Do you know that there has been an increase in demand for tuition in Malaysia over the years?
Most students and parents are open to taking classes after schooling hours.
One-to-one private tutoring classes are especially viewed as one of the most effective teaching and learning method for educators and students alike.
If you are someone who is passionate about English and also in offering quality and personalised tutoring sessions, then this could be your cue to become an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) tutor!
What Are Your Strengths and Specialisations As An ESOL Tutor?
As an ESOL tutor wannabe, you can think of several elements that can make you stand out among so many ESOL tutors that are currently in the market.
Whether you are applying for a full-time teaching position or starting off as an online ESOL tutor, it would be great to clearly identify your skillset (the knowledge, abilities and experience).
You can start by listing down your strengths and specialisations in the English language/teaching experiences.
Highlight your niche/field of study
Given that language learning is pretty wide, it will be great to know where your passion and strength lies.
In other words, be specific!
For instance, you could find great fulfilment in teaching basic English to total beginners and kids or you could be skilled at teaching creative writing to an older group of students.
This step is important because it helps you to decide the age group of students that you plan to teach, the syllabus or teaching materials that you need to prepare before you start teaching.
If you have previously published your short stories or articles, you can emphasize this part when you are introducing yourself through an online tutoring profile or during an interview even if you are still a student.
Source: Photo by Armin Rimoldi from Pexels
Include your teaching or industrial experience
Teaching experience is something that many students and parents pay attention to when they are looking for an ESOL tutor.
Having a great deal of teaching experience means you are naturally well versed with not only the syllabus but also the marking scheme for examinations as well as various teaching methodologies of the language.
Hence, you would have come across many students with different learning levels and developed your own kind of know-how throughout the years. This will serve as a great advantage when you are planning your ESOL lessons in the future.
Even if you were not trained to teach English during your university days, you may have industrial experience as a writer, or a host in different industries. You could be a former journalist or someone who used to work in a PR department.
This means you can totally become an amazing ESOL tutor even if you previously majored in Mass Communication as long as your English proficiency level is great. It is something that makes you unique among the regular ESOL tutors too.
You can reach out to students who are currently seeking additional writing tutoring sessions or more mature students who are interested to learn Business English, for instance.
Focus on only intensive or specialised preparation classes for English proficiency tests
You have certainly heard of various English proficiency tests that are popular in Malaysia.
Many students who are applying for public universities have to sit for the Malaysian University English Test (MUET) either during their Form Six studies or their matriculation studies.
For students who plan to study overseas or at private branch universities in Malaysia (such as Monash University, Heriot-Watt University), they will have to sit for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) or other tests like The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).
These tests are significant because it is a benchmark that is used by local and overseas higher learning institutions to evaluate one's true level in English.
This is because English is the main language that is used for undergraduate and postgraduate studies.
Hence, it also implies that the demand is consistently high for these classes throughout the year.
Why You Should Start Conducting Online IELTS English Classes?
Now that you have leant how to promote your strengths and specialisations as an ESOL tutor, it would be great to learn the reason behind the importance of IELTS classes.
Established in 1989, IELTS is an English language test that is accepted at most universities in Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand as well as the United States.
As an online ESOL tutor, it is not compulsory for you to have lots of teaching experience or the specific teaching qualifications to start teaching IELTS.
It would be great if you have personally sat for the IELTS so that you know the format and grading system.
Here are two main reasons why you should teach IELTS as an online ESOL tutor.
1. Provides global teaching opportunities (applies to Malaysian an international students)
You'll have to remember that IELTS is a standardized test that has three modules:
- Academic Module: for mostly students or medical professionals like doctors and nurses.
- General Training Module: for those who are planning to immigrate, other job applications.
- IELTS Life Skills: for those who need to test their speaking/listening skills to remain in the UK.
This means you get to meet and teach students from various backgrounds or even nationalities.
You could teach a student who is planning to study in Australia, someone who is going to migrate to New Zealand or even someone who plans to take this test to secure a promotion opportunity at a global corporation in the same month. These are all possible if you are teaching ESOL online.
That being said, you can adjust your ESOL tutoring rates to be higher as you are teaching a more specialised and more challenging syllabus.
Source: Photo by Pavel Danilyuk from Pexels
2. Serves as a great career milestone and teaching experience
Given that IELTS is a specialised English Language Test, you can easily focus to prepare your students to do well in the examination.
Of course, you'll also need to objectively evaluate and assessed their current English level beforehand and coach them to the band that they desire.
This means you can explore many ways of teaching and guiding your students. Don't forget that it also serves as an impressive experience for your teaching career in the future!
Why Are English Speaking Courses In Demand For ESOL Tutoring?
You may have come across students with presentable English grades on paper, but once they are asked to speak or converse in English, they might hesitate or even struggle to express themselves clearly.
Hence, there are many students (even adults) who register for solely English Speaking Short Courses. This is certainly something you can look into as an ESOL tutor.
1. It is the lingua franca for education and business
Conversations are part of everyday communication. English, especially is viewed as the lingua franca when we are studying, researching or even trading.
Whether it is discussions, debates, official negotiations or as simple as giving a speech in English, spoken English MATTERS A LOT!
2. Provides more career opportunities
This point is greatly linked to the first reason. There are many local news that reported how Malaysians often failed at interviews due to their poor command of English.
When you speak English fluently, it automatically gives a solid and favourable impression to the interviewers.
3. Important component of language learning
Speaking is the fastest way to convey a message as well as to communicate effectively.
It is through speaking that you can persuade someone with the right words, emotions and intonations. It makes language learning more enjoyable, more complete and comprehensive.
Remember the famous speech "I Have A Dream" by Martin Luther King?
That's exactly the power of spoken words!
How To Attract Students As A Home ESOL Tutor And Online ESOL Tutor?
You have now decided to be an ESOL tutor, congratulations!
You're almost there to meet your first student! Now is the time to put yourself out there and market yourself effectively with the following methods.
Set up a blog/website
Your online presence matters a lot as an ESOL tutor. Almost everyone is constantly on their mobile devices these days when it comes to searching for the nearest restaurants or the nearest ESOL tutors.
You can start by posting short articles on related English teaching and learning topics. For instance, about tenses, writing tips or even your answers to several past year SPM English questions.
Remember to allocate a Contact section on the website so that interested students can reach you to sign up for your ESOL tutoring.
Post your mock teaching videos online
Seeing is believing. It will be great if you can record and upload some videos of yourself teaching an English topic on your social media profiles or even your YouTube account.
These days, many students turn to YouTube to learn various subjects.
It not only serves as a great practising method to teach in front of the camera, it will also increase your credibility as an online ESOL tutor.
Register as an ESOL tutor at Superprof
If you are looking for a platform where you can begin a risk-free tutoring journey, look no further to Superprof.
At Superprof, you can
- Publish as many ads as you want for FREE (number of subjects that you are willing to teach)
- Set your own tutoring rates and tutoring location
- Arrange your own lessons according to your schedule (no minimum student quota required)
- Decide the mode of teaching (home English tutoring, English online class or even both)
- Start teaching even if you are a student/teaching as a side-hustle/retired
Source: Photo by Monica Melton on Unsplash
At Superprof, you do not have to worry about your teaching qualifications as an ESOL tutor, your current physical location, your age, other additional fees or complex steps to start your tutoring venture.
Just head to the Superprof Malaysia homepage and click the Tutoring Jobs button on the upper right of the website.
From there, you can start creating your tutoring profile! It's as simple as that to become an ESOL tutor in Malaysia with the help of Superprof!
‘Teaching is the highest form of understanding.’ – Aristotle
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