10 Steps to a Successful ESL Tutoring Business

This is the ESL Tutoring Business book I've been working on for eight years!

This book was written for anyone who wants to privately tutor English Language Learners and earn a living doing so. It is for those ESL teachers and tutors who are offering, or would like to offer, private lessons to individuals or small groups.

It is especially for those ESL tutors and teachers, or potential tutors, who are open to the idea that a private tutoring practice will be infinitely more successful when it is run as a business.

Please don't be deterred by the idea of running your ESL tutoring practice as a business. I've made every effort possible to clearly and succinctly describe in this book the simple policies, procedures, and practices you can implement to have a successful tutoring business that will enable you to earn a living doing what you love for a very long time.

Please note that this book is not a grammar book or a textbook for use to teach English. It is a book about successfully setting up and running a private ESL tutoring business.

Click here to get more information about this digital book.

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Happy 2015 and Chapter One of ESL Tutoring Book

Happy New Year and Many Blessings to YOU for 2015!

Big apologies for not getting my “10 Steps to a Successful ESL Tutoring Business” book out to you yet. (Those of you who get my newsletter learned a little about why it’s taking me so long to complete!)

My book should be out within the next few weeks. In the meantime, you can download Chapter One of "10 Steps to a Successful ESL Tutoring Business."

You can also sign up to receive 3 free videos on this page.

They’ll cover:

(1) how to run a successful first meeting with a potential new student, 

(2) how to do a Student Needs Assessment, and 

(3) how to reduce cancellations and no-shows.

Very best to you in the coming year,

Debra

10 Steps to a Successful ESL Tutoring Business

The title above is the working title for my upcoming book.  I can't believe it's finally almost ready!

It's a little embarrassing, but it looks like I've been working on this book forever.  I first mentioned it in this blog back in 2008!  See E-book on Staring an ESL Business.  Can you believe it?!

Before I finalize the book, I want to make sure that I've covered every possible question ESL tutors and teachers might have about starting and running their own ESL tutoring business.

Here's a question for you. Yes, you!

What are your top two questions about starting and running your own ESL tutoring business?  

Please leave your questions below in the comments box, or you can send them directly to me using my contact page.


Thank you, and Happy Teaching!

Debra


P.S.  Yes, I'm really serious - go ahead and click on this contact link or leave your questions in the comment section below.  What do you need to know?

Verb Tense Cheat Sheets

I've just sent out Volume 2 to subscribers of my ezine, ESL Teaching Tips.  Volume 2 has "Cheat Sheets" for all verb tenses. Teachers and tutors can use them as reminders for themselves and also as handouts for their more advanced students.

If you haven't yet signed up for my ezine, you can do so on my ESL Teaching Tips sign-up page.

When you sign up, you'll get a free ebook with 27 worksheets for the Simple Present Tense.

Hurricane Sandy and the S.F. Giants

One of my ESL students writes one essay a week for writing practice for our class. This was a busy week and he had much to write about: Halloween, Hurricane Sandy, and the San Francisco Giants World Series celebration.

He had an interesting observation. He was surprised that in light of the devastation experienced on the East Coast due to Hurricane Sandy, the City of San Francisco proceeded with their parade and celebration for the Giants, this year's winners of the World Series.

He commented that in his home county, Japan, people would show restraint. A large celebration would not occur if something as catastrophic as Hurricane Sandy had occurred.

What are your thoughts are. Should San Francisco have canceled or postponed their celebration? Or was it alright for them to go ahead?

"Beat Around the Shrubbery"

I just finished watching an episode of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot. As you may know, Poirot is a fictitious detective. Much to his dismay, many people mistake him for French because of his accent, but he is actually Belgian.

Poirot's English is very good, but he does use an "unnatural" order to his words at times. He also makes mistakes with his use of expressions and idioms.

In tonight's episode, there were two "errors." He said, "It is dried and cut," and "Let's not beat around the shrubbery."

The correct order for the first error is "cut and dried." When something is "cut and dried," that means it is clear and obvious.

"Beat around the shrubbery" should be "beat around the bush." To beat around the bush means to avoid the subject or approach the subject indirectly.

