Many colleges and universities have joint-degree programs that allow you to focus on specific aspects of two majors while earning one bachelor’s degree. These types of degree granting programs are ideal for ESL teachers. [3] X Research source
It may be wise to take some general history courses. Knowing the history of the countries of ESL learners may make teaching them English a little easier. [5] X Research source
For example, many European nations, especially in northern and western Europe, maintain a strong knowledge of the English language among their general populations. This will make learning a language like German, Dutch, or Norwegian less marketable than learning a language like Chinese, Spanish, or French. Also, keep in mind that many developing nations that house multiple language groups utilize European languages as official languages in the country. So, it will do you little good to learn an obscure language from Senegal or Haiti, when you can just as easily provide instruction in French to people from these countries.
Internships often do not pay regular wages, but they may offer college credit. They may also offer a small stipend.
Most graduate programs require students to select a faculty adviser. If this is the case with the program you select, it is wise to contact those faculty members directly to see if they will work with you and support your candidacy. You will also want to mention which faculty members you would like to work with in your application essay.
Depending on the size of and available funding in your department, you may be able to get money to attend conferences, workshops and seminars.
TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) is a global organization that holds annual conventions, maintains online forums and blogs, and provides access to TESOL resource centers. AAAL (The American Association for Applied Linguistics) is the American branch of IAAL and offers access to peer-reviewed journals, holds annual conferences, and grants student travel awards. IAWE (The International Association of Worldwide Englishes) is another global group that brings ESL teachers together, runs a journal, and hold various conferences throughout the year. ILTA (The International Language Testing Association) is an organization that runs newsletters, holds online discussions, and hosts annual conferences for people interested in developing testing to gauge how individuals learn languages.
You may find that work for ESL teachers is more readily available outside of the United States. If you plan to work abroad, you will want to apply for or renew your passport and look into getting a visa, if one is needed for where you are going. There are a number of websites and online resources for ESL teachers looking to work abroad. Some of those sites are: Dave’s ESL Cafe provides a list of jobs available around the globe for people looking to teach ESL abroad. Teacher Port gives a listing of ESL opportunities across Asia and the Middle East. Go Abroad is a website that provides a number of suggestions for finding employment abroad to fund traveling abroad. There are many ESL opportunities on this site as well. There are also plenty of opportunities to work as an ESL teacher domestically as well. Some websites that provide opportunities to to teach ESL in the United States are: ESL 101 is a searchable database of ESL teaching jobs that allows the user to look for opportunities by country or region. The TESOL website maintains a job listing database that can help you find an ESL job in the U. S. Remember, ESL goes by a number of different acronyms (EFL, TEFL, ESOL, EAL), so be sure to search for all the associated acronyms when looking for employment. This will expand your job pool quite a bit. University and college departmental webpages often maintain links to relevant job search sites. So be sure to scour English, teacher-training, and education departmental websites. Many of the teaching opportunities for ESL teachers are found in public schools across the U. S. As such, you will want to look at state government and local school district webpages as well to see if there are any ESL job openings in your area.
