaching a language since language teaching requires a fair amount of movement and activity on the part of the teacher.
I actually wear jeans on some days. This is partly because I prefer to work in more casual institutes. However, while I may wear jeans, I wear a nice shirt or sweater and attempt to dress at least with some sense of fashion.
In the morning, I am clean-shaven, fresh, showered and smelling good. Yes, this is another issue with many teachers. That being hygiene.
If you were going out on a date, you would certainly be expected by the other person to arrive smelling good and looking sharp.
There is no exception to this when teaching.
Don’t enter the class with messy hair, sand in your eyes as if you haven’t showered or even washed your face and smell of mildew or alcohol. I’ve caught both male and female teachers that have been guilty of this.
In fact, take a page out of your students’ book as people from non-Western countries tend to make more of an effort in looking presentable for work or school.
10. Don’t Be Sensitive and Uptight
One of the great contradictions of the English-speaking West is that although we champion our individualism, we tend to be quite uptight, bound by political correctness and entirely too sensitive about what others say.
The reality is that Western individualism is often pretentious and most of us are terrified sheep that are desperate to fit in with the crowd.
If you going to teach ESL either abroad or in your home country, then you need to develop a thick skin and realize that political correctness is not widely accepted in other countries.
There also isn’t this underlying friction between the sexes in other cultures as there is in say the United States or the UK. For the most part, people throughout Latin America and Asia are quite flirtatious, playful and enjoy teasing each other.
Nobody wants some uptight Westerner telling them how to think and behave. Although we think we are saving the world via our crusade of political correctness, aren’t we in reality merely espousing our ethnocentric views?
My point is that people of Asia, Latin America, Africa, and even parts of Europe simply do not think like us, and we shouldn’t want them to change.
They are wonderful the way they are. They often say what is on their minds and you have to respect them for that.
Remember that the ESL classroom is not a platform for you to get on your high horse and preach your worldview.
Of course, you can share your opinions and your students will value your views, but you need to accept their perspectives as well.
11. Don’t Be a Racist
This one might seem obvious, but I’ve come across quite a few teachers both in the United States and abroad that seemed a bit racist and xenophobic.
If you are going to spend a significant portion of your day around people of other cultures and colors, then you need to be open-minded and receptive to these differences.
If your only interest to teach English abroad is to save money, then you should reconsider. Sure, saving money is a worthwhile goal, but teaching abroad is also about the experience of living in another country.
If you think that because you are white, people will love you everywhere you go, think again. The world has become hip to reality and knowledgeable on matters of race and culture compared to even twenty years ago.
This rule also applies to how you treat other teachers.
If you are planning on teaching in Asia, you are going to be working with teachers of other colors as the demographics these days of who actually teaches abroad is changing rapidly.
When living abroad, you will be in the same boat as every other foreigner, so learn to get along and put preconceptions about people on the back-burner.
12. Be Knowledgeable of Other Cultures and Countries
This one goes a long way when teaching ESL and it will gain the respect of your students. Whether you are teaching domestically or in a particular country, be knowledgeable about your students’ countries and cultures.
I am not saying that you need a master’s degree in East Asian studies or Latin American politics, but having a general grasp of the history and cultural nuances will make your life a lot easier.
Being well versed in geography, historical cities, ancient capitals and so on will also draw the admiration of your students.
Basically, you don’t want to be the socially awkward, red-faced English teacher, but rather the open-minded one that can have fluid discussions with his or her students about such matters.
Don’t be afraid to use class time as an opportunity to learn about the culture of your students as most students will be eager to share during periods of classroom discussion.
Personally, I encourage all of my adult students to bring in food to the classroom.
A potluck dinner, for example, is a great way to get to know another culture. I also like to do this because I love to eat and have fun during my classes.
13. Forget a Bad Day at the Office
The first piece of advice I got given as a teacher was that it’s not surgery. If we give a bad lesson, no-one is going to die (or it would have to be a very bad lesson!).
When you realize that the worst thing you have done after a bad lesson is waste some peoples’ money and time, it makes it a bit easier to get over it.
Okay so that’s still not great, and it’s a horrible feeling, and one you will hopefully not want to repeat.
However, before you forget the bad lesson, try to reflect on what was bad about it.
What could you change if you did this lesson again?
Then take the learning points and forget the lesson – you can’t change it!
And go into the next lesson as confidently as you can and give the best lesson you know how.
As Samuel Beckett once said,
“Try again, fail again, fail better.”
Conclusion
Teaching can often be a rewarding experience and a chance to make genuine connections with others.
However, different approaches in the classroom are needed according to the subject that is being taught.
Instructing an ESL class needs to be taught in a certain way, since the way in which we learn a language may be quite different than other applications.
In my opinion, being creative, engaging, open, active and encouraging students to speak as much as possible is the best way to teach ESL.
Every teacher is a student at the same time and should never stop learning and improving.
Now that you know how to be a good ESL teacher, it’s up to you to put things into practice.
While these can certainly be effective, they can be a quick way to lose your student’s attention if you spend too much time on them in a class.
So what can you do then? The answer?
Play some fun ESL vocabulary games with them!
In this huge listicle, you’ll find 17 great ESL vocabulary game ideas (suitable for adults, teens, and kids) with detailed instructions to include in your lessons.
ESL Vocabulary Games for Kids… AND Adults, too?
Games are a great way to get your students to engage and use the language without fighting for their attention every few minutes.
Well, that’s great for children I hear you saying, but what about adults?
Well, as surprising as it may sound… Adults enjoy having fun too!
In fact, a number of the games here are what adults often play while socializing with friends or family anyway so they may already be familiar with them in the native language.
That being said, while some of these vocabulary games can be great for adults, this isn’t the case for all of them.
Some games on this list can be a little silly and adult students would most likely feel more than a little patronized if they were to play them. The same could be said for some games which may be too “boring” for children.
For that reason, this list also has information about the appropriate target student. It mentions:
student level (from beginner to advanced)
type of lesson (group and/or one-to-one)
student type (children and/or adults)
Make sure to read each game carefully before trying it in your class. Make a note of any realia/resources you may need and if possible practise how you will run the class so there aren’t any surprises in the classroom! Let’s get started.
1. Whispers
Student level: Pre-Intermediate to Advanced
Type of lesson: Group
Student type: Children & Adults
The idea of “whispers” is to get a message from one end of a line of people to the other. To start: –
Person 1 needs to whisper a message to person 2 (without anyone else hearing)
Person 2 then needs to whisper the message to person 3 etc until we reach the end of the line.
This game can get difficult because some mistakes creep into the message which can lead to a message which is vastly different at the end than it is at the start.
Once the message reaches the end, the final person reveals what they think it is. This often results in hilarity!
This game trains the students to be able to understand messages in situations that aren’t so clear. It also trains them to try to understand a sentence using context. As long as the students can form sentences then they will be ok with this game.
2. Describe It
Student level: Intermediate to Advanced
Type of lesson: Group or Individual
Student type: Adults
With “describe it” the idea is to give a student a word. This can be anything you want really but nouns and verbs are going to be easier than things like adverbs and prepositions. Once the student has their word, they then have to describe it without using the word itself!
Whoever manages to guess this correctly then gets to go next and you can keep going until everyone in the class has had a turn.
The benefit of this game is that it forces students to use synonyms/antonyms that they might not use usually. It also helps them to develop the skill of using the language to try to express something even if they don’t have that particular word in their vocabulary.
This game is a little more difficult than the others and is better suited to intermediate to advanced learners. Coupled with the fact that you may lose some attention from children, this is better aimed at adults.
In case you don’t already know what they are; A tongue twister is a sentence (or several) that is very difficult to say (usually due to a sequence of similar sounds).
An example of this would be “she sells seashells by the seashore”.
These are both great fun and extremely useful as they can be used to train pronunciation for new vocabulary. They are effective with adult students but due to their silliness, it’s no surprise that kids love them!
While there are already plenty of tongue twisters out there, you will likely have to create your own, specific to the vocabulary you are learning. (hint – don’t try to cram all of the TL into one sentence, pick one new word for each tongue twister.)
To add a more competitive element to it, (besides just saying the sentence without mistakes) you can time the students and get them to try to go faster and faster each time!
4. I went to the supermarket…
Student level: Beginner to Advanced
Type of lesson: Group
Student type: Children & Adults
This game is a great one to flex those memory muscles! It goes something like this:
Create a circle of students.
Student 1 starts by saying “I went to the supermarket and I bought [some bread].” (this [ ] can be anything they choose.)
Student 2 then says “I went to the supermarket and I bought some bread and [an apple].” (They have to say what the previous student said but then they choose a new object for themselves.)
Student 3 then says “I went to the supermarket and I bought some bread, an apple and [some cheese].”
You then continue around the circle with the students adding more and more items until somebody isn’t able to remember all of the list.
You can choose to either reset the game once the list can’t be remembered or… for a more competitive element you can choose to reset the list minus the student who couldn’t remember. You can then repeat this until there is a “definite winner”.
As this game is more to do with memory and doesn’t necessarily involve complex vocabulary, it is suitable for students of all ages and levels.
“I spy with my little eye…” If you didn’t play this as a child then you missed out! But fear not, you have a chance to catch up with this fun game now.
Student 1 first picks an object in the room (without saying what it is). For example, maybe they see a “clock”.
They then have to say the phrase “I spy with my little eye, something beginning with…” and say the first letter of the word [c].
The other students have to guess what it is and whoever is correct becomes the next person to play.
Keep going until everyone has had a turn to play. This game can be fairly simple if there are common words such as “pen”, “book” etc.
However, if you really want to bring more of a challenge, then bring some props with you or load up an image on a projector with many items.
This game is good when learning basic vocabulary and is better suited to beginners and more specifically children.
6. Word Association
Student level: Pre-Intermediate to Advanced Type of lesson: Group or Individual Student type: Children & Adults
This one is great to stimulate some creativity. It is also a very simple idea.
Student 1 says a word. It can be anything but for this example, we will say “green”
Student 2 says a word that is related to Student 1’s word. “Grass”.
You can then continue around the chain with each student adding a related word to what the previous person has said.
The rules are simple. You have to be able to explain why a word is related. You also can’t repeat a word that has already been said! To make this one harder you can also include a timer.
7. A-Z Categories
Student level: Pre-Intermediate to Advanced Type of lesson: Group or Individual Student type: Children & Adults
In this game, the teacher picks a category such as (fruit, countries, languages, etc). The idea is then for the students to think of something for each letter of the alphabet.
So if we picked the category “countries” then it would go like this:
Student 1: “America”
Student 2: “Belgium”
Student 3: “China”
You can then continue until all of the letters have been completed. Some beginners will be fine with something like “food” but some categories can be more difficult so bear this in mind when picking a topic.
You may also want to consider cultural backgrounds. “Countries” is a good topic because although they have different names in different languages, they are known by everyone. However, a topic like “bands” can become more difficult as students may want to pick their local favourites which might not be known by others.
8. Match
Student level: Beginner to Pre-Intermediate Type of lesson: Group or Individual Student type: Children
For this game, you need two sets of cards. The first set of cards will have pictures of various things (e.g ball, house, etc), the second set will have the vocabulary on. As you probably have guessed by now, the student’s aim is to match the pictures up with the vocabulary.
You can vary this one a bit depending on how many are playing.
With just one student playing you can simply time how long it takes them to match them all and then get them to try and beat that record the second time around.
With more students, you can divide them into two teams. Whichever team gets the most pairs wins. (You may prefer to have the teams have one student up at a time to make sure things don’t get too crazy!)
This one is for children. It works especially well with complete beginners because the explanation needed is minimal, demo the game to them and they will take to it like ducks to water!
9. Word Grab Race
Student level: Beginner to Intermediate Type of lesson: Group Student type: Children
To set this game up you again need a collection of cards with the vocabulary on. Mix all the cards up (while still being able to see them all.) Next, divide your students into two teams. A student from each group will have their turn first.
When the teacher says the word, the chosen student from each team has to run to the front and find the correct card with the word on from the pile. Once they have brought it back to the group both teams will then switch the active player.
This is repeated until all of the cards have been captured. The team with the most at the end wins.
To make this harder, instead of the teacher saying the word you could show a picture (on a screen) or hold up an object. This forces the students to use the vocabulary and understand what it means.
10. Hangman
Student level: Pre-Intermediate to Advanced Type of lesson: Group or Individual Student type: Children & Adults
Hangman takes a little bit of explaining but… once your students understand it then they will love it!
The basic point of hangman is for the students to guess a word (picked by the teacher).
They take turns guessing a letter each. If the guess is correct (the letter is in the word) then the teacher will write the letter on the board, if the guess is wrong then a part of “the hangman” is drawn.