These mistakes are amusing when they come from Hercule Poirot who is a fastidious perfectionist about everything else. I love him!

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Cambridge Offers CELTA Courses Online

In September, 2011, Cambridge started offering CELTA courses online. Sort of.

The practicum component of the course must still be done at the center offering the certification.

If you opt for the online CELTA course, you can earn the same certificate as if you did the course entirely at a center. There is no difference to the award you will receive.

The online option allows a student to take longer to obtain the certificate and to work at his or her own pace. According to the Cambridge site, "courses run over a minimum of 10 weeks and a maximum of an academic year."

The online materials achieve the same objectives as face-to-face instruction, according to Cambridge.

Unfortunately, as of this date, there are no centers offering online CELTA in the United States.

If you need a completely online TESOL certificate, then you will need to consider a different type of certificate. See TEFL or CELTA: Which is Best? for further discussion.

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CELTA Offered Online This Year

It looks like Cambridge is moving into education of the 20th century (maybe even the 21st). According to the Cambridge ESOL website, CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) will be available online starting in September 2011. Currently, it is only available in person at over 200 centers around the world (eight, in the United States, at this time). Here's a list of all CELTA course locations around the world.

The online CELTA course will have the same requirements as the face-to-face course (without attendance, of course). The only thing that will not be able to be done online is the teaching practicum. Six hours of assessed hands-on teaching practice will still be required.

I wonder if this opening up of the strict CELTA course requirements will raise the value of other TEFL/TESOL certification courses in the minds of those who favor CELTA over other certificates.

What do you think?

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"The Time Goes Fast!"

This is what one of my adult ESL students said yesterday when I ended our ninety-minute conversation class. We had met a few days before for a free ESL Needs Assessment that I always offer to potential students, but our meeting yesterday was our first conversation class together.

I always love to hear the English language learners (ELL) I work with comment on how fast the time flies when we work together. Comments like these let me know that the ELL is enjoying the class and, I believe, more easily getting the practice they want.

And, I guess I should mention that "time flies" since I haven't posted anything to this Teaching ESL to Adults blog in over a year! Time flies when you're having fun!

I continue to work with adult ESL students and I love it. I appreciate the many of you who continue to find, read and comment on my blog.

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Accusation of Stolen ESL Blog

As most of you know who have been following my ESL blog about my ESL tutoring experiences, as well as ESL tips, grammar tips, etc., I wrote back in September of 2009 that I discovered that someone had stolen my ESL blog. At that time, I filed a complaint with Google. Google researched my claim and took down the site that had stolen my material (they didn't even bother to change anything, the thief stole my blog word for word).

I have personally written each article in this blog based on my experiences teaching ESL, with the exception of a handful of articles from guest writers. You can identify those ESL blog entries because they will give credit to the author.

This blog with the URL of www.esl-tutor.com is the original site. I think if other unscrupulous people are stealing this content, you should be able to identify this because they will have a different URL.

Today, I received an email from an unidentified source accusing me of being the thief. Here is the content of that email sent to my contact page of my main website Teaching ESL to Adults:

"YOUR BLOG IS IDENTICAL TO ONE I'VE BEEN FOLLOWING FOR A COUPLE OF YEARS. SHAME ON YOUR FOR YOUR PLAIGARISM!!!!!!!!!! IT IS UNPROFESSIONAL AND DISGUSTING.

AN ESL TEACHER IN COLORADO (You aren't forthcoming, so I see no need to be forthcoming with my identity, either!)
First Name: ESL Teacher
Last Name:
E-mail Address:
Country: United States
May I post your message on this website? (please choose one): Yes, it's OK to
post my message, name and country. (Due to spammers, I will never post your
email address.)"

Unfortunately, the email writer did not leave his or her email address (which I understand if he or she thinks I am the thief), so I hope he or she will read this post and perhaps get back to me with the URL of the actual plagiarizing ESL blog so that I may report it to Google.

I thank all my followers of this blog and my main ESL site. And I apologize for not writing every day as I did the first year of this blog. I've been spending more time on the main site, so you may want to follow that site for newer material.

