CELTA or TESOL for Private Tutoring

Really, anyone can call themselves an ESL tutor or teacher and find private clients. There are no licensing requirements (that I'm aware of) as there are, for example, lawyers. Of course, it is certainly a better selling point to actually have some training in teaching ESL.

One way to get training to teach ESL to adults or to children is to take a certification course. When you start to look into certification courses, you find that there are two main certifications: CELTA and TESOL.

CELTA stands for Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults. TESOL stands for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Possession of either of these certificates shows that the ESL teacher has been through a certificate training program and has been taught the necessary "tools" to teach English.

So which certificate is right for you? Personally, I have a TESOL certificate. Although I had the option of studying for either certificate, I chose the TESOL because that was the ESOL certificate that was more popular in the area in which I planned to teach.

Thinking about where you want to teach and inquiring about the preferred certificate in the area is the approach I would take (and did) to determine which certificate to earn.

I don't have a convenient list of all the TESOL training locations, but here's a thorough list of the CELTA course locations.

How to Start Teaching ESL

Teaching ESL to adults or children is a great profession for a lot of people. For me, it was a career change and a great one. If you’re thinking about teaching ESL, you’ll have to think about where you want to teach, who you want to teach and what setting you would like to teach in.

If you live and teach in an English-speaking country, then you are teaching ESL. If you live and work in a non-English speaking country, then you are teaching EFL. You can teach in many different settings: private language schools, universities, public schools, or a coffee shop (with private students). The setting you decide to teach in will determine what kind of qualifications you need. You may need a Masters’ degree or only a CELTA or TESOL certificate. Sometimes, you may not need any additional training.

If you want to get a feel for teaching ESL before you make any big decisions, you could also become a volunteer tutor.

Go here to learn more about how to start teaching ESL.