“What is teaching English online like?” is a common question amongst aspiring TEFL teachers. If you’re new to the world of TEFL, you might find it useful to get a good idea of what your daily life might be like before diving in and getting TEFL certified.
Your workspace doesn’t have to be this fancy...but hey, it doesn't hurt.
The life of an online TEFL teacher can vary widely depending on where you work, how many hours you teach each week, and what level your students are at, as well as a whole host of other factors. So, to help answer that aforementioned question, here’s a real-life example of what it might be like to be an online TEFL teacher—all in 24 hours.
Meet Audrey! She’s going to take you on a journey through the day in the life of an online English teacher. Originally from California, she now lives in Milan, Italy, teaching English online.
What’s a typical day like for online English teachers?
Buckle up! This is what an average day looks like for Audrey:
7:00 a.m. Audrey wakes up, jumps in the shower and then brushes her teeth—ready for her first class at 8:00 a.m. One of the great things about teaching online is that you can choose your own schedule and work as much or as little as you want! It’s a great way to work full-time hours flexibly, or use it as a fun side-hustle, working a few hours in the morning or evening...or whenever suits you!
8:00 a.m. It’s time for Audrey’s first class of the day. Most online classes are between 30 minutes to an hour long, and Audrey prefers to do shorter classes to get more variety out of her day. She often has between 12 and 18 classes a day (which last 30 minutes each) with students from all around the world. Teaching online globally means that whenever you want to log on and work, there’ll always be somebody who’s awake. Whether you’re a night owl or an early bird, you’ll never be short of a student.
8:30 a.m. Audrey now has a 30-minute break before her second class. During this time, she has a rest and prepares for her next lesson. When you teach online, you’re usually expected to plan your own lessons. However, some employers may provide you with a curriculum to follow, which makes it a little easier to plan your lessons. Audrey has a lot of regular students (because she’s a great teacher!), so she knows what level of English they have and what they’ve been learning about recently, which makes it easier for her to plan lessons for them. Win!
9:00 a.m. Now, it’s time for her second class where she’s teaching a young student about families. She has a picture of a large family and she asks her student to circle the grandparents, the parents, the brother, and the baby. This way, she knows whether her student has remembered everything she taught her last week—a great teaching assessment method.
9:30 a.m. Break time! Audrey has a half hour break to go and eat breakfast. Since she’s living in Italy, it’s an authentic local breakfast of hot tea and Italian cookies—yum! Plus, she spends a little bit of time with her new kitten. Another great perk of teaching English online is being able to spend more time with pets—and spending time with your pets is, in turn, an effective way to break your day up and let off steam in between classes.
10:00 a.m. Audrey’s third class of the day kicks off with a cute picture drawn by her young student to welcome her to the class. How cute! In this lesson, she’s teaching her student about the five senses, so she uses colorful props to illustrate each sense. For example, she uses a cut-out of a nose for smell and an eye for sight.
10:30 a.m. Straight from one class into another! Without a break in between, Audrey moves on to another 30-minute lesson with an older student. When you teach online, you can usually choose what age and level of students you’d like to teach. Audrey teaches a varied mix of younger and older students which keeps her days varied, and also means that she’s got a wide range of skills for any future teaching jobs, too.
11:00 a.m. She now has an hour-long lunch break (remember, you can take as many or as few breaks as you want!) so she can eat some delicious Italian dishes, cuddle her kitten some more, and then start preparing for her afternoon lessons. Being organized is a valuable skill if you’re an online teacher, especially if you’re as busy as Audrey!
12:00 p.m. Since Audrey’s chosen to book eight back-to-back classes, she has a full four hours of lessons from 12:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m.! This is so that she can save plenty of money for her future travels. Another amazing reason to teach English online? The salaries.
Starting out, if you have no teaching experience and/or you don’t hold a bachelor’s degree, you can expect to earn around $10-$12 per hour (or per lesson, depending on your employer).
However, this should gradually increase as your experience increases and your confidence grows as a teacher. As an experienced online English teacher, you can expect to earn $20-$30 per hour! And if you decide to go freelance, you’ll actually set your own rates of pay.
4:00 p.m. Audrey finishes classes for the day—phew! And after four hours of classes without a break, first on the list is grabbing a bite to eat. She tucks in to some delicious Italian leftovers, has a much-needed rest, and then it’s on to her local town to do some exploring.
Just outside of Milan, Audrey’s local town is small and quintessentially Italian with European architecture, a winding river, and colorful houses on all sides. And perhaps the best part, it’s got a little gelateria just a two-minute walk from her house, which she loves to visit nearly every day! Dreamy.
6:00 p.m. onwards: After an eight-hour day, Audrey spends some quality time with her boyfriend and family before getting an early night ready for the next day of teaching.
4 FAQs with an online English teacher
Still have questions? We asked Lorraine, an online English teacher in the Philippines, some of your top FAQs!
1. Why do you like teaching English online?
Here are a few of the reasons why I like teaching English online:
- Time Flexibility. This allows me to have a flexible time schedule in a way I'm the one who sets my own schedule. This time flex allows me to do a lot of things including my errands, which helps me manage and balance my time well with myself, family, and career.