Best regards,
Debra Garcia
ESL Tutor

Should You Get a CELTA or a TEFL Certificate?

If you're considering getting a certificate to start teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), you've probably come across the TEFL vs. CELTA debate. Which certification is better? Which courses are better? Which prepare you to teach adults ESL/EFL and which prepare you to teach children? Which certificate do employers prefer?

Unfortunately, the answers to these questions take a lot of research and then most of the answers you find are subjective. If you ask someone with a CELTA, they're likely to say CELTA is better. If you ask someone with a TEFL certificate, they're likely to say TEFL is better. This is, of course, also dependent upon the student teacher's particular experiences at their particular TESOL certification course.

When potential EFL/ESL teachers write and ask me which I recommend, I cannot give a strong recommendation about which is best. (I can recommend my particular program, as I feel it did everything it promised and more.) I can only suggest factors to consider when making the TEFL or CELTA decision. You can read more about what to consider on my main website TEFL or CELTA page.

The one thing I strongly recommend is that after you've done your research, bite the bullet and just do choose a certificate and choose a course. Don't let the "paralysis by analysis" bug keep you from moving forward.

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Choosing the Best TESOL Certificate

A TESOL certificate is one of the quickest and easiest ways to start a career teaching English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language. But with so many TESOL certificate programs to choose from, how do you choose the best one?

What type of certification is right for you? TESOL, TEFL, TESL, or CELTA? On-site or online?

Visit my Finding the Best TESOL Certificate page for tips on finding the right program for you and characteristics of the best TESOL certificate programs.

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Using a Christian-Based ESL Curriculum

Sally in the U.S. wrote this question about a Christian-based ESL curriculum. Unfortunately, she didn't give me an email address to answer her. Hopefully, she'll come back for the answer.

Sally writes:

"I will be teaching ESL to Spanish speakers through my church.
I'm excited, but nervous. I've never taught ESL.

I taught HS 20 years ago -- Media and English degrees.

I have just found your site and think it will help me. I'm open to any other
help anyone wants to offer.

We don't have a curriculum or supplies. We have thought it would be good to be able to use a biblical, Christian based, curriculum. I haven't been able to find one. Any thoughts?"

My response:

Dear Sally,

That's great news, and you're right, teaching ESL is exciting. It seems that churches and other non-profit organizations are great places for non-English speakers to get low-cost or free English classes. And it also seems that these organizations are often expected to provide services with limited or no resources! That's a shame.

What and how you teach will depend upon (1) the English level of the students, (2) their age, and (3) their purpose in learning English.

You didn't mention the specifics of the first two items, but there are tons of free resources online to address the first two issues. It just takes time to find them. However, I want to address the third issue in more detail.

One thing that ESL/EFL teachers, especially teachers of adults, need to ask themselves is WHY are these students taking this English class.

In your case, Sally, is it to get a deeper understanding of the Bible or of their Christian beliefs? Or is it so that they can get a job or make advancements on their current jobs? Is it so that they can take care of the day-to-day tasks of living in an English-speaking country? Is it so that they can feel better about themselves and have more confidence in their English speaking abilities? Is it to gain "survival skills?" Etc.

The teacher has to put the students' needs first. While it's fine to approach a class from a particular orientation, in this case a Christian orientation, the lessons should be something that the students can use in the "real world," in their day-to-day lives. The material and topics covered should be transferable to the students' lives outside of the church.

I don't know of any Christian-based curriculum, Sally. You may be the person to create such a curriculum. I would just suggest that you find a way for students to transfer the English skills that they learn with you into their day-to-day lives.

Best of luck,

Debra

Someone Has Stolen My ESL Blog

Yep. Some unscrupulous person has stolen all the content from this ESL blog and posted as his or her own. Amazing.

You can see the thief's blog at http://www.teaching-esl-to-adults.blogspot.com. I guess he or she is a little behind, though. The last post the thief has as of today is only through February 1, 2009.

I've been writing this ESL blog since March 2007. For the first year, I wrote a post every day. It's a little disheartening to see that someone has stolen all of my work. But life goes on.