There are 8 parts to the drawing:
Draw the post (an upside-down “L”).
Draw the head (a circle) underneath the horizontal part of the post.
Draw the body (a vertical line under the head).
Draw arm 1 (a stick from the body).
Draw arm 2 (another stick from the other side of the body).
Draw leg 1 (a stick at the bottom of the body).
Draw leg 2 (a stick on the other side at the bottom of the body).
Draw the noose (a line joining the head to the post).
The students need to guess what this word is before the picture of the hangman is complete. If they guess it correctly before the hangman is complete then they win, if not then they lose.
If you want to include the students further then whoever wins the round can have a turn at drawing the hangman in the next round.
This game is fun regardless of age, group size or ability (as difficulty can be altered by using harder or easier vocabulary).
11. Stand up / Sit Down
Student level: Beginner to Intermediate Type of lesson: Group Student type: Children
For this game, you will need either a board and projector or some realia. First of all, make a line of chairs with the students sat down (facing the teacher).
You will then show either an image or hold up an object.
Next, you say either the correct vocabulary or a different word.
If what you say and what is shown is correct then the children stand up, if not then they stay sat down.
To add a competitive angle to this you can have the ones who get it wrong lose the game and leave the round, repeat this until there is a winner. Alternatively, if everyone is very good then you could do the last student to stand up / sit down lose that round.
This game is ideal for children, they love getting involved and moving around. It is a great way to win pre-schoolers back if you find you have lost their attention part way through a class.
12. Spelling Throw
Student level: Beginner to Intermediate Type of lesson: Group Student type: Children
The idea of this game is to get the students to spell a word out one letter at a time, each student takes it in turns saying each letter though which is what makes it difficult.
To begin, you first need to arrange the students in a circle (either seated or standing). You will also need a ball. For this example let’s say the chosen word is “tiger”.
Student 1 – “t” *throws the ball to student 5
Student 5 – “i” *throws the ball to student 3
Student 3 – “g” etc
This continues until the word is complete. Again, like with the other games you could do a knockout rule where if a student gets the wrong letter then they are out of that round (repeat until there is a clear winner).
If this game is slightly too easy for the students then you can introduce a timer system where they will only get a few seconds to answer, if they don’t answer in time then they are also out.
This game is best suited to children, they will enjoy using a ball to interact with. It is also more suited to beginner levels (especially when learning how to spell.) Keep this one away from adults or advanced students unless you want to hear some patronized groans!
13. Draw It
Student level: Beginner to Intermediate Type of lesson: Group or Individual Student type: Children & Adults
Great fun with children and adults alike. Similar to “describe it”, the idea is for the student to express a chosen word without saying it. The difference here is that we are now drawing instead of describing.
Obviously we will need something to draw with for this. Pen and paper would work fine if we are struggling for resources but it would be better to use something bigger so it’s easier for the students to see, so try to grab a whiteboard!
Once you have a chosen student, tell them the chosen word (without anyone else hearing), they then have to draw it. The other students have to guess and the first one to get it right can then have their turn. Keep going until everyone has played at least once.
The advantage of this game over “describe it” is it can be a lot easier for beginner students to draw something than to try to think of a way to describe it in English. That being said if your students are advanced, they may benefit more from the added difficulty of “describe it”.
14. Word Search
Student level: Beginner to Advanced Type of lesson: Individual Student type: Children & Adults
These take a little longer to prepare but when it comes to actually playing, they are as easy as they come.
For anyone that doesn’t know what a word search is, you basically have a grid of squares. Inside each square is a letter. At first glance, it will appear as if you are staring at a giant mess of random letters. However, there are words hidden inside this mess that must be found.
Although this game could, in theory, be done in groups, it is one that is better suited towards individual students. It can be hard for some students to wait for their turn without shouting out that they’ve found one (especially true with children!).
The great thing about a word search is that they are very easy to play. Even if you use advanced vocabulary, the ability to look for a word is still the same so this game is suitable for students of all levels.
Student level: Intermediate to Advanced Type of lesson: Group or Individual Student type: Adults
With synonyms, the point is to give a student a word, and they have to give you a synonym for that word in return. (E.g. teacher says scalding, student says hot). For this, you will need to do some research and make sure you know some synonyms for the TL of that lesson.
A very basic idea, but we have a lot of room to work with this. Here are some things we can change:
Add a time limit (e.g the student has 3 seconds to reply)
Time limit for the whole group (e.g how many can the group get in 3 minutes)
In a group, the student (who just answered) could ask the next student
Use antonyms as well
Have the students ask the teacher
This game is dependant on the students having at least a medium-size vocabulary so I would advise sticking to medium to advanced level students. Also, while this game is fun to an extent, it is more so for adults. Some children may lose concentration with this one so only play with them if you know you can hold their focus.
16. Shiritori
Student level: Intermediate to Advanced Type of lesson: Group or Individual Student type: Adults
The classic Japanese game – Shiritori! You need very little to play this game, which makes it ideal as a backup activity as well.
Simply set up the chairs in the classroom so that everyone can see and hear each other clearly. A circle arrangement is a great choice as it allows everyone to hear each other and there’s an obvious order to whose go it is.
Choose a student or go first yourself
The first person (A) says a word. This can be something that was taught in the class if you want to reinforce that. Or, if this is a backup activity then it can be any word.
The next person to the left (B) will then say a word that starts with the last letter of A’s word. So if A said “boat” then B could say “three”.
The game carries on around the circle until you reach the original student again.
At this point you can either end the game there or carry on if you have time.
A very basic idea but we have a lot of room to work with this. Here are some things we can change:
Add a time limit (e.g the student has 3 seconds to reply)
Time limit for the whole group (e.g how many can the group get in 3 minutes)
In a group, the student (who just answered) could ask the next student
Use antonyms as well
Have the students ask the teacher
This game is dependent on the students having at least a medium-size vocabulary, so I would advise sticking to medium to advanced level students. Also, while this game is fun to an extent, it is more so for adults. Some children may lose concentration with this one so only play with them if you know you can hold their focus.
17. Charades
Student level: Beginner to Intermediate Type of lesson: Group Student type: Children & Adults
In case you haven’t played charades before, this is how to play:
Select a student to be “a word”, e.g. red, an apple
Without speaking, this student has to get the other students to guess the word.
They can elicit the answer by using body movements, pointing to things in the room etc. Basically anything, as long as they do not speak.
Whoever guesses the answer first gets to be “it” in the next round.
This is a great game for beginners as it works better with beginner vocabulary (run, sit, 4 etc.)
Beware, you may struggle with more complex vocabulary… (try acting out the word situational!)
18. Vocab Bingo
Student level: Beginner to Intermediate Type of lesson: Group Student type: Children & Adults
Prepare Bingo sheets with grids and add one word to each square. Select the grid size (from 3×3 to 6×6) and the words according to the level of English of your students and the expected duration of the game.
Write all words you’ve added to the sheets on a list; maybe add some more. Call out the words in random order, and have the students mark the words when they hear it.
They can use a pen, or better: put little items on the squares. This is more fun, and you can reuse the sheets.
The first person to mark each word on his sheets wins.
You can make this ESL vocab game a bit harder: Don’t call out the exact words in the squares, but synonyms, or opposites, or any kind of related words (for example when you call “rain”, they have to mark “umbrella”).
Conclusion
So, there we have it, 18 games for you to try in your classes.
Make sure to pay attention to the suitability for each game and most importantly practise these before you get in the classroom.
Hopefully, these will also have sparked your creative juices so you will be able to think up some of your own.
Remember to keep it fun, educational and engaging!
Do you want interesting questions to get the ball rolling with your ESL students?
Are you tired of asking the same basic questions about where your students live, what hobbies they have etc?
“Would you rather” questions are a great way to inject more fun into your speaking lessons and be “the interesting teacher”.
Here we have 120 fun questions for kids, teens, and adults as well, to get you started along with a follow-up question for each to keep the conversation going.
You ask a student a question and they have a choice of two possible answers: “Would you rather be a bird or a fish?”.
The student answers the question but… it’s important they explain WHY.
The explanation of why they chose their answer is what really tests their ability to produce the language (rather than giving you a series of one-word answers).
These questions are extremely useful; they are fun which engages the student more. They also get students to use the language outside of what they’re used to which will help them feel confident speaking in a wider range of situations.
They are a great stepping stone between very basic “yes or no” questions and completely open questions which could be a little intimidating for less advanced students.
These questions work great as a warm up to a more in-depth subject in a speaking lesson or even to round things off with some fun at the end of a particularly difficult one.
As these are separated into different topics it may even be a good idea to use them in lessons that relate to that particular area.
Ok, without further ado, let’s begin!
General Would You Rather Questions
1. Would you rather have more time or more money?
Would you play a lottery that had a prize of time?
2. Would you rather be able to sing beautifully or speak fluently in a chosen language?
Which do you think is harder to master?
3. Would you rather be the world’s fastest runner or own the world’s fastest car?
Which do you think would be most useful?
4. Would you rather be able to fly or swim without needing to hold your breath?
What’s the longest you can hold your breath for?
5. Would you rather go to the cinema or watch a concert?
What’s your favourite film?
6. Would you rather be stuck inside on a good day or stuck outside on a bad day?
What do you do when the weather’s bad?
7. Would you rather be poor and happy or miserable and rich?
Can money buy happiness?
8. Would you rather travel to somewhere relaxing or somewhere interesting?
Where did you last go on holiday?
9. Would you rather play video games or play sports?
What was the last thing you played?
10. Would you rather be super fast or super strong?
What would you do with that power?
Funny Would You Rather Questions
1. Would you rather be a mouse on holiday or a lion at work?
Which do you think would be more difficult?
2. Would you rather have a house made of chocolate or a house made of french fries?
Which do you think would be easier to clean?
3. Would you rather have the power to make others laugh or to make yourself laugh?
Are there any comedians you know who already have this power?
4. Would you rather stink or have everybody else stink (except you)?
How much deodorant do you think would be needed to hide the smell?
5. Would you rather marry a fish or a potato?
Which do you think you would argue with more?
6. Would you rather fight Santa or a reindeer?
Do you think you’d still get presents after?
7. Would you rather dance with a sloth or a chimpanzee?
Do you think they would enjoy the dance?
8. Would you rather slip on ice or a banana peel?
Which one do you think is funnier?
9. Would you rather laugh so hard you cry or cry so hard you laugh?
Do you often cry when you laugh?
10. Would you rather have an onion for a head or a cabbage?
Do you think it would be hard to wash your face?
Difficult Would You Rather Questions
1. Would you rather win £1,000,000 or have your friend win £3,000,000?
Do you think they’d let you win the money if they were in your shoes?
2. Would you rather travel to the past or to the future?
What about if you couldn’t return to the present?
3. Would you rather have lots of money but not be able to buy food or have plenty of food but no money?
Is there anyone you can think of who would pick the opposite?
4. Would you rather be best friends with a celebrity or have your dream job?
Have you ever met a celebrity?
5. Would you rather fall into a cactus or walk on glass?
Do you have a strong tolerance to pain?
6. Would you rather climb Mount Everest or run three marathons?
What’s the most exercise you’ve ever done?
7. Would you rather not shower for a week or not brush your teeth for a week?
What’s the longest you’ve gone without showering before?
8. Would you rather be trapped in a room full of spiders or snakes?
How long do you think you could stay in there for?
9. Would you rather play a sport professionally or be an actor / actress?
Which do you think pays more?
10. Would you rather be a king for a day or a mayor for a month?
What would you do in that time?
Weird Would You Rather Questions
1. Would you rather have a pillow as a pet or a piece of cheese?
Which do you think would look funnier when taking for a walk?
2. Would you rather be abducted by aliens or kidnapped by vampires?
Which is more likely?
3. Would you rather be a plant or a rock?
Do you think life would be easier than being a human?
4. Would you rather have a pig’s brain in a human body or a human brain in a pig’s body?
Do you think it would be fun to switch for a short while?
5. Would you rather wear a hat made of jam or shoes made of chocolate?
Would you eat it after you have finished wearing it?
6. Would you rather live on the moon or at the bottom of the sea?
What kind of work could you do there?
7. Would you rather be a cartoon or a puppet?
What’s your favourite cartoon?
8. Would you rather be sat next to a dog or a chicken on a plane?
Would it be better than sitting next to a human?
9. Would you rather live in a world where everything is upside down or where everything is blue?
What would some of the challenges be living in such a world?
10. Would you rather clean your teeth with spaghetti or a banana?
What do you think your dentist would say?
Food Would You Rather Questions
1. Would you rather eat cheese and chocolate or beef and icecream?
What’s the worst food combination you’ve ever made?
2. Would you rather eat hamburgers everyday or never again?
Which option do you think is healthier?