- Flexibility in Location. I can teach without going outside or traveling abroad, even if my students are coming from other Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. With the use of my laptop, headset, and a strong internet connection, teaching and learning English online became possible.
- Knowledge sharing. Since technology is becoming advanced and improved, acquiring knowledge and skills was made more possible. I can impart my English to my students despite our different geographic locations with the help of the materials provided on my employer's website.
- High Salary Rate. Salary is high compared to other jobs wherein you needed to travel to your offices. Staying at home and getting paid well is more than enough.
- One-on-one Class. Most classes online were one-on-one interaction between the student and the teacher. This ensures learning on the student's end and I, as a teacher, can check the progress of my student.
- Cultural Exchange. I think without any experience traveling abroad, online teaching helps me gain knowledge and a taste of other countries' cultures and traditions. We get a chance to have a free conversation and can talk about anything. Most students would love to learn as well as their teacher's cultures and traditions.
2. Is teaching English more difficult than you thought it would be?
It was difficult at first since my students and I have different personalities and we don't know each other in the first place. Teaching English is very easy for students who have skills already—those who are in the intermediate and advanced levels. But for those who really don't have any skills and knowledge about English (we call them beginners), it's really difficult.
But as a whole, it is easy since we use some materials during the class. Students get to choose which material they prefer to use in class, and we teachers will assist them in terms of reading, checking their comprehension, and helping them construct good sentences with correct grammar during our free conversations before and after the lesson.
3. What are the most challenging and rewarding aspects of being an online English tutor?
Challenging. Teaching students who don't have prior knowledge of speaking English. Mostly kids. If you don't have patience, you might end up getting irritated in class. It's a mortal sin to show any signs of irritation—such as your facial expressions, gestures, and voice. You need to keep cool and maintain a friendly atmosphere. Patience is the key.
Also, when dealing with beginners, we need to be alert and hands-on at all times. Understanding their thoughts, mostly word-by-word sentences (that are sometimes difficult to understand since they just say words without any linking verbs or any conjunctions), and occasionally unclear pronunciations all present a challenge in instruction.
Typing the corrected sentences and letting them read is challenging as well, because you need to become a sharp listener and speedy transcriptionist. But through this, we are able to help them express their thoughts.
Rewarding. Whenever our students get high scores in their TOEIC exam. Also, some parents asked us to coach their child in the declamation contest they joined. Two years ago, I trained my student for two weeks, and on the day of his contest, he booked a class in the evening to show me his trophy—he was very grateful.
Also, one of my students came to Cebu and asked me and my cousin (which happens to be his teacher) to meet him; he thanked us personally for all the help we extended to him when he was still a beginner in English. He gave us free travel and treated us everywhere we went.
I remember that before his flight back to Japan, he told us, "I am very grateful to meet you and thank you personally for all the support you have given me. I owe you a lot. I wouldn't be promoted if it wasn't because of you both."
In short, our students' success is our success too, and it really feels fulfilling. Most of them are already successful professionals such as doctors, engineers, etc., and I'm just a simple citizen with some good skills in English (not the same as native speakers). It feels so good to see students progress, from the time they started from scratch learning the basics, all the way up to the time they became good ESL speakers (beginner to moderate to advanced).
4. Do you have any advice for people thinking about teaching English online?
If you have the talent or skills in teaching, I think this job is good for you since it is very convenient. If you don't have any talent in teaching, don't worry, it's fine. You'll surely gain those skills while in the field. After all, we usually learn something while working and practicing, no matter what the job is—we're not always experts in the jobs we apply for.
Working online is the best and is very convenient. You only need a laptop, headset, and a strong internet connection. Also, you get to improve yourself in terms of self-confidence, friendliness, and more. You can see yourself growing as well. Not only do students learn from you, but you also learn from them. It feels very rewarding to be able to share your skills with other people.
Take the next step! Get matched with 5 online English teaching jobs for FREE
Ready to fill your days with ESL lessons?
We bet you can picture your life as an online English teacher already.
So...what is teaching English online like? As you’ve seen from Audrey’s day, teaching English online is a flexible and fun career that you can do from home or whilst traveling almost anywhere in the world. It’s cheap to get started, accessible, and you don’t need any experience or prior qualifications—other than a TEFL certificate, of course!
To get set up as an online English teacher, all you need is a laptop or PC with a strong internet connection, a headset with microphone (or you can use a built-in microphone), and a quiet, well-lit area to conduct your lessons. It couldn’t be simpler!
Browse ALL Online English Teaching Jobs on GoAbroad.com
This article was written with help from i-to-i TEFL. i-to-i TEFL are one of the world’s leading TEFL course providers. Since opening their doors in 1994, they’ve qualified more than 210,000 teachers as well as pioneering the world’s first ever online and weekend TEFL courses. Their range of TEFL qualifications are UK Government regulated, internationally recognised, and 94% recommended by their graduates.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qLvAm6momZRjsLC5jpqpraGTobK0e9OemJygXZavs7vAnWawoJGpeqq%2FjK2cmpuYnruoecSnnqWho516sLrLoqWeZZyeuKY%3D