I've mentioned before how I advertise on craigslist.org and that I often get responses from scammers, people trying to steal money from other people. Now here's one more way for people to be dishonest.

With the internet there are just so many ways for unscrupulous people to behave. But there is a lot of good that can come from it, too. So I'll focus on that.

I suppose this world economic situation has people doing things that perhaps they would not normally do.

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How Twitter Helps ESL Students Learn

Besides advertising for ESL students online and my ESL blog and websites, I must admit that I'm a bit behind with all the social networking opportunities on the web. However, there is no doubt that English learning opportunities abound with the world wide web.

Here's a post by guest author Donna Scott on ways to use Twitter to help ESL students learn.

Donna Scott writes:

Twitter isn't just for bloggers or niche networking: it's also a great educational tool. From sharing links and study materials during your off time to encouraging students to keep up the conversation outside of class, Twitter has unlimited potential for learning. ESL teachers can turn to the microblogging platform for word games, quizzes, contests and vocabulary challenges. Here are different ways Twitter can help your ESL students learn more effectively.

• Students can't go over 140 characters. This fundamental rule challenges students to use the phrases, vocabulary words and abbreviations that allow for the character restriction.


• Extra space for learning materials. On Twitter, you can link to supplemental online education materials, upload videos and photos, and add music to your posts so that your students can continue learning even after class is over.


• Set up private groups. There are lots of ways to create groups on Twitter, allowing you and your students to play word games and talk about assignments in a shared space that's also private from the general public.


• It forces them to become a part of the greater conversation. Connect your ESL students with native English speakers by encouraging them to follow celebrities, news feeds, and industry insiders from the subjects they like to follow.


• Track words. With Twitter, you can track words to find out all of the conversations that incorporate that word or key phrase. This is an excellent exercise for ESL students, as you can show them all the different meanings of a word.


• It provides a central place for messages and announcements. If your class or school doesn't have a website or a private spot for you to make announcements online, Twitter is great for sending direct messages to your students and giving them free access to chats, extra material, and more.


• Use polls: Ask your student to participate in Twitter polls (Poll Daddy has a Twitter feed, for example) to get feedback from them about lessons.


• Create group stories. One student will start writing a 140-character story, and each student will take turns writing the next "chapter."

This post was contributed by Donna Scott of BestCollegesOnline.com. She welcomes your feedback at DonnaScott9929 at yahoo.com

Please let me know your thoughts on this article or if you have any other suggestions for how to use social media to teach ESL to adults.--Thanks, Debra
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10 Conversation Starters for the ESL Classroom

by Guest Author Karen Schweitzer

Getting adult ESL students to engage in conversation is a great way to promote classroom learning. The following article offers a list of 10 conversation starters to get things rolling in the ESL classroom.

1. What is your favorite thing to cook at home? Ask each student to name their favorite dish to cook at home. Encourage them to list the different ingredients and the different steps involved in making the dish. You can also ask students to use various words and phrases to describe how the finished meal tastes.

2. I've never… Ask one student to name something they have never done. For example: I've never been to New York. Afterwards, anyone who has been to New York or knows someone else who has traveled to this destination must tell a story about the experience.

3. If you could be any animal in the world, what animal would you be? Ask every student to state what type of animal they would be if they could choose. Then ask them to explain their choice to the class.

4. Where are you from? Ask one student to state the name of the city or town they live in. Encourage everyone else to ask the student one question about this city or town. For example: Where is the best restaurant? What is your town known for? How many people live in your city? If everyone in the class lives in the same area, you can change the question to: Where did you live when you were ten years old?

5. What is your favorite movie? Ask one student to name their favorite movie. Allow each student in the class to ask one question about the movie. For example: How long is the movie? Have you watched this movie more than once? Where were you when you first watched the movie?

6. Name three things in your bedroom. Ask each student to name three things that can be found at home in their bedroom. You can make this conversation game more difficult by not allowing students to repeat any of the three things mentioned by a previous student.

