by Jeannette Payne

Created on: May 22, 2009

There is a great demand for native English teachers in this rapidly growing ESL market. These jobs are all over the world, including Asia, both Western and Eastern Europe, and even in the United Kingdom and North America. Recently there has been a drive for on-line teachers as well.

These jobs generally do pay decent wages. The more education and experience you have, and the better the school's or company's reputation, the better the salary and any bonus or living accommodations will be. In applying for any position in a foreign country, do your research, not only on the area itself, but on the school as well.

Aside from these aspects, there are also other benefits. It is a life experience travelling to these areas, meeting and teaching new students, and learning various cultures.

There are certain aspects of teaching that you should understand before you take on this role. The first and one of the most important aspects is the subject itself. Students, whether they are adults paying for their own course, or children whose parents are paying, are perceptive. They will notice if you do not know your topic well. If the time does arrive that you do not know the answer to a question, don't try to trick them. It will damage your credibility. Tell them that you will check it out for them, follow through with your word, and tell them the answer when you next see them.

The second point is to keep the students involved. If the teacher speaks too much, then the students will become bored very quickly. They need to be asked questions, opinions, or even asked to discuss things amongst themselves. This allows them to practice the language as well as to keep them occupied. If the language level is low, there are other options such as flash cards, games, or songs.

After the main teaching part of the lesson has finished, language exercises are very useful. European and Asian schools use this method for most of their subjects. Many students actually enjoy it. Things like writing sentences with a given tense and word list, fill-in-the-blanks, word searches, and matching games work very well. The teacher needs to use their own judgment in deciding which to use and when, and there may be a trial and error period.

There are a load of websites that offer advice and job listings available for free to the public. It is highly recommended that anyone looking at this career choice should either visit these sites, or talk to someone with experience. Some of these websites include:

http://www.esljobs.com

http://www.eslemployment.com

http://www.eslcafe.com

Remember the most important thing is to have fun and enjoy teaching. The students will react to the lesson positively and in turn will enjoy learning - thus making the teacher's job just a little easier.

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