7 Alternative Ways to Teach English Online
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There more ways to teach English online than working for a big company. Photo by James Wheeler from Pexels.
It’s 2020 and teaching English online has never been easier. There’s an abundance of companies across the globe eager to employ native English speakers as ESL teachers, and for some opportunities, you don’t even need to have qualifications. In fact, there’s something for everyone, regardless of nationality, level of education, or the amount of time you have to spare.
But with the ever-developing digital space now offering tools such as apps and online streaming services, we as online English teachers must be adaptable and ready to explore new paths to reach our students. After all, they rely on us to teach them the language in a way that is accessible to them.
Things are constantly changing
These days English learners are seeking out new ways to learn the language outside of traditional classes, or as an alternative way to supplement their learning. You only have to look at the rapid growth of TikTok to see how quickly technology is changing and how students are utilising it and making it a part of their everyday life.
But with all these new ways to reach students, knowing which ones to use can sometimes be overwhelming and confusing to an ESL teacher, regardless of the experience they have teaching English online.
So, where do you focus in order to build a career as an English teacher online, rather than just the usual online classes? And will it really help you develop your teaching career online?
Why build my career as an English teacher online?
Let’ s face it, we’ve all had Wi-Fi problems; seeing the screen jolt and stutter whilst teaching a class online is particularly frustrating.
Other problems facing online English teachers include:
Trying to fit teaching classes around study or work
Needing to take a holiday or a break but not having another income to supplement your “lost” time
marketing oneself in a sea of online English teachers
In all of these cases, having supplementary income or other avenues of making money from teaching proves extremely useful.
It’s also clear that having a community or a brand around your teaching can really help you to market and sell your services as an online teacher.
That’s where online social media and alternative sources can help! Having multiple ways to reach students can not only promote your online classes but also bolster your credentials, as well as foster a community around your classes and teaching style. In turn, having a trustworthy reputation as a teacher online can pave the way to selling your knowledge through alternative sources and also means that if you wish, you can even raise the price of your online classes!
So, with that in mind, let’s explore some new ways to build a career as an English teacher online, whether as an alternative to regular online teaching or as an additional source to reach students.
1 - Start a YouTube channel
YouTube is exploding right now with channels for learning English, proving that there is a clear demand for content from English learners across the world.
Check out Carla’s YouTube channel here.
But as much as it’s a fantastic resource for reaching students, it also has its disadvantages.
Firstly, it’s a great way to help your students get to know you. This can be extremely important for nervous speakers or for those looking for a teacher they can trust. But not only that; it can also help foster a community around your teaching, which can establish trust in your credentials as a teacher, leading to more students. When you have enough people in your community (at least 1000 subscribers, as per YouTube rules), you can even monetize your channel, meaning you have an additional income source.
Through free lessons on YouTube, you can direct your community to any paid resources or services that you offer online (such as classes), and a bigger community will foster more trust in what you have to offer.
However it can be difficult to stand out on this platform, and it can be argued that YouTube is mainly centred around “personality” - that is; viewers are there not only for interesting content but also for interesting characters.
Also, creating a YouTube channel is an entirely different set of skills and the payoff and growth can be excruciatingly slow.
But if you have the skills to create interesting content, brand and market yourself in a unique way, and you know how to edit videos in a way that keeps your audience interested and coming back for more , then YouTube could be a great resource for you to build and expand your teaching career online.
2 - Create an online course
Online courses are rapidly becoming a way to reach students whilst also diversifying income, across multiple domains and industries.
The general idea is this: you have the knowledge, why not share it and get paid for it?
Offering online courses can give a sense of legitimacy to your knowledge and skills that can help foster trust and authenticity in your teaching methods.
The great thing about creating an online course is that you are in control of the structure, the price, the content, and who can access it. You can offer short or long-form courses on platforms such as Outschool or Teachable, with the whole process being relatively easy. You have the choice of charging for these courses or offering them for free as a means to promote your services elsewhere.
However, there are also other more “complex” platforms such as Podia and WizIQ where you can offer private or membership-only courses to your paying students.
Some of these websites, such as Podia, offer all-in-one marketing resources that mean not only can you offer courses, but also other resources such as webinars, automated marketing materials, and even private live classes, complete with an interactive, digital whiteboard!
You might also want to look into Mighty Networks or Academy of Mine.
3 - Start a podcast
Good quality English teaching podcasts are surprisingly hard to come by, which means that there’s plenty of opportunities for you to establish yourself in this domain.