3. Would you rather eat an amazing meal in a bad restaurant or a bad meal in an amazing restaurant?
What’s the best restaurant you’ve ever eaten at?
4. Would you rather be hungry or thirsty?
What’s the longest you’ve gone without food and drink?
5. Would you rather go out for dinner or eat a takeaway?
What was the last thing you ate from a takeaway?
6. Would you rather eat ice cream on a hot day or drink hot chocolate on a cold day?
Which flavour of ice cream is your favourite?
7. Would you rather be a chef or a waiter?
Which do you think has the harder job?
8. Would you rather eat three days worth of food in a day or a day’s worth of food over three days?
Which do you think is healthier?
9. Would you rather eat chocolate for an entire day or broccoli?
What’s the most chocolate you’ve ever eaten?
10. Would you rather eat peas with chopsticks or soup with a fork?
Have you ever tried to eat with chopsticks? Did it work?
Controversial Would You Rather Questions
1. Would you rather end world hunger or have your friends and family live forever?
Do we do enough to help those who are hungry?
2. Would you rather everyone life forever or have people die painlessly at a certain age?
How long would the planet last if we all lived forever?
3. Would you rather imprison an innocent person or accidentally release a guilty person?
Have you ever been blamed for something you haven’t done?
4. Would you rather kill one person to save a thousand or do nothing?
What’s the hardest decision you’ve ever had to make?
5. Would you rather eat a (recently) dead body to stay alive or stay hungry?
What’s the grossest thing you’ve ever eaten?
6. Would you rather legalise drugs or outlaw guns (in all countries)?
What are the gun laws in your country?
7. Would you rather allow stem cell research (and possibly save lives) or disallow the research (possibly resulting in casualties)?
How much do you know about stem cell research?
8. Would you rather have evolution taught in schools or creationism?
Which did you learn in school?
9. Would you rather everyone have the right to marry or just heterosexuals?
When did you last attend a wedding?
10. Would you rather everyone have access to healthcare or only those that can afford it?
When did you last go to the hospital?
Clothing Would You Rather Questions
1. Would you rather wear too many layers in summer or not enough in winter?
What do you usually wear when it’s really cold?
2. Would you rather wear clothes that are comfortable or clothes that look good?
What’s the most comfortable clothing you own?
3. Would you rather give unwanted clothes to charity or sell them?
What was the last item of clothing you got rid of?
4. Would you rather buy clothes brand new or from a second-hand shop?
What’s the best bargain you’ve ever found?
5. Would you rather fix your own clothes (e.g. darn a sock) or replace them?
Do you have any clothes that need fixing or replacing?
6. Would you rather wear something cool or something funny to a fancy dress party?
What’s the best fancy dress costume you’ve ever worn?
7. Would you rather have fewer clothes (that you love) or a wide collection of clothes (that aren’t your favourite)?
What item of clothing could you not live without?
8. Would you rather wear a hat or gloves in the snow?
What do you usually wear when it snows?
9. Would you rather make all of your clothes or borrow all of your clothes?
What do you think the easiest thing to make would be?
10. Would you rather all of your outfit be the same colour or the same material?
What is your favourite material to wear?
Geography Would You Rather Questions
1. Would you rather live somewhere hot or somewhere cold?
What’s the weather like where you live now?
2. Would you rather live in a country with lots of money or beautiful scenery?
What do you think is the most beautiful country?
3. Would you rather visit five countries in five days or two countries in two weeks?
Where would you go?
4. Would you rather live near a volcano or near a swamp?
Which do you think would have cheaper property prices?
5. Would you rather be the leader of a small country with a lot of money or a big country with little money?
Which is the smallest country you know of that is wealthy?
6. Would you rather live near the ocean or near a field?
Are there any oceans near where you live now?
7. Would you rather live in a good neighbourhood that is far from work or in a bad neighbourhood that is close to work?
How do you usually travel to work?
8. Would you rather live in a quiet neighbourhood without many amenities or live in a noisier neighbourhood where there is plenty to do?
What amenities are near your house?
9. Would you rather go on holiday to somewhere far away or somewhere close to home?
What’s the furthest you’ve ever been from home?
10. Would you rather live in an area that is prone to earthquakes or one that is prone to flooding?
Have you ever experienced an earthquake?
Technology Would You Rather Questions
1. Would you rather go without your phone or without internet access for a week?
What’s the longest you think you could go without using the internet?
2. Would you rather use the microwave or the oven to cook your meals?
Which one is easier?
3. Would you rather have a massive TV or a powerful computer?
How big is your TV?
4. Would you rather work with computers or work without them?
What’s the longest you’ve worked at your computer before (in one sitting?)
5. Would you rather play video games on a console or on your phone?
What’s your favourite video game?
6. Would you rather have a broken washing machine or a broken fridge?
Which do you think breaks down more often?
7. Would you rather have a fast internet connection or a stable connection?
How fast is your internet connection at the moment?
8. Would you rather be able to program computers (software) or build computers (hardware)?
Can you usually fix your computer if something goes wrong?
9. Would you rather drop your phone into a puddle from a short height or onto a dry floor from a tall height?
Have you ever broken your phone?
10. Would you rather stay in a hotel without a TV or without a shower?
When did you last stay in a hotel?
Movies Would You Rather Questions
1. Would you rather star in a western movie or a sci-fi movie?
What is the best sci-fi movie of all time?
2. Would you rather be a director or an actor/actress?
Which do you think would pay better?
3. Would you rather watch a movie at the cinema or own the physical copy (Blu-ray etc)?
How often do you go to the cinema?
4. Would you rather watch a romance movie or a comedy?
Do you ever watch rom-coms (romantic comedies)?
5. Would you rather watch a movie or a series?
What’s your favourite series?
6. Would you rather watch a horror movie alone or with someone else?
What’s the scariest film you’ve ever seen?
7. Would you rather eat popcorn or crisps when watching a movie?
Why do we eat such noisy food when we watch movies?
8. Would you rather be the star of a small movie or an extra in a huge movie?
Do you think it would be fun to be an extra in a movie?
9. Would you rather have free access to a cinema or have your own cinema room at home?
How often would you watch movies if you could see any movie for free (at the cinema)?
10. Would you rather watch a movie adaption of a video game or play the video game adaption of a movie?
What’s the best movie about video games you’ve seen?
Dating & Relationship Would You Rather Questions
1. Would you rather marry someone who is beautiful or rich?
Do you think money is important in a relationship?
2. Would you rather have a romantic or an exiting date?
What kind of gift would you bring with you?
3. Would you rather go on a date, accompanied by your mom or your dad?
Do you talk with your parents about your feelings?
4. Would you rather date someone who is talking all day long or someone who hardly says a word?
Are you a talkative person?
5. Would you rather have 5 kids or no kids at all?
Why?
6. Would you rather marry someone who is boring and loyal or passionate and cheating on you?
What’s your main criteria when choosing your partner?
7. Would you be rather honest and maybe hurt your partner or tell a lie to make them feel good?
Do you think white lies are acceptable?
8. Would you rather marry someone who is exactly like yours or completely different?
Opposites attract – do you think this saying is true?
9. Would you rather ask someone out or have someone asking you out?
In your home country, is it common for women to ask men out?
10. Would you rather find true love or live a long, healthy single life?
In your eyes, what makes a happy life?
COVID-19 Pandemic / Lockdown Would You Rather Questions
1. Would you rather stay at home for three months or life your normal life, but install an app on your smartphone through which the authorities can track all your movements and contacts?
Do you think data privacy is important?
2. Would you rather vaccine old people or young people?
Why?
3. Would you rather work in an office or at home every day? (or: have school lessons at school or at home?)
Which job did you like most and why?
4. Would you rather lose your job or have a COVID-19 infection?
What things in life are you afraid of?
5. During a lockdown, would you rather stay at home alone or with other people you don’t like?
Being home alone, what do you usually do?
6. During a lockdown, would you rather stay in an urban apartment or in a cabin somewhere isolated in the countryside?
How would your ideal home look like?
7. Would you rather cook your meals yourself or get them from the same delivery service every day?
How often do you eat out?
8. Would you rather only read books or watch TV for four weeks?
What do you think about movies from book adaptions?
9. Would you rather develop a remedy for cancer or for COVID-19?
In your opinion, which is the most dangerous disease?
10. Would you rather wear a face mask or keep 1.5 meters distance when you meet your friends?
What’s your favorite topic when you talk to your friends?
There we have it, more “would you rather” questions than you can shake a stick at!
As I have said in my other list of questions, once you’ve gotten a feel for using these, try using them as an influence to create your own topics. You could create questions that are even more personalised and relevant to your student’s interests.
Do you want to teach English online – to pad your income or work full-time, from home or location-independently while traveling?
Usually, teaching through an online teaching company is the easiest way to start a career in the industry. But you can also build an independent teaching business or advertise on platforms where you are matched with students.
Whichever way you prefer, you certainly have questions upfront and want to prepare for success.
This is where this handy guide comes in: In only a glance, you’ll get an overview of all the requirements, possibilities, and specifics of teaching English online.
Read on to have a head start to your online teaching career!
What is Online English Teaching?
Teaching English or ESL (English as a second language) online can take several forms. It’s become incredibly popular worldwide in recent years because it lets language learners worldwide easily connect with tutors.
Some people look for highly trained tutors or native speakers, while others just want someone they can practice conversing with through the internet.
People teach all age ranges, from young children just starting to learn English to business people working to improve their speaking skills.
You can work with students all over the world: Chinese high schoolers, immigrants who’ve recently come to the U.S., South Korean children, adults in the Middle East.
As an online English teacher, you can also decide how much control you want over the back end of teaching: curriculum development, marketing, and pay and class structure.
Some online English teachers work for companies that manage everything except teaching the class itself, while others take total control of all aspects of their teaching business.
Other Great Guides on Online Teaching
While this article focuses on working for online teaching companies, we have other guides for teachers who want to work independently.
The Benefits
Teaching English online may seem kind of weird at first, but once you find out a little about it, it sells itself. Because there are so many routes to teaching English online, the job can really look whatever you want it to look like. Once you try it, you won’t want to miss the undeniable benefits.
Jobs are Abundant
There’s a high demand for native English speakers to teach online, so it’s relatively easy to get a job teaching.
If you don’t have any teaching experience or training, no problem. Most companies will train you, and some will even pay you for training hours!
Although the demand for non-native speakers is lower, you’ll still find plenty of opportunities to teach provided that your English is good.
Flexibility: The Job Works for You
Teaching English online is a fantastic option for anyone who wants flexibility and a mobile workplace. You can teach anywhere with a stable internet connection, and you can set your own hours.
Also, you can work as little as much as you want, meaning that you can make the job work for you. Whether you’re looking for a new full-time job or a side hustle, online English teaching can work for you.
The Job is Meaningful
Perhaps the most surprising benefit of teaching English online is the relationships you’ll make.
Because you work one-on-one with students, you get to form relationships with children across the globe, and you get the satisfaction that comes from watching children grow and learn as a result of your instruction.
You’ll also learn teaching skills that will serve you well on paper and theoretically if you ever decide to live abroad and teach ESL in person.
The General Requirements
Requirements for online teaching vary by employer, but by and large, companies require teachers to have a bachelor’s degree and either be a native English teacher or speak with native fluency.
Most companies don’t require a TEFL/TESOL certificate, but they encourage it, and you may be paid more highly if you have a TEFL certificate, a teaching certificate in your home country, or teaching experience.
Can you Teach English Online Without a Degree?
While most companies require all teachers to have bachelor’s degrees, some companies are more flexible with their requirements. However, most likely, you will earn less at these companies.
If you work independently and teach own students, there are no requirements at all, except for being a great teacher!
The Salaries
If you teach ESL online through one of the major online teaching companies like VIPKID or DaDa, you’ll generally make $14-26 an hour.
Some companies pay teachers a flat rate, while others set your salary according to your teaching experience and performance in your interview.
So, let’s say, if you teach 30 hours a week at $20 per hour, you’ll earn $2,400 a month. Not bad, isn‘t it?
On online teaching marketplaces like Preply, usually, competition is high; thousands of private tutors offer their services for $15 and below. Having many 5-star ratings and a professional profile, you will be able to make $25 to $40 per hour.
When you are an independent teacher or tutor, you can set your own rates: They’ll heavily depend on where and who you teach. As an experienced business English tutor, you can easily make $50 per hour or more. On the other hand, you’ll have to advertise and find students yourself and have much higher expenses.
Remember that you should consider tax deductions when calculating your expected salary as a freelancer or independent contractor.
Types of Students and Classes
Innumerable people are looking for tutors teaching English as a foreign language online all over the world.
School children take supplemental English classes outside of school, business people learn English independently or through their companies, and people who want to travel to English-speaking countries practice English on tutoring platforms.
