How to Become an ESL Teacher as a Side Hustle

An ESL teacher is someone who teaches English (spoken, written, or both) to non-native speakers. “ESL” stands for English as a second language.

ESL teachers can work in either virtual or real-world classrooms and may specialize in teaching students in a particular age range or with a particular English level.

An ESL teacher’s responsibilities usually include:

• Leading English lessons
• Planning lessons (which may have to follow a set curriculum)
• Preparing learning materials (e.g., worksheets)
• Assessing students on their progress by setting tests and exams
• Classroom management
• Additional duties depending on the exact type of job (e.g., assigning homework or leading field trips)

ESL teaching vs. tutoring: what’s the difference?

Some jobs that are advertised as “ESL teaching” are arguably closer to tutoring (meaning they consist of one-on-one lessons). For example, teaching English online is often done on a one-on-one basis.

Don’t get confused—just read the job ad thoroughly to understand whether you’ll be working with a large class or just one student at a time.

If you have the right personality for it, teaching English can be a rewarding—and potentially lucrative—side hustle. It has several benefits:

• No qualifications needed: There are formal ESL teaching qualifications you can get, but you don’t absolutely need them to get into this hustle. This means it has a very low barrier to entry. We’ll elaborate more on ESL qualifications further on in this article.
• Can be done part-time: Many ESL jobs are part-time, and some even let you pick your own hours. The flexibility makes the work easy to fit in around a full-time job.
• Looks good on a resume: Some side hustles bring in the dollars but don’t develop skills that are applicable to other jobs in the future. In contrast, teaching is a well-respected profession, and your experience (and the organizational and communication skills it will help you develop) can significantly boost your resume.
• Reasonably high pay: There are a lot of factors that affect your earnings as an ESL teacher, but making $25 per hour is a fairly achievable goal.
• Engaging work: As an English teacher, you’ll get to meet and chat with interesting people, and you may get to travel. This isn’t the kind of work that ever feels monotonous—you’re constantly challenged, and no day will be exactly like another.

What skills do ESL teachers need?

Despite its perks, this hustle isn’t for everybody. Teaching English is hard work, and to do it effectively, you need to possess certain hard and soft skills:

• Proficient English: In many cases, you need to be a native English speaker to do this job. You may be able to do it if you’re fluent but non-native, but it will be harder to find clients, and you may also need to demonstrate your fluency by taking an exam like IELTS and getting a high score. For some types of students (especially adults), you’ll also need to know about grammar, word order patterns, and other linguistic rules or conventions.
• Teaching skills: To be a good ESL teacher, you’ll also need teaching skills like leadership and classroom management, as well as pedagogical knowledge of how people learn and how to create appropriate lessons for various types of learners.
• Interpersonal skills: You also need good communication skills and an approachable, friendly manner to create a good learning environment.
• Organization and time management: You need these to plan and manage your classes so that you can cover all of the material in the allotted time.
• Computer literacy: This is an increasingly important skill for ESL teachers, as most classrooms now use digital tools (and some classes are now entirely online).
• Cultural sensitivity: ESL teachers work with people from various linguistic and cultural backgrounds. You’ll need an understanding of your students’ cultures to create a learning environment that’s supportive and inclusive.
• Adaptability: Sometimes, your classes won’t go as you expect, and you need to be able to adapt. For example, if you have a lesson planned around a video or a recording, you need to be able to reframe your lesson plan on the fly if there’s a technical failure.
• Patience: Teachers need to make sure that their students can all keep up. You should be able to simplify or repeat your instructions and deal with inattentive students without getting frazzled or irritated.

We spoke to Erica Bisbey, an experienced ESL teacher and the co-founder of Breathe English, who particularly emphasized the need for solid teaching skills (or an interest in acquiring them).

“Just because you are a native English speaker and are patient doesn’t mean you will be good at teaching ESL,” she said. No one is born knowing how to teach effectively, and it’s something you’ll need to study and practice if you don’t already have teaching experience.

If you’ve decided to give ESL teaching a try, follow these steps to find work:

1. Decide where you want to work

There are many different places you can teach ESL. When you pick where and how you want to teach, consider the qualifications you’ll need, what kind of schedule you’ll be expected to keep, and how this fits into your current lifestyle.

