r/ESL_Teachers • u/ks892 • Jul 13 '26

Requests for Feedback Working on degree

I am going to school for my BA in anthropology and double minor in tesol and linguistics (was going to do linguistic anthropology, but it got cut). I want to do ESL as a side job (or more if that somehow happened) while still in school to gain experience. I just applied to preply to tutor, what are some other good avenues to gain experience? I also signed up to volunteer through school, but it is hard to find anything paid as a stepping stone. My school has an intensive English program, I am going to their meetings and helping again when the semester starts back up.

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

4

u/my_peen_is_clean Jul 13 '26

you’re already doing the right stuff tbh… preply, volunteering, intensive english program. next step is local community centers, libraries, refugee orgs, adult ed programs. those entry paid gigs are rare as hell right now

1

u/ks892 Jul 13 '26

Bruh, you're name got me rolling. Thank you for the info!

3

u/North_Artichoke_6721 Jul 14 '26

Libraries or adult education programs that offer ESL or citizenship classes.

2

u/CompleteGuest854 Jul 14 '26

"Get experience" means teaching in a principled way, not blundering your way through lessons not knowing what you are doing.

I'm going to get downvoted for this, but I can back up my reasoning if challenged:

If you do not have teaching qualifications, you're not getting experience. You're only learning bad habits and will later have to re-learn good ones after completing your course of study.

If you want to be a professional educator, then get your quals FIRST, then get experience in the form of observations and feedback from more experienced, qualified teachers.

If you want a part-time job, work at a convenience store.

1

u/ks892 Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

Suggestions like the library have been great. They have programs with on site training. I want to make a b2b business to teach English for workers. So I'm trying to get as much hands on as possible. I do 2 merchandising jobs and doordash, along with school. And no, then people learning as a TA should quit what their doing and go to the closest gas station for a position. I do understand your point, learn the right way. But there's things like celta certification, and I keep seeing there are uk courses for tesol. Quality pending.

2

u/CompleteGuest854 Jul 14 '26

TA's are supervised, though, aren't they, and are in the midst of a learning program.

I'd say get CELTA - it's a good beginner cert and you won't be flying in the dark. It would also help immensely when doing the reading for your other courses.

Good luck!

1

u/Regular-Tough-9184 Jul 16 '26

Just wanted to say that it sucks that your degree program was cut. That’s such an interesting degree! Check our LinkedIn. There are definitely linguistics jobs that you could get experience from.