If you’re a fun, bubbly person, you’ll probably want to look at online TEFL-teaching jobs aimed at children. Keeping small children engaged for a full lesson can be hard work, but it’s incredibly rewarding especially if you like kids and are a high-energy person. However, if silly faces, props, and big hand gestures sound exhausting to you, you may want to look into teaching adults.
Teaching teens or adults is rewarding because you can often talk about the more advanced subject matters than with children. It’s challenging in its own way because you need to make a class interesting and worthwhile and you can’t fall back on shiny toys and stickers to keep your students engaged.
However, you’ll practice your tutoring skills and may even foment a cross-cultural relationship with someone halfway around the world.
Give 1-on-1 Lessons or Teach Small Groups
Different online teaching companies design classes a number of ways, according to what they feel is the best teaching style and format for their platform and goal.
Although some platforms only facilitate one-on-one tutoring, a number of online teaching companies, such as Boxfish and QKids, allow you to teach classes of up to 4 students.
Teaching more students can be an added challenge because it requires you to keep the attention of multiple students, and sometimes to cater to slightly different English levels at once. However, it also lets you play games and do group exercises in your classes, making class more fun and taking some of the pressure off you as the teacher.
Often you’ll also make a little more money teaching group classes than individual students.
Different Lesson Types
As alluded to above, lesson style will vary based on the age of online teaching companies’ students and the nature of their mission.
Classes that prepare students for English exams, business, or interviews will be structured to hit specific language aims. Exam prep classes specifically are serious and highly structured.
Classes for children often use an interactive platform that revolves around games and songs.
There are also platforms that host conversation spaces, where you and a student simply practice conversational English by talking for a set period of time.
Working for an Online Teaching Company
The hardest part of building your online English teaching career is getting started. Working for a company is definitely the easiest way to get started teaching online, and probably your best option if you’ve never taught online before.
If you decide to work for an online teaching company, you’ll go through an application process and then the company will offer you a salary when they give you a job offer.
At that time, you’ll sign a contract, probably for somewhere between 3 and 12 months. After your contract period ends, your position will be reassessed and assuming you’ve performed well, you’ll renew your contract and may be offered a raise.
It’s a great idea to teach through a company when you first start out because they’ll provide support and help you get started.
Terms and Conditions
The contract usually lays out that you are an independent contractor and not an employee, and as such are responsible for your taxes.
Most of the major teaching companies have teacher portals that let you set your schedule, see what classes you have booked, and manage feedback and payments.
Some companies, like VIPKID, let you change your schedule continuously (although you can’t cancel a class once it’s been booked without penalty), while others, like DaDa and Englishunt, require you to maintain a set schedule.
Some companies also set minimum teaching hours. At DaDa, you have to commit to teaching at least 4 hours a week, and at QKids you must teach for at least 6 hours a week.
Minimum teaching hours can help motivate you and keep you on track, but they can be annoying when life gets hectic, and you want to put teaching on the back burner for a bit.
The Application Process
The application process varies by company, but most online teaching companies have you submit an application and then invite you to an interview.
Following that, there will be one or two mock lessons that you’ll need to prepare and practice for before you’re hired. The whole process may take a week or two, depending on how quickly you move through all the steps.
The interview and mock classes may seem intimidating, but there are many resources online for preparing for both — if you work for any major company, you’ll find tons of demos and advice videos made by their teachers on YouTube.
Pros and Cons
Do you prefer teaching with a large company or independently? Here are the benefits and downsides of working for a company.
The Pros
Online teaching companies provide professional support and pre-made lesson plans and resources.
They communicate with the parents and book classes for you, so you’re only responsible for teaching.
They often have room for raises and further training and certification.
It’s easy to build up a large enough student base to make a steady income teaching with a company.
The Cons
The company makes the rules, and it can be difficult to communicate with management.
The teaching requirements can be strict, and punishments tend to be inflexible. (For example, even if you have to miss class for an emergency, you may be penalized if you don’t have proper documentation.)
You have less room for flexibility than you would teaching by yourself.
You have less earning potential than a specialized tutor would.
You have to file your taxes.
You may end up teaching classes or lessons that you don’t like.
Now for the nitty-gritty. If you want to teach English online, you need some basic tools.
Stable Internet Connection
For starters, should have a stable high-speed internet connection. Some companies, such as VIPKID, technically require that you have an Ethernet connection, but a strong, fast Wifi connection should be just fine.
Computer, Tablet or Mobile Phone
Most companies require that you teach from a laptop or omputer on their platform, but some have apps that allow you to teach from your tablet or phone.
Webcam and Microphone
You should also have a good webcam, mic, and headset. The headphones that come with a Mac are perfectly good for teaching online, but some teachers prefer buying their headsets for increased comfort and reliability.
A quiet, well-lit environment is a must for online teaching. A home or office is preferable, but any spot will do in a pinch.
If you’re traveling, you may have to be creative to create the appearance of a professional classroom setting. You can set up your classroom in a closet, a quiet corner, or a deserted hallway.
All you really need is quiet and a patch of wall where you can set up your teaching background!
Read our Buying Guides for Online Teaching Supplies
In our buying guides, we recommend high-quality yet affordable online teaching supplies.
Tools to Teach English Online
If you teach independently or through a marketplace or company that doesn’t provide or require a certain platform and requisites, you’ll need to figure out what software and physical materials work best for the kind of teaching you’re doing.
Here are a few options you can consider:
Video Call Software
The success of an online class is contingent on the quality of the platform it’s held on. Make sure you choose to host your classes using the video call software that works best for both you and your students.
Perhaps the most popular video call platform, Skype is a great option because it’s easy to use, and your students probably already have it.
It lets you have the chat box and the video open at the same time. It automatically makes the video call visible when you have something else pulled up on your computer, making it easy to refer to teaching materials and communicate with your students at the same time. Skype also lets you easily share files within the platform, which makes teaching much easier. The basic version of Skype, which should have all the functionality you need, is also free.
Zoom is user-friendly, popular, and not prone to technical issues. If you’re teaching one-on-one, you’ll also be fine with Zoom’s free plan. However, some people complain that lots of Zoom features are add-ons that you have to pay for, which means it can get expensive fast.
This is a great free platform for group or one-on-one meetings. It also allows screen and file sharing and is easy to use. However, it’s blocked in China, which means if you make it your main platform you’ll be excluding a huge population of potential students.
WeChat’s video platform allows file sharing, and is a great option if you’re teaching in China because your students will already be familiar with it. It’s also free!
The biggest disadvantage of WeChat is that it stores conversation history on your device, meaning that if you change devices, you won’t have a record of what’s been said. This is particularly frustrating if you’re trying to refer to files you’ve sent or other information you’ve exchanged on the platform.
Other Online Tools
Aside from a good video call platform, there are a number of other online tools that you can use to make teaching easier for you and your students alike.
Google Drive andGoogle Docs allow file sharing and collaboration, making it easy to correct homework, share lesson materials, and edit writing.
Witeboard, a free shared whiteboard, lets you illustrate concepts as you would with a real whiteboard, and lets both you and the student draw.
Calendly andGooge Calendar are both good tools for scheduling lessons and planning out your availability. Best of all, you can share events with your students.
PayPal is the easiest tool for handling your finances and collecting tuition from your students internationally. If you’re living in China, you may also consider conducting payments throughWeChat Pay orAlipay.
Physical Materials
Of course, you need real-life tools to teach, too, not just ones online.
Having a cache of objects to decorate and fill your classroom with will make your students’ learning experience more engaging and fulfilling.
A whiteboard, pinboard, or magnet board is a great tool to have in your classroom because it doubles as a tool and decoration. You can use it for a points system, to illustrate teaching concepts, or to hang pertinent decoration or a sign with your name.
Flashcards are a great teaching tool for any age of language learners. Depending on your students’ age and level, you can put letters, objects, colors, or words on them. If you teach young kids, it’s a good idea to have a catalog of flashcards with basic concepts on them next to your computer so you can use them when they come up in your lesson.
If you’re teaching kids, you’ll want lots and lots of fun props. Hand puppets and realia are great tools. Fruits, stuffed animals, miniatures, and anything that may be pertinent to your lesson will help draw your students’ attention and help them understand you.
Create a log of videos and articles for students to look at before class so that you can have topical discussions about them in class. Likewise, you should have a file of worksheets you can assign after class.
Make the classroom yours! Whatever unique things you can add to your classroom will help you and will make your students want to keep coming back to your lessons.
More Tips for Teaching English Online
Personal Traits and Qualities Needed
Teaching English online looks very different from teaching in a classroom, or, for that matter, almost any other job. To succeed, you should develop the necessary personal traits.
Be Energetic and Engaging
ESL teachers must create a vibrant and engaging lesson for a person halfway across the world who doesn’t speak fluent English. For that reason, being friendly, energetic, and engaging is essential for the job.
You should be able to keep a child’s or adult’s attention, use body language and expressions to illustrate concepts, and be instantly friendly and relatable so that students don’t feel intimidated or shy.
Be Disciplined and Self-Motivated
Also, because when you teach ESL online you’re effectively your own boss, it’s important to be disciplined and to be able to self-motivate. That way you’ll keep booking classes, waking up, and making money.
The blessing and curse of a job that allows you to make your own schedule is that if you don’t decide to work, no one will force you to.
Be Flexible and Adaptable
Last, teaching online constantly throws you into new situations with people with various needs, English levels, personalities, and cultural backgrounds.
It’s exciting and gives you an opportunity to connect with different people all around the world. However, it can also be hard to adjust to all the different kinds of people you’ll meet.
A good online ESL teacher will be able to adapt to new situations and relate to people of all ages, language levels, and dispositions.
The Challenges of Teaching English Online
Teaching English online is, in many ways, an incredibly easy job.
You can roll out of bed in the morning, fire up your computer, and teach in your sweatpants. If you work for one of the major online teaching companies, you’ll never have to do lesson planning or much prep work at all. And best of all, your schedule is flexible.
But it’s not all sunshine and roses.
Unconventional Work Hours
Keep in mind that a flexible schedule does not mean teaching any time of the day or night that you fancy it.
As many teaching companies are focused at teaching students in specific countries, they open classes at times that are convenient for their student base.
This means that if you work with students in China and you live in America your prime working hours will be early in the morning (as early as 3 am, depending on what time zone you live in), and late at night.
While this gives you the day for yourself, it does mean you have to keep unconventional hours if you want to get lots of classes booked.
You’ll Need to Put On a Mask
As an online English teacher, you need to deliver high-quality lessons to your students. This means that you will have to spend some time familiarizing yourself with lessons before class time.
You’ll also need to create a fun and educational classroom environment and teaching props. You’ll also need to look put-together and awake, even when you have a class scheduled at 4 am.
Being a good teacher means always being friendly, patient, and kind. This means that even if you’re sick, tired, are going through personal issues, you need to put your best face forward and be totally enthusiastic and focused during class.
You may have to teach the same lesson over and over again or try to get a kid that’s absolutely bonkers to focus, and it’s your job to maintain your positive, encouraging attitude and never show your frustration.
It Takes a Lot of Self-Discipline
Additionally, you must be organized and self-motivated to teach ESL online. Without the structure and hierarchy of a traditional office setting, you’re in charge of maintaining your schedule, showing up on time for class, and doing the preparation you need to.
It’s easy to lose motivation or forget about a class if you don’t discipline yourself well, and if you miss lessons or get unsatisfactory remarks from parents you can get penalized or even fired.
You can make up to $24.40 an hour, create your own schedule, and work from your home — or a hostel.
Sounds great, right? But how do you get started?
We’re about to break down exactly what it takes to teach for VIPKID: we’ll explain what basic qualifications teachers need, what materials and personality traits you need to teach, and more.
And the best part is, we’re even answering some frequently asked questions about the job!
What is VIPKID?
If you’re not familiar with it, VIPKID is an online teaching platform that lets you conduct classes with students in China for $15.60-$24.40 an hour.
Depending on how often you work, that works out to anywhere between $150 and $6,000 a month.
The requirements for VIPKID teachers are pretty straightforward: you need a bachelor’s degree and license to work in the U.S. or Canada. Oh, and you need to be fluent in English.
You also need 2 years of teaching experience — note that this number was recently updated from one year of teaching experience.
If you haven’t been a classroom teacher, don’t worry. Tutoring, mentoring, and “alternative education” also count.
What does that mean? It means that if you’ve been a camp counselor, you can include that. Been a nanny? Fantastic. Coached soccer? Great! Do you have kids? Perfect.
If, in your estimation, you have had a leadership or teaching role with children, you really should be good to go for VIPKID.