Online English teaching platforms

There are many dedicated English-teaching websites that you can find work on. This is a great way to gain experience, and most online platforms will recruit students on your behalf so you don’t have to. Again, be aware that many of your lessons will be one-on-one tutoring sessions rather than full classes.

Popular English-teaching platforms include:

• Preply
• Lingoda
• Cambly
• VIPKid
• Wyzant
• italki

We asked Bisbey which platforms she’d recommend, and she told us that Wyzant and italki are particularly good to work for because they let you set your own rates and the cut they take of your earnings is reasonable.

She described her own experience working with italki: “I like the platform because people from all over the world use it … you control your schedule, and you can offer both individual and group classes. Italki is transparent about their commission and payment schedule, and the platform has clear rules on rescheduling and cancellations.”

However, she didn’t recommend working with Preply. “I don’t like that you aren’t paid for the first lesson with a new student,” she said. “I also think their commission rates aren’t great for teachers.”

Hours: Part-time and flexible.

Qualifications needed: Usually none.

Language schools and centers

Some companies hire ESL teachers to conduct classes in language centers. They may also offer online classes or in-person tutoring. Look into:

• ELS
• Kaplan
• Wall Street English
• EF Education First

Hours: Part-time or full-time.

Qualifications needed: None, although some companies prefer applicants to have an English-teaching certificate, such as TEFL or CELTA (discussed in more detail below).

Schools or universities

Some ESL teachers hold classes in local schools or universities. Schools may also hire tutors or “aides” (sometimes through outside tutoring companies) to offer extra support or run after-school programs.

Many schools and colleges are fairly selective about the teachers they hire, so it’s best to pursue this option if you already have some teaching experience.

Hours: Part-time or full-time.

Qualifications needed: In most cases, you’ll usually need at least a master’s degree, although you probably won’t need a TEFL or CELTA certificate. To teach in public schools, you’ll usually need a teaching license.

Independent teaching

ESL instruction is work that you can do in your own home, at your students’ homes, or even in public places (e.g., libraries). You can also offer private tutoring and online lessons.

With this option, you’re working for yourself, so you’ll need to find your own students. This means it’s a lot more work than the other options, but you have complete control over your schedule and your rates.

Hours: Flexible.

Qualifications needed: None.

Teaching abroad

As mentioned, this is technically EFL teaching, but it’s very similar to ESL. There are lots of opportunities to teach English outside the US in private language schools, public schools, universities, and more.

Hours: Part-time or full-time.

Qualifications: Depends on the school; in most countries, you’ll need at least a TEFL or CELTA certificate.

2. Get any required qualifications or licenses

Depending on where you settled on teaching, you might need to obtain an English-teaching certificate. There are several well-known ones:

• TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language): This is an umbrella term that refers to any certification program where you learn to teach English to people who live in a non-anglophone country (i.e., students who don’t speak English regularly).
• TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages): TESOL is similar to TEFL, but it’s a broader term, as it includes teaching ESL as well as EFL. Again, there are many different TESOL certificates that you can obtain.
• Trinity CertTESOL: This is a type of TESOL certificate that’s accredited by Trinity College London. It’s widely recognized and has a good reputation, and you can obtain it online.
• CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults): This is a special type of TEFL certificate that focuses on English for adult learners. Like the Trinity CertTESOL, it’s highly reputable (as it’s accredited by Cambridge Assessment English).

Be careful when you’re shopping for qualifications. There are many TEFL qualifications out there, but not all of them are widely recognized. It’s generally safest to stick with the Cambridge or Trinity qualifications.

If for some reason those aren’t suitable options, look for a certificate with a practical component, meaning that you’ll get to practice teaching in a real classroom.

According to Bisbey, you’ll usually spend about 60 to 120 hours on most certificates, which means you can reasonably expect to complete them within a month if you work on them full-time.

She also said that some programs will help place you in a teaching job afterwards. This is particularly helpful if you plan to go and work in another country where job-hunting might be more difficult.

Advanced certificates

As you progress in your English teaching career, you may want to explore more advanced qualifications, like the DELTA (which is the next level up from the CELTA) or the Trinity DipTESOL (which is the next level up from the Trinity CertTESOL).

You almost certainly won’t need either of these certificates to land your first job.

Other qualifications

As mentioned, some jobs may also require a bachelor’s or even a master’s degree, and public schools in the US usually require a state teaching license.

Getting those qualifications can take years of work, so if you’re just pursuing ESL teaching as a side hustle, it probably isn’t worth it (unless you’re already on the path to obtaining them because of your primary career).

