How to choose a freelance language teacher


This is the time of year when many of you might be considering hiring language teachers for yourself or your children. It makes a lot of sense to cut out the middleman (a language school) and hire a freelance or a self-employed teacher directly. But if you decide to do that, you might find yourself browsing through tens of profiles a day and still unable to make a choice. In this post, I want to outline several aspects you might want to pay attention to when looking for a freelance language teacher.

Degree

A degree in teaching is not a 100% guarantee of good quality teaching, but it definitely helps. People who get a degree in language teaching do not only study the language in-depth, they also study teaching principles and methods. It is, of course, possible but less likely that a person with a degree in engineering will make a great language teacher. They might be a proficient or a native language speaker, but they simply might not know how to help you learn the language.

Experience

The more, the better. However, the experience must be relevant. The teacher who has worked in state schools for 10 years might not be the best match for a project manager who wants to be able to make presentations or negotiate in a foreign language. And vice a versa. The person might be an excellent teacher in their sphere, but might not be able to meet your needs.

Growth and development

This aspect boils down to questions like:
  • Has the teacher done anything related to language learning or teaching since they graduated? 
  • Have they attended any teacher development courses? 
  • Have they taken any international tests? When? What scores did they get? 
  • Have they taken part in any teaching contests, projects, programs?
The more “yes” you get, the better.

Social media

It sounds like a cliche but social media profiles speak volumes. Do check them out. I can’t give any guidelines as to what constitutes an appropriate profile, so you have to go with your gut. Personally, I wouldn’t hire a teacher whose profile had countless shares of cooking recipes and nothing related to languages or teaching.

More

This aspect boils down to questions like,
  • Does the teacher produce anything related to teaching or languages (in any form)? 
  • Does the teacher create their own handouts or exercises? 
  • Does the teacher use videos, podcasts, newspapers articles to supplement the material in the book? 
  • Does the teacher make videos? Does the teacher write a blog? 
If the teacher doesn’t do any of the things above, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are a bad teacher. But if I was going to hire a language teacher, I would definitely look for one who does and wants to do more than just follow the coursebook.

Finally, after you’ve done your research, call, message or meet the teacher. The way the person interacts with you will help you make the final decision.

Disclaimer 1. None of the aspects above guarantees anything, but some of them combined will give you an idea of what the teacher is like.
Disclaimer 2. Sometimes, in rare cases, even if the teacher’s profile is perfect, things might not work out anyway. Because of a personality mismatch, because of the position of the stars or just because.

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