Blog

The ultimate guide to finding your first TEFL job

You’ve passed your CELTA or CertTESOL, you’ve recovered from sleep loss. You’re pencils are all sharpened, and mum has starched all your shirts…. you’re ready to start looking for your first teaching job? What next? Since I started teaching I estimate that I have applied for nearly 30 teaching jobs and I can honestly say there is no one-size-fits-all key to success here.  However, there are some really important things that will enhance the possibility of success.  Some of these… All categories, Certificate courses, Diploma courses, Careers in TESOL

How to stay motivated and avoid teacher burnout

As a teaching employee, I have gone through a few spells of demotivation in my career. The most recent one was a few months ago. Feeling demotivated with my job, very unappreciated and generally overwhelmed with my workload, I woke up day after day dreading what lay ahead for the next 9 hours...this is a common symptom of teacher burnout. It got to the point where I got bad insomnia and anxiety. I began hating the people around me at work, even my friends. I genuinely felt it was a… All categories, Careers in TESOL, Diploma courses, TESOL Masters

Hang on: how to retain your teachers

As school or department managers, we face a constant staffing challenge which arises every year – which teachers will be leaving, how can we ensure that new replacements fit well into our institution, and how can we keep good teachers on board to continue doing the good work that gets results? There is no simple answer to these questions; teacher retention is not as simple as just paying people to do the job and expecting them to stay year after year. Job satisfaction for a teacher is related… All categories, Careers in TESOL, Diploma courses

What is it like to work in Hong Kong?

  Hong Kong is an amazing city and I’m often asked why I moved here, but to be honest it was purely by chance. I applied for jobs in The Ukraine, Lebanon, and Hong Kong. I said whichever British Council Centre employs me first, I’ll take it. Ideally I wanted to go to Lebanon or Ukraine but neither hired me, at that time I didn’t have the DELTA or Trinity DipTESOL and hence I moved to Hong Kong. I had been to Hong Kong before but had never planned to live here. Now you may ask,… All categories, Careers in TESOL, Certificate courses

How to teach vocabulary: making your lessons more effective

Vocabulary is an important part of language study, especially for younger learners and low levels of ability. However, teachers often gloss over opportunities for deep practice with new words and phrases – we often only have time to teach things once, and then we are flying on to the next thing without giving sufficient chance for students to practice new words. Vocabulary retention may take longer than we assume; just because we teach a word, it doesn’t mean the students will learn it, so here… All categories, Certificate courses

MA TESOL: how to choose the best course for you

Article contributors: Tom Garside, Sharon Maloney, Bryan Holmes. We´ve written alot about what it´s like to take a DipTESOL, and the differences between an MA and DipTESOL, but the reality is there´s no better resource than meeting people who have been through a course.  In fact we often introduce applicants for our CertTESOL courses to trainees who are currently on the course, as they are able to give unique, first-hand insights into the experience as a trainee. This week, we´… All categories, TESOL Masters, Diploma courses, Careers in TESOL

Experienced teachers: are you ready to take a DipTESOL or DELTA?

Article by Bryan Holmes and Tom Garside If you have been teaching for a few years you may be thinking it’s time to complete a Trinity DipTESOL or a Cambridge DELTA. Doing either one will broaden your professional horizons while making a huge leap in your professional development.  This is considered a rite of passage in the industry and most committed ESL professionals do it. Personally, I won’t lie; doing one was a slog and was much more difficult than my MA in TESOL. However,… All categories, Diploma courses, Certificate courses, TESOL Masters

5 creative activities for Chinese New Year

By the Lunar calendar, this year (2026) will be the Year of the Horse and will fall on Tuesday, 17 February. Some parts of Asia, like Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Korea and Japan also revel in New Year and Spring festivities around the same time. If you teach in an Asian country or have students with an interest in other cultures, engage your young learners with some of these fun activities.  1. Chinese Fortunes Create or find some fortunes for Family / Love / Money (or Job or Studies)… All categories, Certificate courses

5 things you didn't know about language teaching

Let's start with some common myths about TEFL We think it’s time for you to settle down and get a proper job. This was what welcomed me in the weeks after I initially complete my teacher training TESOL certification in 2008, having decided I didn’t want to go back to university to complete an Honours or MA, and needed some time to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.  I had just returned to Australia that week after studying abroad, and was faced with… All categories, Careers in TESOL, Certificate courses, Diploma courses

Teaching reading: why it's important for TEFL teachers

Why teach reading? EFL teachers in Hong Kong don’t have enough time to teach reading. Reading is about so much more than comprehension questions. Reading is a chance to learn a language the way all languages are learned in the beginning. Reading is a skill that allows independent learning. So why don’t we do more of it? Many students (and teachers) feel that reading is a task that equates to inefficient use of classroom time.  Some students feel they aren’t… All categories, Certificate courses, Diploma courses, TESOL Masters

A letter to my inexperienced teacher self

Hey there, It’s been a while since we’ve had a chat. Since that day early on in the scheme of things. The young student who thought it was ok to yawn loudly, 15 minutes into a reading lesson. This is so boring. They looked at you, you looked at them and shrugged it off. But we all know it was wrong, and it hurt. It was uncomfortable. Things have changed a lot. So many different countries, so many different students, so many different exams and marks, so many different I’ll-just-come-for-… All categories, Certificate courses, Diploma courses, Careers in TESOL

Taking a career break: the easiest ways to take time out to travel, work and volunteer abroad

Have you ever considered taking a step back from your job and pursuing something *else*.....what ever that may be? The benefits of taking some time out on a regular basis are indisputable. But many people don’t take time to unwind regularly or effectively enough.  Recently the BBC wrote about the advantages of additional time away from your daily grind and as it turns out, for those who do opt for gap years, careers breaks or take time to volunteer and travel abroad, many find… All categories, Certificate courses, Diploma courses, Careers in TESOL