The Requirements to Work for VIPKID
be eligible to work in the U.S. or Canada
have a bachelor’s degree
have two years of experience (teaching, babysitting, coaching, etc)
be fluent in English
Pass the Background Check
Every teacher who works for VIPKID must pass an FBI Criminal Background Check. It’s not entirely clear what findings will disqualify you from teaching, but if you have a misdemeanor or DUI on your record you should be fine.
Some people say that VIPKID is mainly worried about applicants who’ve been convicted of violent crimes or crimes involving children.
Equipment
Because VIPKID is taught online, there are a few things you need to be equipped with to make sure you’re able to conduct classes smoothly.
Ready to get technical?
Just kidding. I’m writing this at my level of tech fluency, so your grandma should be able to understand everything covered in this section.
Hardware and Accessories
First off, you need a desktop or laptop computer to teach for VIPKID. A Microsoft Surface is fine, but an iPad or other tablet isn’t adequate for teaching through VIPKID.
Second, you need an HD camera and a headset with a microphone. Your computer probably already comes equipped with an HD camera, but if it doesn’t you can get one online.
And you can use your iPhone earphones or similar ones as your headset, or you can purchase a more heavy-duty one.
VIPKID Tech: Buying Guide
Stuck trying to figure out which camera and headset to buy? We’ve got you covered.
You can buy [amazon link=”B004FHO5Y6″ title=”an HD webcam like this Logitech one”] for as little as around $20.
And you can get a high-quality headset for around $25! [amazon link=”B004FHO5Y6″ title=”an HD webcam like this Logitech one”] This NUBWO gaming headset delivers high quality at a reasonable price.
Computing Requirements
Beyond all the gadgets, you’ll also need an adequate operating system, meaning Windows 7 or Mac 10.x or above, and at least 4G of RAM on your computer.
Not sure if your computer meets these requirements?
No problem! Just follow these instructions:
Mac
If you have a Mac, click on the Apple logo on the top left corner of your screen. Click “About this Mac”, and a box will come up.
Under the name of your computer, it will say what version it is, and then by “Memory” it will say how many gigabytes of RAM you have!
Easy!
Apple macOS System Info
Windows PC
If you have a PC, search “Control Panel” Windows search bar. Then click System and Security > System.
That should bring up a box that tells you what version of computer you have, along with how much RAM your laptop has.
This box will show you your computer’s specs if you have a Mac.
You’ll also need a stable internet connection that has upload and download speeds of at least 20 Mbps. You can use Speedtest to find out if you meet this requirement.
If your computer doesn’t meet the speed requirements, you can try situating yourself closer to your router or getting an Ethernet cable.
Last, you need at least Chrome version 51 and Firefox version 47 and updated Flash.
Props and Teaching Setup
Okay, you guys — this is the fun part!
Besides the technical requirements for your computer, you need a good classroom setup for VIPKID.
What does that entail?
Classroom Setup for VIPKID
Great lighting
A cool rewards system
Some fun teaching props
An engaging teaching background
A quiet space with no distractions
You can go all-in with your teaching space, making it totally fun and immersive, or you can be more simplistic.
I personally don’t like having my teaching background up during the day because my classroom doubles as a home office (and I don’t want to be in “teacher mode” 24/7), and I also travel a lot, which means I need to take my teaching things with me sometimes.
Because of that, my whole classroom setup is super mobile and transportable — and less flashy and impressive than some other people’s. At the end of the day, though, it gets the job done and the students love it. And that’s what matters most!
A little decoration goes a long way in your VIPKID classroom! (Photo: Graham Carroll)
Let’s bust a common VIPKID myth:
All VIPKID teachers used to have to wear orange t-shirts to teach, but that is no longer the case!
Rejoice and wear whatever solid-colored shirt makes you feel comfortable (and doesn’t make you look like you have freaking scurvy).
Just make sure you’re not wearing anything with logos or anything that’s stained or too revealing.
Personal Traits and Behaviors
Waking up super early to teach young students who might not speak any English takes a specific personality type.
For one thing, you need to be on first thing in the morning.
You might be teaching pretty young kids who can’t understand the bulk of what you’re saying, so you’ll have to rely on exaggerated facial expressions and movements to help them understand you and keep them engaged.
Be Friendly
You should be enthusiastic, friendly, and smiley to make your students feel comfortable and engaged in your classes.
A note on this: you might see Youtube videos from VIPKID teachers who are super duper chipper and preternaturally happy all the time.
That kind of personality is great, but if that’s not you, don’t worry. It’s not me, either, and I get along just fine.
You don’t need to act like you’re in the cast of Disney on Ice during your classes — just be friendly, awake, and welcoming, and don’t be afraid to be a little silly. Your kids will love you for it!
While we’re talking about personality traits, I’d like to note that all this smile-ness goes along with plain old not being rude.
It can be really frustrating when a student doesn’t understand a concept you’ve explained 46 times, especially when it’s 4:30 in the morning.
But remember that your student is probably frustrated, too, and your impatience will only make them feel worse.
A little patience and understanding go a long way when you’re teaching for VIPKID.
Not being rude also means listening. It can be hard to stay focused in class (especially if you’re teaching the same lesson for the 3rd time in a row), but it’s important to stay engaged, listen to the student, correct their mistakes, and provide encouragement.
Me during an online lesson. (Photo: Graham Carroll)
Be Awake
Yawning in class is a big no-no, and some parents will call you out on it.
I definitely have days where I can’t help but let a little yawn escape from my mouth, but I’ve found ways of disguising it: by covering my mouth with my hand, ducking out of the screen to “grab a prop”, or opening my mouth and acting really surprised!
You’ll find methods of disguising yawns that work for you, too — promise.
Being awake also means not looking like you just rolled out of bed. Again, you’ll see some people on YouTube who go to class at 5:00 in the morning with freshly curled hair and a full face of makeup. Again, I am 100% not that teacher and I do just fine.
I usually go to bed in a solid t-shirt with no logo so I can teach in it, and then I make sure my hair looks just this side of being a rat’s nest before I teach.
If I do wear makeup, it’s usually mascara to make me look more awake and maybe red lipstick to help students pay attention to what shapes my mouth makes when I pronounce words in English.
The great thing about the camera is that it really blurs your features, so you’ll look good even if you have a raging zit on your nose and an eye booger the size of Texas hanging out in your tear duct.
Be Self-Motivated
Working from home means that you don’t have a boss telling you what to do and when to do it. So you need to make sure that you’re prepared, organized, and ready for class.
Beyond that, you need to be your own hype man, making sure you’re motivated and confident before class!
You need to hold yourself accountable, making sure you’re aware of when your classes are scheduled and are prepared for them.
Availability
Exactly when you need to wake up to teach for VIPKID depends on what time zone you live in.
You don’t need to be available during every slot that you can possibly teach lessons, but it’s a good idea to make sure that you’ll be able to teach some classes before you go through the effort of applying and interviewing.
You can teach for VIPKID anytime between 7:30 PM and 9:00 AM CDT, or between 8:30 AM and 10:00 PM Beijing time.
The highest demand for classes is between 5:00 AM and 9:00 AM CDT, and between 12:00 AM and 9:00 AM CDT on the weekends. And high demand means you have an increased likelihood of getting booked during those times.
Note that there’s no Daylight Savings Time in China, so the schedule shifts forward an hour when Daylight Savings Time starts.
Frequently Asked Questions
This section includes answers to a few common questions about VIPKID teacher requirements. If you have a question that’s not answered here, feel free to drop a comment below!
Am I Locked into a Certain Schedule Once I Sign Up?
No! You can open slots whenever and close them back up again until a student has booked them without penalty. VIPKID is super-duper flexible — it’s one of my favorite parts about it!
How Long Is the Contract Period for Vipkid?
Each VIPKID contract period lasts 6 months.
Do I Have to Teach a Certain Number of Classes Each Week to Stay Employed?
Nope! VIPKID recommends that teachers teach for at least 7.5 hours a week, but you won’t be penalized if you don’t maintain that every week or have to go on vacation or take time off.
Can I teach for VIPKID if I’m not living in the U.S. or Canada right now?
Yes! You just need to be eligible to work in either country.
Conclusion
Teaching for VIPKID is super fun, and almost anyone can do it! All you need is a bachelor’s degree, English fluency, eligibility to work in the U.S. or Canada, and 2 years of experience doing some type of teaching or childcare.
VIPKID has flexible hours, and you can teach online English classes from almost anywhere with a quiet corner and a stable internet connection!
If you’re interested in becoming a VIPKID teacher, drop a comment below — I’d love to answer any questions you might have and help you on your journey!
VIPKID provides lessons and curriculum, has excellent support staff for teachers and students, and schedules your classes for you once you’ve decided your availability.
All you really need to do is show up with a smile!
VIPKID classes are 25 minutes long, and the students are 3-12 years old.
How to Calculate Your VIPKID Salary
At most jobs, your wage is calculated using a simple equation, more or less: your hourly wage times how many hours you work.
Simple, right?
You can earn between $15.60 and $24.40 an hour teaching through VIPKID, and you can work … well, pretty much as many or as few hours as you want.
Which is great, except all the wiggle room doesn’t tell you much about how much you can actually expect to earn through VIPKID.
In the next two sections, we’re going to break down each component of your VIPKID salary to give you an idea of where on the spectrum you might fall and how to increase your paycheck.
Part 1: How Much Can You Earn Hourly?
As we’ve mentioned, you can earn $15.60 and $24.40 an hour through VIPKID.
How much you’ll get paid depends on how many classes a month you teach, how high your base pay is, and whether you finish the class on time.
The Equation for Hourly Pay =
(Base Pay ($7-$9) + Finished Class Incentive ($0.80-$3.20) *2 Classes Per Hour
Your finished class incentive is determined by how many classes you teach per month and how many lifetime classes you’ve taught through VIPKID.
And remember, there are two classes in an hour.
How is Base Pay Calculated?
Your base pay is calculated based on two factors: how much teaching experience you have and how well you perform in the interview and mock class.
In terms of teaching experience, you may be wondering what does and doesn’t count.
Obviously, classroom experience counts. It’s unlikely that you’ll make $9 base pay per class unless you’ve been a classroom teacher and have your teaching certificate or have some other type of significant experience.
However, if you have a TEFL certificate, have been a classroom assistant or tutor, have taught abroad, or have even been a camp counselor, you should list these on your application — they do count as past experience, and they very well may help you get higher base pay.
There are a bunch of factors that you have to consider in answering this question!
The first is what you’d like your schedule to look like, and the second is whether you’re hoping to work part-time or full-time for VIPKID.
The majority of classes are held in the early morning and late at night. I live in the Midwest, so I teach sometime between 6:00 AM-9:00 AM regularly and from 5:00 AM-8:00 AM during Daylight Savings Time (China doesn’t have Daylight Savings Time).
The available “peak time” slots for lesson bookings at VIPKID
I could wake up at 4:00 am but I’m not trying to burn out — after all, this is not my full-time job.
I rarely fill all my slots and I don’t teach on Fridays, so I end up teaching 2 hours a morning 4 days a week.
I make $20 an hour, so that totals out to somewhere around $20/hour x 2 hours a day x 4 days a week x 4 weeks a month = $640 a month.
Not bad as extra income, right?
There are people who teach with VIPKID full time. You can make upwards of $4,000 a month if you wake up super early to teach (some people wake up as early as 3 am!) and stay up all night on the weekends.
It definitely requires a certain kind of lifestyle to keep these hours, but for many people, it’s worth it to get to work from home, have their days off, and spend time with their children during the day.
Your Schedule is Completely Up to You
The really great thing about VIPKID is how flexible it is.
When I first got started, I opened every single slot, waking up super early and then taking a nap when I was done teaching at 9. I got a lot of students that way, and I learned what kind of schedule worked for me.
I know now that I like waking up at 5:00, but 4:00 is way too early for me. I also know that I am absolutely not willing to stay up all night teaching on the weekends — I tried that exactly once and swore to never do it again.
I also know that if I teach more than about 4 classes back-to-back I start losing focus and stop being a good teacher, so I try to schedule breaks or leave an empty spot in my schedule on days when I’m booked full.
I figure that it’s better to sacrifice $10 here and there than to burn out and be miserable during my classes.
I went all-in when I first started VIPKID and then let my foot off the gas a little bit, but some people go the opposite route: they dip their toe in the water, opening more and more slots each week until they’re booked full.
You don’t have to decide whether you’re going to be a part-time or full-time teacher now, and you don’t need to stick to any decision you don’t want to long-term.
And that flexibility, in my opinion, is one of the best things about VIPKID.
How Can You Increase Your VIPKID Salary?
Now that we’ve broken down the elements of your salary, here are a few tips for how to raise it.
These six tips will help you organize your schedule, book more classes, and maximize your teaching time for higher profits.
