Increased Interest in Teaching ESL Abroad

There is a recent surge in the number of graduates who are looking in to teaching English as a Second Language, many of whom are looking for opportunities overseas.

Pursuing ESL as an interim/post-undergrad career is a brilliant way to gain teaching experience, language fluency and travel opportunities. It is a great way to spend a year off, while you’re thinking about graduate school or can be a great way to boost your experience level. For graduates with online teaching degrees, the experience abroad can be the tipping point toward gainful employment.

The benefits of teaching abroad will reach far beyond the borders of your CV, and can really make a positive impact on your future decisions and experiences.

As with many endeavors, getting started can be challenging. For a general overview of what teaching abroad entails, visit ciee.org/teach. CIEE has foreign immersion programs all over the world, and they have a user friendly interface that will guide you through the application process.

From the time your application is submitted, you’ll have to wait about a month to find out if you’ve been accepted. From there, you’ll have to submit any fees that apply to your chosen program before being placed with a specific school. Don’t forget, you’ll also have to process your US Visa paperwork before you can teach abroad.

If CIEE does not offer a program that interests you, look into TransitionsAbroad.com, or FootPrintsRecruiting.com. Both sites offer similar services in varied parts of the world.

Learn a Language While Teaching Your Own

One of the great features of ESL-Teaching Abroad programs is that you typically need not be fluent in the native/common language of the region in which you will be teaching. Some programs offer language lessons as-you-go, and others require basic language skills, but very few necessitate a skill-level greater than intermediate. Ultimately, the idea of an immersion program is that ESL teachers will enter their first semester with minimal language skills, but will emerge-after just a few months-with a greatly accelerated skill-level. ESL teachers will then be equipped to teach in a variety of arenas, using their newly-acquired language proficiency.

Once you've worked out a program, be sure to check the Free Language Teach English section for English teaching resources and help. Naturally, you can also search here for materials and tools to learn the language spoken where you'll be living.

This is a guest post by Donna Smith, an online marketer and content specialist from Greensboro, North Carolina. She is a published anthropologist and lecturer, with a BA in Cultural Anthropology from UNC-Greensboro.

Image credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pmorgan_xinjiang.jpg