You can start a podcast right from your computer. Starting up is basically free as long as you have a computer available. You already have all the knowledge, so why not share it?
Starting a podcast could be a good way to create links to your website or promote your lessons, whilst also creating a community online that will look to you as a leader in the English teaching field. This can promote your online classes or other teaching or marketing materials that you may want to share.
Like launching a YouTube channel, podcasting requires a different set of skills to traditional teaching or online teaching. Information needs to be simple enough to understand without the use of visual aids or realia, and it needs to be interesting enough to keep the attention of the listener for the duration of the episode.
Check out this step-by-step guide on how to start a podcast from Podcast Insights.
Websites such as Anchor.fm (operated by Spotify), buzzsprout, and PodBean offer everything you need to create and launch your podcast. Many of them are even free!
4 - Launch a blog
Although video has fast become the most popular content, blogs and websites still remain popular and useful for English teachers and students alike.
Blogs are useful resources for English learners, which of course could help to promote your career and web presence elsewhere. You could also work with other teachers or language learners to get their advice on the language learning process or how they learned English
Check out Wordpress, Squarespace, Wix, and Medium if you’ve been thinking about launching a blog.
5 - Offer your services on apps
Online teaching through companies is the most popular, but there are so many alternative apps and websites available that don’t necessarily need structured teaching (good if you don’t have experience). In fact many students will say that they have a lot of resources for learning the language but when it comes to speaking they just don’t have the resources to practice, especially with native English speakers.
That’s where apps like Cambly, PalFish, italki, Preply, and Verbling come in.
These apps can supplement your usual teaching with informal classes or conversation sessions (both online and on smartphone). As you can choose the hours and the frequency that you teach, you can easily put in an hour here or there depending on your available time. Not only that, if you’re used to organising your time to give classes in a different time zone, these apps may provide some light relief as you’ll find many students in your timezone.
6 - Start streaming on Twitch
Who would've imagined that a streaming website for gamers would become such a fun resource for informal conversation practice?
Whether you teach online or in a brick-and-mortar setting, any English teacher will know that students need to see the relevance of what they’re learning. As all ESL teachers will know, the best way is to link English learning to subjects or hobbies that they really enjoy, so they can use and see the language in action.
Live streaming on Twitch - having an informal conversation whilst playing games- can be really beneficial for students to see the language in action. They are also more inclined to use the language in the live chat when they know everyone is there to practice English.
It may seem strange and admittedly it’s not for everyone, but it’s a resource that is becoming more popular so it’s worth considering if it could become a potential place for you to help your students in an informal setting.
Twitch streamers are known for being a lot of fun, and viewers are likely to invest a lot of time “hanging out” with the streamer virtually, so it’s a great way to build a community and in turn, provide a social setting for English learners to improve their listening, writing and speaking skills in a way that doesn’t even feel like they’re learning.
It’s a great way to promote all your other resources online too!
7 - Go live!
Hang out on Instagram live!
Social media is the perfect addition to teaching English online because it keeps you connected to your students at all times of the day and can also drive traffic to your lessons and other resources that you offer.
With that in mind, if you have a Facebook page or an Instagram account dedicated to teaching English online; why not go live?
Students love to interact with their teacher online, and other English learners too!
The great thing about live social media is that you don’t necessarily need to work within the structure of a normal lesson. You can host live discussions, informal chats, get your students practising their English with one another, or you can clear up some questions your students may have.
The more help and advice you offer your community, the more you’ll build their trust and loyalty, in turn, leading to more legitimacy as an English teacher, and increased traffic to your online lessons or other resources that you offer. But most importantly it helps learners with little access to native speakers, who can hear real English in an informal, social setting.
What are you waiting for?
Even if you’re pretty happy teaching through the usual online English classes, expanding into some new avenues never hurts and in most cases can even help grow or develop your online presence in the online teaching world. The biggest benefit of this is providing an air of authenticity to your knowledge of English and your methods of teaching. Ultimately, this authenticity will encourage students to pay for your classes and whatever other paid resources you offer.
It can also help you create multiple income streams, many of which will continue to make money automatically without you having to be actively present.
Admittedly, it can become a little overwhelming looking at all the different options that can help boost your online English teaching career.
However, by just utilising just one or two of these options, you may find the results surprising… so, why not test them out? You might be surprised to see how your teaching career flourishes in ways you never considered possible!