Book More Classes
This one is obvious, but the more classes you book per month, the higher your finished class bonus will be.
Having that goal in mind (and watching your earnings increase) will keep you motivated throughout the month.
Try to set weekly goals for yourself to hit that mark — for example, 11-12 classes a week.
Promote Yourself
Creating an appealing intro video and a concise, impressive bio will do wonders when you’re trying to book classes.
VIPKID is like Tinder for teachers — parents can pick from any number of candidates to conduct their classes, so you want to stick out from the crowd.
Tips for Your Intro Video
Speak Slowly and Clearly
If parents can’t understand your intro, they probably won’t feel overly confident about your ability to communicate with their children in English.
Make sure your lighting is good
Film outside at midday or in a well-lit room to make your video look bright and cheery.
Use Props
A silly hat, a stuffed animal, whatever! Props and goofy accents will make your video more memorable to parents, and they’ll also show them how fun and engaging you are as an English teacher!
This simple video is a great example of how to create your video.
Don’t be afraid to play around with it — parents will love seeing your personality shine. And that means more bookings!
Show up on Time
This one is a giant no-brainer. Not only do you need to show up on time and end on time to get a bonus, but doing so also makes you look professional and will lead to better comments from parents.
A teacher with a reputation for not being punctual probably won’t get too many bookings.
Show up to All Your Classes
This one, like the last one, is less about making more money and more about not losing money.
If you miss class without canceling it or cancel within 2 hours of your class, you’ll be charged a $10 no-show fee. And if you cancel between 2 and 24 hours before class, you’ll be deducted $2 per canceled class.
Note that there are exceptions for emergencies, so you don’t have to worry about being penalized should something awful happen to you or a loved one unexpectedly.
Besides the cancellation fee, parents will be unlikely to book you again if you’ve missed a class with them (unless you have a legitimate reason for doing so), because you’re wasting their children’s time when you don’t show up to commitments you’ve made with them.
Keep a Regular Schedule
Keeping a regular schedule will get you more bookings because you’ll get regular students who book you at the same time each day or week.
Instead of opening slots willy-nilly and sitting around between classes, you can get more reliable clients when you keep a more reliable schedule.
My available class openings during Daylight Savings Time in the Midwest. You can open and close slots at your leisure until they’re booked by students.
A regular schedule is also more sustainable and will keep you accountable, so you don’t start finding excuses to cancel classes right and left when you just don’t feel like waking up early.
Get More Certifications
The more certifications you have, the more levels you’re able to teach. And thus, the greater the pool of students you can teach!
If you want every slot you open to fill up, you should get as many certifications as you can, so you’re available to teach every student.
You can always see which certifications you have – and which you can earn – in the Certification Center.
Conclusion
VIPKID can look just about however you want it to:
You can turn it into a full-time job and work all hours of the night, earning $4,000 per month.
Or you can do what I do and teach a few hours each morning, earning between around $150 and $700 per month depending on your schedule.
How do you connect with a large group of younger students, keep them excited, focussed and on your side for the whole lesson?
Let’s look at 8 effective ways of teaching English to children and managing your classroom.
1. Get Down to Their Level
Imagine how you’d feel if you were in a classroom with a giant, twice your height towering over you. I’d imagine you wouldn’t feel that comfortable right? It’s no different for your students.
You need to consider what you look like through their eyes, especially when meeting you for the first time.
Try crouching down.
Try sitting down on a chair, stool etc.
Even try sitting on the floor if you have to!
Anything to bring your height down will help.
You are no longer a scary giant but a friend leading the lesson. You are also closer to their eye level now which helps things even more with connecting!
2. Be Fun And Keep Them Engaged
Imagine the field trips galore! Do you remember how fondly you looked forward to field trips when you were younger?
Now, your students will be looking forward to those same experiences with you. You will have the opportunity to help them solidify fun memories that they will remember for the rest of their lives.
Children are imaginative, creative, and brutally honest – they are an endless source of entertainment and energy. They love games, songs, dancing, and let’s face it, do we as adults ever really grow out of that? I don’t think so.
The big difference now is that you get paid to have fun with some of the coolest human beings on the planet!
3. Promote Their Progress
Kids soak up information swiftly. If you care about results and teaching to make a difference, teaching children may be the perfect option for you.
They don’t see learning a language to an end, but often love school and think of the experience as fun. As a teacher, do not only watch your students grow, but help them to develop intellectually over time and show them ways to use the information they have learned in the classroom outside.
4. Use TPR
TPR (total physical response) is a way of using actions to help learn a language.
For example, if you teach them the word jump then get them to do exactly that… jump! It has been found to be very effective with younger students and best of all, it’s really fun.
Younger children naturally have more energy and can feel stifled and bored sitting silently in one place for too long. Why fight this tendency when you can work with it?
Get them moving around, using actions to learn in class and you’ll be known as the fun teacher that they can’t wait to have lessons with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co1orcNxd6Q
5. Always Come Up With New Activities
Young learners respond to a variety of different activities and stimuli. The more creative an activity may be, the kids are likely to enjoy it. Use a variety of approaches while teaching and constantly try something new.
Whether it’s a hands-on activity like making a craft, sharing a funny educational YouTube video, using regalia in the classroom, or including sports activities as part of a lesson, children tend to gravitate toward those activities.
No two students are the same, and that can lead to some interesting situations. Not all students will enjoy learning, though most of them likely will. Some students will be unmotivated, lazy, boisterous, or naughty in the classroom.
As a teacher working with children you will have to be adaptable, patient but firm at the same time, and have to be strongly focused on classroom management to make sure lessons are completed properly and in the proper time frame.
Teaching proper behavior during this stage is just as important as teaching spelling to young learners and can take up a good amount of time in the classroom.
Bonus: Find Jobs to Teach Children
The traditional classroom, one-to-one lessons, and even online lesson options can allow you to supplement your income while doing rewarding work if you know where to look to find those jobs.
As you can see, there is a little something for everyone no matter your teaching style. Whatever environment or age range of children you prefer, an opportunity is waiting for you to grab.
Every online ESL teacher wants to increase their bookings – but only some teachers have what it takes to consistently fill all their slots.
If you want to be a top-tier ESL teacher, there are a few things you definitely have to do to max out your bookings and provide consistently good classes.
Intrigued?
Here are some best practices you must follow to be an A+ online ESL teacher:
Be Punctual
Have you ever made plans with a friend only for them to show up 15 minutes late, sweaty and apologizing?
I bet waiting on them was pretty frustrating. When people show up late we feel annoyed and cheated out of our precious time, and that’s all the more true when we’re paying them.
As an online teacher, it’s imperative that you’re always ready for the start of class. After all, it’s not like you can act like traffic held you up between your kitchen and the computer.
Dress to Impress
Make sure to dress appropriately for your lessons. You don’t have to go all out for your online classes or anything – a clean solid-color t-shirt or sweater and combed hair should generally do the trick.
Just make sure you look neat, presentable, and professional, and that you obey any company policies regarding appearance.
Have a Plan
You should go into every class having an idea of what each part of the lesson will consist of and having materials prepared for each part of your lesson.
Most teaching platforms give teachers lesson plans, meaning that most of the heavy lifting is done for you – all you need to do is prepare any relevant props and rewards and review the lesson material ahead of class.
If you’re creating your own lesson plans, it’s not enough to think through each individual lesson – you need to think about the arc of each student’s learning over time.
Your curriculum should help your students build on what they’ve previously learned and solidify new information, and it should be clear to your students themselves how they’re progressing and building toward goals in your lessons.
Creating curriculum that builds on itself and leads toward tangible goals will help your students learn more, and it will also make students feel more motivated and confident in their learning.
Pick the Right Material
It’s important that your lessons are tailored to your students: that they’re tailored to their age level and ability, of course, but also that your lessons speak to your students particular interests.
For example, if you’re teaching a student who’s obsessed with trains, you could have them read passages about trains, use trains in examples, or use toy trains as rewards.
You don’t need a trillion dollar laptop and space age headset to teach online – after all you’re holding English lessons over video call, not commanding the Hubble Space Telescope.
You do, however, need a setup that’s reliable and sturdy. You don’t want your laptop dying halfway through a class or your microphone crackling while you’re trying to teach, for example.
Investing in some decent teaching equipment now will save you headaches and potential embarrassment down the line.
Speak to Their Level
How quickly you speak, how much you enunciate, and what kind of vocabulary you use should all be dictated by the level and ability of the student you’re teaching.
If you’re teaching total beginners, it’s important to speak slowly and clearly, enunciate each word, and use simple vocabulary that they can understand. It’s important to accommodate your students as they develop their listening ability and build a foundation in English.
After all, never learn how to ride a bike if you don’t take the training wheels off at some point!
Don’t Miss Classes
Everyone misses class once in awhile: emergencies arise, power outages and wifi mishaps occur, and sometimes that pesky alarm clock just doesn’t go off.
When unavoidable hiccups happen and you just can’t make it to class, don’t worry: your students and the people you’re contracting with will understand. After all, they’re human too.
However, it’s super important to not make a habit of missing classes.
Doing so will make you seem unreliable and uncommitted, and it’ll give you less leeway if and when you have to miss class for legitimate reasons.
Handle Cancellations Well
Over the course of your teaching career, students will occasionally miss class (or show up late).
If you teach for a platform like VIPKID they’ll help you handle lateness and missed classes, but if you teach independently you should have a firm policy in place so that students know the consequences of cancellations in advance.
You can of course be lenient with students and evaluate cases according to each student’s track record and their unique situation.
You don’t, however, want to be stuck arguing with students about whether they owe you payment after they cancelled class 5 minutes before it was supposed to start for the third time in a row.
Have a Backup
You don’t want to be caught with a malfunctioning headset at the start of class, and you want a poor wifi connection even less.
Having good supplies is key to creating smooth lessons – check out this buying guide if you’re looking to upgrade your classroom.
Having extra supplies on hand is even better.
Investing in a backup pair of headphones, a backup computer charger, and perhaps an ethernet cable or some other alternate means of connecting to the Internet will help you ensure that every class goes off without a hitch.
Hone Your Technical Know-How
You’ll need to troubleshoot problems on your end during class, sure, but your students will also doubtlessly run into problems with your teaching platform.
Knowing enough about the platform and basic computer info to help a student restart their router, reload the webpage, unmute themselves, or angle the camera to their face will save you time and a headache.
And you’ll appreciate not having to call for an intermediary every time a small problem arises.
Create an A+ Environment
The most important components of a great classroom environment are a private, quiet area to teach in and good, bright lighting.
Once you have those components, you can start worrying about cutesy backgrounds and props.
But in the end, it doesn’t matter how many killer teaching tools you have if your student can barely see them, or if there’s so much background noise that it’s hard for them to hear you.
When you smile, you come off as friendlier and happier, which will make your students feel more at ease in class and in turn encourage them to feel more comfortable taking risks and speaking more.
You don’t need to ham it up as much with older students as with younger students, but a pleasant demeanor will go a long way with students of any age.
And the more you practice smiling during class, the more it will come naturally to you!
Use Props
Props are a relatively inexpensive investment that make a huge difference in the quality of your lessons.
They can add a bit of fun to class, which helps engage younger students especially. They can also help you easily explain concepts that might otherwise be difficult to convey.
Whiteboards, flaschcards, and “realia” (i.e. using a real or plastic apple when you’re discussing fruit) are all great props. You might also invest in a puppet to demonstrate dialogue or a toy microphone to signal who should be speaking when.
Props don’t just add fun to lessons – they also show that you’ve put thought and preparation into your lessons.
I’ve had more than my fair shares of scheduling mishaps – forgetting I have a class scheduled until five minutes before it starts, running home to make it to class on time, or showing up a minute late to a class I totally blanked on.
Now, I’m totally on top of my class schedule.
I double check my schedule for the following day every night before I go to bed and close any early morning slots that haven’t been booked because I know I’m not going to wake up to check to see whether I had a short-notice booking at 4:30 am.
I also check my teaching schedule anytime I schedule something, closing bookings the morning after I plan on going out or on travel days and not scheduling activities if I already have classes booked.
Managing your schedule like this will become second nature once you’ve been teaching for awhile, but it’s important to start cultivating these habits early.
Assign Homework
If you teach with VIPKID or a similar company, you don’t need to worry about this step! The teaching platform will assign homework and the student’s learning partner will check it – all you have to do is teach class.
If you’re teaching independently or through a tutoring marketplace, though, you’ll want to assign homework to help your student concretize the information they’re learning and progress faster.
Homework also helps your students come to class more prepared, which makes lessons go more smoothly, and it gives students a sense of control and accomplishment.