3. Look for and apply to jobs

Once you’ve gotten the credentials you need to teach in your chosen environment, the only thing left is to put yourself out there. Create a resume (or a profile on your chosen teaching platform) and start looking for work.

There are several websites that collect ESL teaching jobs (both based in the US and abroad, as well as remote jobs that can be done online):

• ESL Employment
• TEFL.com
• Dave’s ESL Cafe
• Teachaway

You can also look on general-purpose job boards, which usually will let you search for English-teaching jobs in your area (or online):

• Indeed
• Monster
• Craigslist
• LinkedIn

You can also recruit students independently. Bisbey offered some tips for doing this. “I recommend posting on Craigslist,” she said. She went on to recommend “Facebook groups, putting up flyers, and talking to your network.”

For people with little or no experience, she also recommended volunteering. “There are many volunteer opportunities, especially at public libraries and community centers. This can also sometimes lead to paid work.”

Finally, she recommended ESL content creation as another way to make money. “Some online learning platforms are looking for native speakers to help create courses, videos, lessons, et cetera,” she said.

As mentioned, $25 per hour is a realistic rate to shoot for as an ESL teacher. This is in line with estimates from ZipRecruiter, which claims that ESL teachers in the United States earn an average of $26.35 an hour as of May 2023.

However, pay for teachers varies quite a bit. When you’re just starting out, you may need to accept a lower rate. You should also bear in mind that you usually won’t get paid for time you spend planning for lessons, so unless you’re doing a job with zero prep required (i.e., ready-made lesson plans), the pay might not be as good as it looks.

How much of a time sink is unpaid lesson planning?

We asked Bisbey how long it takes her to plan lessons. She told us, “When starting out, I spent a lot of time lesson planning because I didn’t know what I was doing.” After a while, however, planning became easier for her and she was able to do it more efficiently.

She added that “Generally, larger groups, beginner levels, and younger students require more lesson planning time, whereas individuals, older students, and more advanced levels require less.”

As a rough estimate, she said that she currently spends about 15–30 minutes planning for a 60-minute group class and 5–15 minutes planning for a 60-minute one-on-one class.

How to boost your pay and earn more from ESL teaching

As with most types of work, you’ll be able to charge more for ESL teaching once you have a little experience under your belt, but there are also several specific steps you can take to increase your pay:

• More efficient lesson planning: Spending more time on lesson planning will reduce your hourly rate and vice versa. To plan your lessons more efficiently, you can use free resources from sites like iSLCollective, Dave’s ESL Cafe, and FluentU . It may also sometimes be worth paying for subscription sites that offer high-quality lesson plans and other useful materials. For example, try Onestopenglish and Ellii.
• Move off of teaching websites: Online teaching platforms are convenient, but they’ll usually take a cut of your earnings, and they pay relatively low rates. For example, Cambly will pay you just $0.17–$0.20 per minute ($10.20–$12.00 per hour). If you strike out on your own, you’ll probably be able to earn more.
• Specialize: Once you gain experience, you can find a teaching niche. For instance, you can specialize in test prep for exams like IELTS or TOEFL, or teach “English for specific purposes” (ESP), which is a catch-all term for English that features professional or academic jargon, such as business or medical English. Specialized teachers usually command higher rates.
• Go abroad: This is an extreme option, and one that’s best pursued if you want to turn your English-teaching side hustle into a full-time job, but you can find many of the highest-paid opportunities abroad. The Middle East, South Korea, China, and Vietnam are currently among the best places to make money teaching English.
• Upgrade your qualifications: Bisbey told us that better qualifications can boost your pay. For example, ESL platforms sometimes pay more if you have teaching qualifications, and even if you set your own rates, getting a TEFL may help you justify increasing them. She said that she would also “consider getting training in official English exam preparation, as people pay good money for help with exam prep.”
• Seek better-paid jobs: Bisbey recommended always being on the lookout for new opportunities, since jobs for English teachers are thick on the ground. “I have had jobs come to me (without me even looking or applying) both in the US and while abroad,” she said. You’ll often able to increase your hourly rate by simply switching to a higher-paying position.

Again, ESL teaching has a low barrier to entry, and you can start earning decent money relatively quickly. If you start teaching on a platform that doesn’t require certification, you can give it a try and see exactly how far you want to take it.