Page 32 - ELG2109 Sep Issue 477

FEATURE .

ends
Global trends
Global tr

in online ESL
in online ESL

opportunities
opportunities

What schools are looking for in their

teachers, by Gerald Nikolai Smith

ll you need is a bachelor’s degree, make any broad statements. For example,
TEFL and 5hrs of free time per there were too few job postings in Southeast
week’ reads a job post from a Asia to make many (if any) assumptions. Still,
Areputable online ESL teaching some trends did emerge.
company. This attention grabber is indicative Eastern Asia is the biggest market for
of the fast-paced job market which has online ESL teachers, with China offering
exploded since 2015. the most posts. However, the Chinese
Many of us have scoured the job boards government has recently banned online
looking for the best online ESL job with a teachers living abroad from teaching its
good hourly rate without any hope of getting under-16s.
benefits such as paid sick leave. This young Big companies, like VIPKid and GoGoKid
job market has become a great way to work have announced they will follow the law, but
remotely, have a second income or simply get smaller groups may try to get round it. After
teaching experience, but what are companies all, NNESTs were already legally excluded
looking for? Are all the jobs for Chinese from Chinese online jobs and the law required
companies or are other countries and regions teachers to hold a teaching certificate, such as
in the mix? a TEFL. Yet four of the Chinese jobs surveyed
I gathered data from three major ESL said they hired NNESTs even though this is
job sites with over 50 online ESL teacher illegal. The ad which read “All you need is a
positions. I noted down where the company bachelor’s degree…” was not only misleading,
was located (East Asia, Eastern and Western it broke the law.
Europe, Southwest Asia, North America South Korea also prefers NESTs, but most
and Latin America), the salary range, if they companies do not require certificates. East
hired non-native speakers or what phrasing Asia is the only region which explicitly
they used to describe a teacher’s English normally refers to the certificate from Trinity
proficiency, if they required passports from College London.
certain countries or a teaching certificate European companies often do not advertise
(CELTA, TEFL, TESOL, etc). salaries, instead preferring to decide this based
on qualifications and experience.
Good news for NNESTs: none of the jobs
posted in Western Europe said they preferred
or required a NEST. Instead, companies are
using a variety of different phrases. Two of the

A word cloud compiled from all preferred
accents from online job posts, the more
mentions of the accent, the bigger the word.
Made with WordItOut.com
states a preference for accents, with North
American and UK accents the most popular.
In Western Europe, the second-biggest
market for online ESL jobs, employers seem
From this data, certain trends appeared. to prefer CELTAs, particularly in the United A word cloud compiled from all the
However, it should be noted that the data Kingdom. However, many accept TEFL and noted phrases regarding NNESTs’ English
pool for most of these regions is too small to TESOL certificates too, though TESOL proficiency, made with WordItOut.com
32 September 2021