7. What was the last item you purchased? Ask each student to name the last item they purchased from a store. Then, ask the other students to ask questions about the item. For example: Where did you buy it? How much did it cost? Was it on sale?

8. Pretend you are only allowed to use one of the following items during the next year: a computer, a car, or a flushable toilet. Ask each student to choose which one of the three items they would keep for the next year if they had to make a choice. Then, ask them what made them choose that item.

9. What is your dream job? Ask one student to tell the class what their ideal job would be and why. Then, ask the rest of the class to name jobs that are similar to the original student's dream job.

10. Describe your first job. Ask each student in the class to describe the first job they received payment for. Encourage them to share as many details as possible about the type of work they did and the people they worked with.

Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online colleges for OnlineColleges.net.

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Becoming Qualified to Teach ESL

Gail from the U.S. writes: How do I go about becoming qualified to teach ESL to adults? I have taught English for 30 years to junior high school students. I am looking for something rewarding to do. I've always enjoyed working with ESL students in my public school.

Dear Gail:

Teaching ESL to adults is certainly rewarding. And it sounds like you have a great start. As for "becoming qualified to teach ESL," it will depend upon where you want to teach. Will it be as a private ESL tutor such as myself, in an adult school, in a non-profit? The qualifications required will vary depending upon where you want to teach.

Please take a look at my page How to Start Teaching ESL for a more extensive answer.

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AU Coupon Code: 879122

Should I Start Another ESL Forum?

Does the Internet need yet another ESL forum? Here's why I ask. I receive tons of emails every week asking all sorts of ESL-related questions. Apparently, people aren't getting all the answers they need on the web.

Here are just two questions that I received today:

"Hi! I am a student who will be teaching English abroad for the next year and am interested in purchasing some of the books you describe on your blog. Do you know any place where I might find them cheaper than on Amazon? Please let me know if you have any suggestions. Thank you!"

"I am an American living in New York. Is it better for me to take my teaching certification here in N.Y or to go overseas and study over there? I am confused as to which is a better option in regards to being prepared to start initially in the country I want to teach in (does this give me a better head start?) or to start here and find a job through the internet once the course is through. Please help. Thanks."

While I love hearing from readers, I find that answering these questions takes A LOT of time. Plus, I just don't always know the answers.

So here are my questions to my readers:

1. Do you think it would be useful for me to set up a forum on my main website Teaching ESL to Adults so that readers can ask me AND other readers ESL-related questions?

2. Or are there already enough ESL forums out there?

3. Would you visit and participate in a new forum on my website Teaching ESL to Adults?

Please use the "contact me" link to your right to get back to me.

Thank you for taking the time to tell me your thoughts.

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ESL Students and Superbowl Sunday

In addition to learning English, many of my ESL students are interested in learning about American culture. Well, today is one of those days that I (previously) wouldn't have thought about as "culture." But when you have nearly one out of three Americans watching the game, I guess you can't say this is not a part of our culture.

For some reason, native English speakers who otherwise don't care at all about football are suddenly transformed into hard-partying-fans on this special day. Is it really about the game? Or is it simply a day that brings us all together and gives us some sense of "oneness" and belonging? And how does it do that?

Whatever this day is to us as Americans, it is definitely a part of our culture. And as such, the customs around this day can be shared with our ESL students. It also serves as a starting point to ask our students about similar events in their home countries and we can encourage them to practice their English by telling us about such events.

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Mr., Ms., Miss, Mrs. for ESL Students

The titles Mr., Ms., Miss, and Mrs. are often difficult for English language learners. And it's something so basic to native English speakers that ESL tutors and ESL teachers often take this for granted. Perhaps, I should speak for myself. I often take it for granted.

I usually notice that these titles are difficult for ESL students when they are reading aloud. This leads to an impromptu discussion about the pronunciation of each of these titles, as well as how to appropriately use them. (There's also an opportunity for a small reinforcement of the s/z distinction and voiced and unvoiced sounds.)

These titles can also lead to a mini-history lesson about the title "Ms." And even in how to address letters.

The two main points here are that for the ESL teacher or tutor, there are lots of ideas for lesson plans, and flexibility is important during a class.

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