The Challenges of Teaching English as Foreign Language

            One of the hottest new trends in the modern English-speaking world is going abroad to teach English as a foreign language. People choose to go abroad for a variety of reasons. Some just want to travel, and believe that teaching English is a perfect career path to check out new places and opportunities. Others are more concerned with the academic side, and are interested in furthering their studies of linguistics or education by attempting to teach the difficult and intriguing language of English. There are, of course, also people who merely want to teach English abroad because they want to take a break from their life in their home country, and make a comparatively decent salary in a place with a low cost of living. Whatever your reason for teaching abroad, it is undeniable that teaching EFL (English as a Foreign Language) is much harder than it seems.

            There are two sides to this coin, of course. You could make the argument that teaching English is an easy career. There are a multitude of jobs out there in a wide variety of countries, and it is not particularly hard to get hired. The teaching part of the job is sometimes unsupervised, and it is very easy to get by with subpar classes and no discipline whatsoever. However, if you are serious about teaching, there is no doubt that you will struggle to find your footing at first. Should you use gestures, notecards, PowerPoint presentations, or games? How can you keep your students motivated? How can you create an engaging lesson every week? I have struggled with this in the past as well, but fortunately, in the Age of Information, there are a plethora of resources available for current or would-be teachers out there.

            The first resource I came across when I started my teaching career was Dave’s ESL. Despite Dave’s corny picture on the front page and poorly executed website development (which is the first thing I noticed, unfortunately), this site really does have it all. There are job boards, forums, resources for teachers, and resources for students. My personal favorite part of Dave’s ESL is the Idea Cookbook, where you can find a ton of ideas for lesson planning for all types of subjects, grammar points, and learning styles. This site is great, but it can be a bit overwhelming at times and I have heard people call it the “the Walmart of English teaching.” I advise you to check it out, but definitely supplement with other resources.

            Two other resources that I use frequently are Busy Teacher and Breaking News English. Busy Teacher is great for brainstorming classroom plans and ideas. I generally use Busy Teacher when I need to make a lesson plan quickly and am out of ideas. Similarly, Breaking News English is a great resource for lesson planning. This site contains hundreds, if not thousands, of news articles for different levels of English learners along with a multitude of activities to go along with the articles. I highly recommend both of these sites.

            TeachThis and FluentU also have information on teaching ideas that are worth checking out if you are an EFL/ESL teacher. I am also a big fan of the YouTube channel Ben Teaches English. Ben breaks down the financial side of teaching English abroad, particularly the financial benefits such as tax-free income (in certain cases), investing while abroad, and using being a native speaker of English for leverage during contract negotiation. If you are interested in information about teaching English online, I have found Jack’s channel to be the most helpful, and if you are leaning towards more of the traveling/visually stunning aspects of teaching English, the Ninja Teacher channel is quite impressive.

            Another thing that was incredibly helpful for me in learning teaching styles and strategies was taking a TEFL course. I have also heard that CELTA courses are equally, if not more, effective at instructing would-be teachers how to teach English learning students in an immersion-based classroom. I chose to get my TEFL through the International TEFL Academy, but there are quite a few different options when it comes to getting this certificate, and I advise you to do your own research and due diligence. 

            In this day and age, the resources at your disposal to help you become a better and more effective teacher are plentiful. The ones that I have listed in this article are by no means the only ones out there, but they are the resources that have helped me out in the past and ones that I feel no reservations about recommending. As you continue your journey to becoming a better teacher, keep expanding your list of resources and class materials and one day you will not feel so overwhelmed by class preparation and the difficulties that come along with teaching English as a foreign language abroad.