Stay Up-To-Date
Join forums, message boards, and Facebook groups (like ours!) to stay up-to-date on the latest teaching developments.
Being ahead of the curve will help you teach effectively and stay in demand!
Just Keep Chugging!
If you take these tips to heart, you’ll be on your way to getting full bookings in no time.
And remember: you’re on your teaching journey and you’ve made mistakes along the way, don’t worry! Everyone has missteps while they’re learning, including your students – and including you.
The more classes you teach, the more you’ll learn how to prepare and make every class a smash hit.
Interested in teaching English through VIPKID? Click my referral link and apply today!
Do you want a lucrative, fulfilling work-from-home job?
Do you want to set your own schedule and maintain flexibility and freedom while making money?
If so, teaching online might be for you.
Teaching online lets you improve the lives of children around the world and earn good income all from the comfort of your home.
This article breaks down how you can start teaching from home and earning money today with VIPKID!
You probably have a ton of questions about VIPKID, and we’re here to answer them in this step-by-step guide to applying to work with this ESL company.
What’s So Great About Teaching Online, Anyway?
You can work anywhere with a solid internet connection
You get to set your own schedule
You can work as much (or as little) as you’d like
You’ll be helping students learn an important skill – English!
You can make up to $22 an hour – plus bonuses (more on that later)
1. Get To Know VIPKID
Over 30,000 people teach with VIPKID, including digital nomads, stay-at-home parents, entrepreneurs, and classroom teachers. Collectively, VIPKID teachers serve more than 500,000 registered students.
Teachers choose to teach English online through VIPKID because the platform allows them to set their own schedules and decide how many hours to work each week.
Basic info about VIPKID classes:
Each class is 25 minutes long, and you’ll always teach a Chinese student aged 4-12. There’s a 5 minute break in between each class.
Peak teaching hours are in the morning and evening in Beijing (we’ll go more into the specifics of your teaching hours a little further down).
Teachers can make $15.60-$24.40 an hour teaching through VIPKID, depending on their experience, bonuses, and how well they perform during the interview process.
Teachers are given a base pay of $7-$9 for each 25-minute class – that number will vary depending on your teaching experience and your performance in your mock class. This works out to $14-$18 per hour, just for base pay.
On top of base pay, you’ll get a finished class incentive that ranges from $0.80-$3.20 per class, depending on how many classes you teach per month and how many classes you’ve taught through VIPKID in total. The bonuses bring your pay up to $15.60-$24.40 per hour!
Besides these requirements, you should have a good classroom setup. That means a kid-friendly background, a quiet spot to teach in, headphones with a mouthpiece, and teaching props including a white board and flashcards.
FAQ: I’m an introvert. Can I teach for VIPKID?
While it’s true that the prototypical VIPKID teacher is bubbly, outgoing, and extroverted, that doesn’t mean there’s not room for different kinds of teachers, too.
Shyer students might prefer calmer, less intense teachers, and older students might prefer a more serious teacher over a super enthusiastic one.
However, you should still be sure to be friendly and full of life during your VIPKID interview.
3. Apply Online!
If you meet the requirements to become a VIPKID teacher, you’re ready to apply right now!
The application process varies in length, but it should take less than two weeks from submitting your application to teaching your first real class if you complete each step of the process in a timely manner.
The application covers basic information about you and ensures that you meet the teaching requirements for VIPKID. It shouldn’t take longer than 10 minutes to complete.
Step 2: Complete a Live or Pre-Recorded Demo Lesson
The recorded option takes 5 minutes, and you can rerecord your lesson as many times as you’d like. You can also do the recorded option whenever you’d like!
The live option is 30 minutes and is scheduled ahead of time, but it gives you the advantage of being able to get feedback about your lesson, ask any questions you have, and even potentially negotiate your salary.
For both the live and recorded options, you’ll be given slides to review and prepare before your class.
Step 3: Pass Your Mock Class
Mock classes are like demo lessons in a lot of ways. In a mock class, you teach for 10 minutes and introduce yourself to the interviewer, get feedback, and ask questions for 15 minutes. You’ll be sent a full lesson plan to prepare for this.
Some people get hired after their first mock class, but most people need to do 2 mock classes before they’re sent over a contract.
I taught English in China for 2 years before I started working for VIPKID and I did 2 mock classes!
Your mock class is your chance to show VIPKID that you understand their platform and have an effective teaching style! This is also the chance for you to show that you have a good internet connection and an appropriate teaching environment.
Step 4: Take or Submit a TESOL Course
If you don’t already have a TEFL certificate, you’ll need to take and pass a TESOL course that VIPKID offers for free before signing your contract. The course is only around 10 hours, and it contains lots of information that will help you be a better teacher!
Step 5: Sign Your Contract
This is the fun part. Once you’ve finished all the previous steps, it’s finally time to sign your contract and start teaching! VIPKID contracts last 6 months.
When you sign your contract, you’ll find out your base salary! Your base salary is determined by how much teaching experience you have plus how well you did in your mock class.
Your base pay will fall between $7 and $9 for each 25-minute class, and you’ll have the opportunity to earn bonuses on top of that as well.
I find online tutoring to be incredibly rewarding and convenient, but teaching for VIPKID has its challenges, too.
You have to either wake up early or stay up late to work
You need to be on-camera and “on” at early or late hours
You can work as much or as little as you want – but you aren’t guaranteed a certain number of hours (Either you get booked or you don’t, and you may find yourself booked solid for stretches and teaching just one class a day at other times.)
Teaching for VIPKID means going with the flow and learning to accept (and maybe even appreciate) some uncertainty
If these challenges sound like something you can deal with, then I’d recommend applying – because for many teachers, myself included, the tradeoff is well worth it.
4. Start Teaching
Once you’ve signed your contract, it’s time to start teaching. Teaching can be stressful at first, but believe me when I tell you that you’ll start feeling like a pro in no time.
Lessons with VIPKID aren’t exactly like normal classroom lessons – VIPKID uses the flipped-classroom method.
This means that students do activities that teach them about the class material before each lesson and then spend their classes solidifying what they’ve learned, practicing conversation, and doing other project- and activity-based things.
This strategy is really great for immersion teaching (like you’ll be doing with VIPKID!) because it means that you’re not teaching the students new material from start to finish — you’re just helping them deepen their understanding and get more comfortable with the English language.
All of this theory and terminology matters kind of minimally in the end, though because you don’t do any actual lesson planning with VIPKID. You’ll get fleshed out lesson plans with down-to-the minute content. Your only job is to show up and teach!
The key to feeling confident when you start teaching is to prepare, prepare, prepare.
Getting your props set up ahead of class will make every lesson a breeze. (Photo by Graham Carroll)
Top Tips for Making Every Lesson a 5-Apple Lesson
1. Open slots early
The earlier you open teaching slots, the more opportunities parents have to book you! Open slots as soon as you can and make sure to check back on your teaching schedule often so you’re not caught teaching a class by surprise.
2. Review the materials before class
Knowing what content is in each class will help you pace yourself properly, and it will also prevent you from trying to figure out how to teach each slide before class.
When you’re reviewing, you can set up props that will help you illustrate different vocabulary words and concepts.
You can also get your rewards set up and brainstorm ways to extend the material by asking questions or inserting extra activities in case your student blows through the content extra fast.
3. Get your classroom set up
Before each class make sure your classroom environment is well-lit, your props and rewards are set up, and your appearance is well-kempt and professional.
FAQ: What will my working hours look like?
The good news is that there’s no maximum (and no minimum) to how much you work for VIPKID! Work however much you want, whenever you want to.
Want to work for 2 hours each morning, 5 days a week? That’s fine. Want to teach 60 hours one week, opening all your slots and staying up all night, and take the entire following week off? That’s fine, too.
Peak teaching times for VIPKID are 5:00-8:00 EST – afternoon for kids in China (which doesn’t observe daylight savings time, by the way. Fun fact, right?)
However, you can open slots from 8:00 pm EST to 8:00 am EST – and you can fill pretty much all those slots reliably on weekends.
That’s It! Go Get Hired, Rockstar!
Becoming a VIPKID teacher is lucrative and fun – and it’s not as hard as it might seem.
We hope this guide gave you the tools you need to start your application process today. Check out our website for more tips about teaching English online and in-person, and don’t hesitate to comment with any questions you might have!
Teach English vocabulary related to school objects or classroom objects to your students – with our lovely illustrated ESL worksheets and flashcards, exclusively from JIMMYESL.
Kids – and likely adults, too – will love the “smiling items” and thus will be highly motivated to learn the new vocabulary and to complete the exercises in the worksheets.
Reward your students with a personal Certification of Achievement after taking the lesson!
The free worksheets include the vocabulary for these 32 classroom objects:
schoolbag
I pack my schoolbag in the morning.
chair
I sit on a chair.
table
I work at the table.
desk
The teacher sits at the desk.
blackboard
The questions are on the blackboard.
book
I read my book.
folder
I keep my work in my folder.
notebook
I take notes in my notebook.
paper
I write on the paper.
pencil
I use my pencil to write.
pencil case
I keep my stationery in my pencil case.
pencil sharpener
I use a pencil sharpener when my pencil is blunt.
rubber
I use a rubber when I make a mistake.
color pencils
It’s fun to use color pencils.
ballpointpen
I sometimes write with a ballpoint pen.
highlighter
A highlighter makes it easy to find parts of a sentence.
crayons
I use crayons to color my pictures.
paint
Paint can be fun but very messy!
paintbrush
I use a paintbrush to paint.
scissors
Scissors help me cut things.
stamp
The teacher stamps my work when it is finished.
ruler
A ruler tells me how long things are.
glue
Glue helps me stick things together.
compass
A compass makes it easy to draw a circle.
pins
We use pins to stick things to the board.
tape
Tape can also be used to stick things together.
computer
I use the computer to search the internet.
calculator
A calculator makes it easier to add big numbers.
projector
We can see big pictures using the projector.
map
A map shows different places.
clock
I use a clock to tell the time.
lunchbox
All of my tasty food is in my lunchbox.
Classroom Objects: The Worksheets
Dictionary Poster
The Dictionary Poster lists all 32 school and classroom objects. Print it and attach it to your classroom wall! – 2 pages
Poster Page 1
Poster Page 2
Printable Flashcards
Teach school & classroom objects vocabulary with flashcards. – 32 flashcards
Printable Flashcards Page 1
Printable Flashcards Page 2
Worksheet: Missing Letters
Let your students fill in the missing letters to complete the item names and color in the illustrations. – 2 pages, colored and black & white to color in
Black & White Worksheet Page 1
Colored Worksheet Page 2
Worksheet: Assign the Items
Let your students assign the items to their names by drawing lines. – – 2 pages, colored and black & white to color in
Black & White Worksheet Page 1
Colored Worksheet Page 2
Certification of Achievement
Reward your students for their effort with a personal printable certification. – 1 page
Home-based online English tutoring jobs are a very convenient and profitable option to earn a side income or even make a living without leaving your home.
Online tutoring sites or marketplaces connect you with hundreds of thousands of potential students.
But the competition is quite high.
How do you market yourself, find students and fill your schedule?
Online Tutoring Jobs Are Accessible for Anyone
In recent times, the popularity of online English teaching and tutoring has grown by leaps and bounds. A younger generation of digital natives with access to high-speed internet connection has rapidly boosted the demand for online classes and lessons.
Many of your potential students likely reside in other countries; remote tutoring can thus be crucial in helping you to connect with the particular group of students who will benefit most from your expertise.
The hardware and software requirements needed are certainly accessible to most people.
With a working microphone and webcam, a quiet environment, free software like Skype, a high-speed Internet connection, and lesson plans and exercises that can be easily administered online, you are ready to embark on a fulfilling home-based online English tutoring career.
You also do not have to worry about transportation expenses or long travel times due to bad traffic.
Of course, you have to be comfortable teaching in front of a web camera – knowing how to use facial expressions and upper body gestures to better communicate with your tutees will be a major advantage.
The benefits of efficiency and convenience are clear, but how does a new English tutor find online tutoring assignments?
What Are Tutoring Marketplaces?
Tutoring marketplaces make offering online tutoring services a breeze. After creating your tutor’s profile and adding an option of how you want to get paid, like your Paypal account, potential students will be able to connect with you and book lessons.
With so many platforms, you can try out a few different ones to see which works best for you.
Tutoring marketplaces generally give you more flexibility and control than traditional online teaching companies do. The platform will probably set class lengths, but everything else is up to you, including the structure of your lessons.
You may also have to pass a test to qualify to list yourself as a tutor for a specific subject on whatever marketplace you use.
Some sites, like Verbalplanet, allow you to set your own rate, while others, like Cambly, have set rates.
Some platforms will require you to do lesson planning if you want to succeed, while others focus on facilitating conversations between language learners and native speakers – you just have to show up and talk!
