Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages
What the work is
Teaches English to students whose first language is a language other than English.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Assesses the needs of individual students in the context of English language acquisition
- Teaches students in a range of settings, either individually or in groups
- Teaches students English language skills using a variety of methods, including lecture and visual demonstration
- Provides assistance and advice to other teachers of students for whom English is an additional language
- Designs and produces teaching materials, and adapts existing materials
- Prepares course outlines and goals
- Assigns lessons, corrects homework, and prepares and grades exams
- Analyses, provides feedback and reports on student outcomes
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a community English class in a library meeting room. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A student rings a doctor's surgery for the first time on their own
- The class laughs together at a joke they could only just understand a month ago
- A former student stops you in the street and chats in confident English
Hard days
- A class with five levels of English in one small room
- A student who stops coming and you never find out why
- Teaching grammar rules that even native speakers cannot explain
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 259531, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.