Some, similarly to online teaching companies, require teachers to have bachelor’s degrees and be native speakers, while others let anyone create an account on their platform.
The Pros
Tutoring marketplaces give you complete control over your schedule, your students, and your lessons. You can decide what subject matter to cover and what ages and levels of students you’d like to teach.
The platform handles the payment and some user support.
Most tutoring marketplaces let you teach from your phone or tablet.
Tutoring marketplaces usually have a low barrier to entry, meaning non-native speakers or tutors without bachelor’s degrees may apply.
Some platforms provide teaching software and resources for lessons.
The Cons
Because almost anyone can teach through a marketplace, it may be hard to stand out from all the teachers on the site and build up a client base.
Due to the competition, some teachers also set very low rates, making it harder to earn money teaching for a fair wage.
Students may not sign up for repeat classes or may give you an unfair rating, hurting your reputation on the site.
How Much Can You Make as an Online English Tutor?
Tutor marketplaces like italki and Verbalplanet let teachers set their own rates. Standard rates tend to hover around $10-25 per hour, but you can browse around to see what other tutors like you are charging to help you settle on a reasonable and fair rate for lessons.
If you have a teaching certificate or have experience teaching for tests like the TOEFL or the SAT, you can charge a higher rate for your lessons.
Tutors specializing in Business English and test preparation can easily charge upwards of $50 an hour. Pearson and Varsity Tutors are among the companies that connect expert tutors with students worldwide.
If you charge $25 an hour and work for 10 hours a week through a marketplace, you’ll earn $1,000 a month teaching.
It’s important to remember that teachers in tutor marketplaces and independent teachers do more work than just time spent in the classroom. They’re responsible for their own lesson planning and marketing, which adds to their workload.
The Best Online Tutoring Marketplaces
Ziktalk hosts conversations and doesn’t require tutors to be native speakers or have any teaching certifications. The app works on your phone, and you set your own rate by the minute.
With Cambly, you’ll make 17 cents a minute ($10 an hour) conversing with language learners all around the world. You won’t pay the bills with it, but it is a good side gig. You don’t need to be a native speaker or have a bachelor’s degree to tutor with Cambly, as long as your English is good. Teachers can’t use Cambly on smartphones or tablets. This guide to working for Cambly has more information about what teaching on the platform is like.
NiceTalk hosts conversations between native English speakers and Chinese ESL learners who want to practice their conversational English. Teachers get paid per full minute spent talking, and most of the students are adults. The NiceTalk app is compatible with Android and iOS. Tutors get paid $10 an hour.
Verbalplanet lets tutors set their own schedules and rate. Lessons last 45 minutes, and tutors customize lessons to fit their students’ needs. It’s more involved than a conversation-based marketplace, but the pay is better and the hours are steadier. The site has lots of tools to help teachers manage their clients, as well.
italki lets tutors set their own rate and schedule, similar to Verbalplanet. The platform handles marketing and other client management tasks, so teachers can focus on delivering high-quality lessons to students. You don’t need to be a native speaker to teach on italki as long as your English is good, and you can teach from a phone or tablet.
Other marketplaces are:
tutor.com (offers tutoring for a variety of subjects as well as English)
preply.com (a fast-growing ESL platform that is attracting plenty of students)
tutorhub.com (UK-based platform, branches into other subjects and pays around £20-£40 p/h)
wyzant.com (US-based platform, variety of subjects and can cater to higher ed students)
learnpick.com (another US-based platform with plenty of subjects and students)
8+1 Steps on How to Start
Tutoring on an online marketplace is a little less structured than working for a company, but there are a few steps you need to follow to get your business off the ground.
Follow these steps to create a successful and profitable teaching business through an online tutoring marketplace.
1. Decide Whom and What You Want to Teach
Before you start looking for potential students based on the various avenues described above, you should clarify a few key issues:
Who is your target demographic: kids, high school students, business people, speakers of certain languages, etc.?
What exactly will you be teaching them: beginner vocabulary, conversational English, business English, test prep, etc.?
What’s the real value of your lessons for your students – compared to other tutors?
Once you have a clear idea of your unique selling point, it will be easy for you to connect with the students who are the best match for your services.
2. Decide Which Marketplace you Want to Use
First, do your research. Browse around a few different marketplaces and get a feel for what kind of work you want to be doing.
Do you want the freedom to set your own rate and schedule? Do you want to converse or prepare lesson plans? How much time are you willing to devote to the job? Where in the world do you want to be teaching? Which marketplace?
Consider that you’ll be working with students in a different time zone, so you may have to work weird hours depending on where you teach.
You can read testimonials from different teachers and do some comparisons before you decide on a marketplace.
3. Submit an Application
Next, you need to apply for the job.
In general, you will have to pass through a (more or less strict) screening and verification process before you can start to advertise your tutoring services on these platforms. Some marketplaces have an interview or require you to make a video introduction.
How long it will take the employer to get back to you varies based on the company and how many applications they get.
The tutor.com application website
4. Create a Professional Profile
Once you’ve gotten hired, you’ll need to fill out your teacher profile.
Provide some background information, highlighting any teaching experience, language skills, or certifications.
You’ll want to submit a professional-looking photo and an introduction video that features you looking friendly and speaking clear, native-sounding English.
Your profile is the first impression parents will get of you, so it’s important to really sell your skills and put your best face forward here.
A tutor’s profile on italki
5. Figure out the Specifics of Your Teaching Practice
Finally, you’ll decide on your availability and, depending on the marketplace you choose, set your prices.
It’s a good idea to look at what other tutors like you are charging before you decide your rates, so you stay competitive.
6. Promote Your Teaching Business
When so many home-based online English tutors can be accessed with a few mouse clicks, it is often difficult to stand out from the crowd.
To help increase enrollment in your tutoring sessions, promote yourself using whatever tools are available to you on the platform, as well as on Facebook, your personal blog, online classifieds, and more.
You can spread the word about your services the old-fashioned way, by placing fliers around your area and telling people in your offline social network about your availability as an online English tutor.
You can also spend some money to advertise your services on social media or on local and international classified websites (e.g. Craigslist).
You can always invest in a personal website, some well-written articles, and even some free video lessons to showcase your personality, teaching style and expertise as a tutor.
Your articles and videos may gain significant traction on their own, thus ensuring that you catch the attention of a large number of potential tutees (and/or their parents).
7. Teach Great Lessons
Most importantly, you need to teach the lessons themselves. If you work for a platform that’s not just conversation-based you’ll spend time designing unique curriculums to fit your students’ needs.
To convince potential students to book lessons with you, you can demonstrate your aptitude by offering trial lessons and free downloads of quality learning materials.
If you do a good job, you’ll get positive feedback that will help spread your reputation as a good teacher and in turn increase your client base.
Lessons are the meat of your business, so constantly working to improve your lessons is the most important thing you can do as an online ESL teacher.
Payments vary by platform. Some allow teachers to get paid through the method of their choosing, while others require their tutors to use PayPal or another similar method of payment.
Whatever it is, you’ll want to be sure your payment information is connected to the system so you can get rewarded for your hard work.
Bonus: Network With Other Tutors
Be sure to socialize with your fellow teachers and tutors by participating actively via relevant Facebook pages (e.g. the British Council’s Teaching English Facebook page), Facebook groups, LinkedIn, or Twitter conversations.
Apart from sharing resources and expertise with your fellow tutors, you may also gain valuable referrals and tutoring opportunities.
A fellow tutor with too many potential tutees on his or her hands can redirect them to you if he or she is confident about your teaching abilities.
You can also make your lessons more exciting by collaborating with other online tutors.
When you want to teach English online, getting hired by a company seems to be the easiest way to start your career.
But after a while…
You might become tired of teaching the same beginner lessons over and over again.
Or maybe you’ll want to start looking for opportunities to make more than roughly $15-20 per hour.
Have you ever considered starting your own independent online teaching business – having the freedom to set up your own curriculum, schedule and price model?
In this post, you will learn what it takes and how to get started.
Should You Teach English Online Independently?
Running your own online teaching business is a lot of hard work, and it’s definitely not for everyone. However, if you do go down this path, you’ll find yourself with a sustainable career that gives you flexibility, creative control, and life skills, not to mention a sizable income.
If you have good credentials and can tutor in business English or help students prepare for the TOEFL, IELTS, SAT, or other tests, you can charge a lot of money and will undoubtedly get good business.
If you spend 20 hours a week tutoring in a specialized area at $50 per hour, you’ll make $4,000 a month!
But teaching English independently doesn’t just require good teaching and curriculum development skills.
It also requires you to be self-motivated and unafraid to put yourself out there, to have good entrepreneurship as well as be able to market yourself effectively, manage your finances and your schedule, and take care of nitty-gritty details like paying taxes, figuring out cancellation policies for students, and maintaining a website.
Teaching ESL independently is undoubtedly rewarding. It makes you your own boss, gives you the ultimate freedom and flexibility, and gives you the opportunity to design your curriculum independently.
Keep in mind, you can always teach English in more than one place. For example, you can schedule classes with a major ESL company and practice your teaching skills while you work on your own teaching business and build up a client base.
These are the relevant pros and cons to consider when deciding whether to follow this route:
The Pros
Running your own teaching business gives you control over every aspect of your teaching practice, so you’ll never be subject to the whims of a major company.
You can build up a good reputation and grow a loyal customer base.
Once you’ve become established, you can cooperate with other teachers, help new independent teachers start their own businesses, and even hire teachers to work for you.
The Cons
Running your own business is a LOT of work: administration, marketing, sales, payment, and troubleshooting are all up to you.
You’ll need to put a lot of effort in before you start seeing results.
You assume all the risk, financial and otherwise, for your company.
Most teaching companies have a section based in the country where their students are and have staff that communicates with them in their native language. As an independent teacher, you have no support, so all communication, including fielding complaints, is up to you. This may be challenging if your students’ English isn’t great and you can’t communicate with them in their native language.
7+1 Steps for Starting Your Own Online Teaching Business
Starting your own company can seem totally terrifying, and with good reason. It’s a lot of work, and the responsibility for all of it falls on your shoulders.
It’s important to make a plan and strategize so that your teaching company is stable and well-run.
Here are a few tips that will help you create a successful online teaching company.
1. Choose your Specialty
Before starting your independent business, you need to set clear goals for what you want it to look like. You should figure out what specifically you want to teach, who you want to cater to, and what teaching methods you want to use.
Do you want to teach IELTS prep classes to Chinese college students or do you want to teach conversational English to kids in South Africa? Will you give students material to study on their own before class and then review it with them? Find your niche and work to excel there.
Look at what other teachers with similar experience and specialties as you charge to help determine what a fair price point for your lessons looks like.
You may also want to consider whether you want to sell class bundles, have free trials, or offer promotions.
You’ll also need to write up a student contract that details pricing and your class cancellation policy.
3. Build your Class
Create a model for curriculums including long-term plans and individual lesson plans.
You’ll probably want to modify it to fit individual students once you get to know their language levels and learning styles, but you need to build off of a strong model. This is, after all, the meat of your business.
You should also collect teaching resources, including any materials or textbooks the students will need, props for your classroom, teaching backgrounds, and more.
You’ll need to set up your classroom space, including a headset, a high-speed internet connection, and a quiet, bright teaching environment.
Lastly, you should figure out which platform you want to teach through. Whether it’s Skype or something more sophisticated, it should be easy for both you and your students to use.
This is an absolute must for your teaching business.
It’s not hard to make a website: WordPress, Wix or SquareSpace all make web design easy for anyone to do, no technical skills required.
Your website should feature information about you and your teaching model, including an introduction video and, if possible, student testimonials. It should also include contact information and information about how to sign up for classes.
You can advertise free teaching resources and a free trial class on your website to generate business.
5. Promote Yourself on Social Media
Use social media sites, teaching forums, and YouTube to advertise your company and build a name for yourself. You can write blog posts and use SEO methods to make your company more visible.
6. Set up a Payment Process
You can use PayPal or another payment platform to collect money from students.
Because you’re teaching internationally, you’ll want to make sure it’s easy for students to transfer money to you from a different currency.
If you’re living in China, you may also consider conducting payments through WeChat Pay or Alipay.
7. Always Keep Pushing Yourself
You’re never done building your online English teaching company.
In order to keep your company ahead of the curve and attractive to customers, you should work to constantly improve your business by working on your lessons, marketing, and website.
Once you’ve established your online teaching business, you can profit off of it and benefit by selling video courses on how to teach, as well as model lesson plans, marketing strategies, and other resources to help other teachers.
Also, you can sell premade courses to ESL students.
Once you’ve made these resources for sale you don’t need to do anything besides a little advertising to make money from them.
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