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Teaching English Online

Learn how to transfer your teaching skills to an online context and start teaching English online.

373,202 enrolled on this course

equipment needed to teach online. Keyboard, notebook, pen, headphones, mouse.

Teaching English Online

373,202 enrolled on this course

  • 4 weeks

  • 5 hours per week

  • Digital certificate when eligible

  • Intermediate level

Find out more about how to join this course

Become an expert online English teacher

Is it time for a new online direction in your teaching career? Join our 4-week course to learn how to adapt your face-to-face teaching skills to an online environment.

Teaching English online is now becoming increasingly important all over the world, giving learners and teachers flexibility to work and learn wherever they want in the world.

Learn all about online teaching

When you start the course, you’ll learn how to prepare for teaching online. You’ll discover the kind of equipment you need, research and choose an online platform and learn how to create materials and activities for English lessons.

Developing a rapport with your students is essential, so you’ll also receive some tips on how to do this as a new online teacher.

Helping to develop listening and reading skills

Next, you’ll focus on how to help learners develop listening and reading skills online. You’ll go over the differences between listening and reading in English online compared to in-person teaching.

Start planning your English lessons with our lesson outline advice and learn about different activities and resources you can use online.

Teaching English speaking, pronunciation and writing skills

You’ll be moving on to English speaking and pronunciation this week. Discover how to teach English speaking in both one to one lessons and online groups.

Learn how to diagnose pronunciation issues and try some useful tools for teaching correct English pronunciation. Then we’ll move on to thinking about online writing lessons and how to provide feedback.

Sealing your future as an online teacher

You’ll finish the course by learning how to get a new online teaching business up and running. You’ll also discover how to continue your professional development as an online teacher.

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Skip to 0 minutes and 12 seconds More and more English language teaching is taking place online these days in groups and one to one. Now the principles of teaching and learning remain the same across all contexts. But when we teach English online, new challenges arise that we need to deal with. And we do need to adapt the approach that we take in the face-to-face classroom to a digital classroom. People are studying in their home environment, in their living room, in their car. I had one lady working from her car, she wasn’t driving. On this course, Teaching English Online we’ll help you to understand how to teach an effective lesson online. We’ll begin the course by thinking about the market.

Skip to 0 minutes and 50 seconds We’ll think about the learners that you might teach and what might be expected of you as an online tutor. The crucial elements of any online lesson are the teacher, the student, and a way to see them and hear them. Those are the basics. We’ll tell you about the equipment you need to get started and the platforms that you might want to use. We’ll also suggest resources and tools that you can exploit in and out of lessons. So you have to understand your platform and how it works before you start. And then ideally, you should have a practise with somebody else on the other end.

Skip to 1 minute and 23 seconds We’ll give you some practical strategies for developing a good rapport with learners and helping to motivate them throughout a lesson, because these things can be more difficult online than they are face-to-face. And we’ll give examples using teachers who are teaching online today. I build rapport with my online learners in very much the same way as I would do with a regular face-to-face class. So lots of encouragement and motivation and praise. We’ll also look at how we can help learners to develop receptive and productive skills. We’ll suggest different lesson structures for different types of lessons, and activities that can help learners to develop different sub-skills. Finally, we’ll think about how we can teach language online.

Skip to 2 minutes and 7 seconds You’ll have ideas and advice on how to set context, how to clarify language and check understanding, how to give practise, and how to error correct online. Because there’s a distance between us, I think it’s important to try and get to know the learners individually as much as possible. By the end of the course, you’ll be able to transfer the skills you have in the face-to-face classroom to a digital classroom so that you can produce really effective lessons for the learners you teach and help them to develop their English skills.

Skip to 2 minutes and 37 seconds A successful online lesson is a lesson where your student goes away knowing something they didn’t know at the beginning, or being able to do something they couldn’t do at the beginning. My name’s Lindsey Warwick and I’m a teacher and trainer based here in Cambridge in the UK, and I’d like to invite you to join our course Teaching English Online. I very much hope to see you there.

What topics will you cover?

The context of English Language Teaching online

  • Contexts: learners and learning
  • Strategies for developing rapport and engagement
  • Dealing with classroom management in an online classroom
  • Key skills needed to be an effective online teacher
  • Tips for finding learners and channels to deliver online learning

How to plan and deliver online skills lessons

  • Developing reading skills
  • Developing writing skills and dealing with errors online
  • Developing speaking skills
  • Developing listening skills

How to plan and deliver online language lessons

  • Setting context
  • Clarifying and practising language
  • Dealing with pronunciation

How to continue your professional development as an online teacher

  • Getting feedback on your teaching
  • Evaluating and reflecting on your teaching
  • Joining online communities of teachers

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

  • Available now

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Demonstrate the key skills and knowledge needed as an online English teacher
  • Plan and deliver lessons to develop receptive and productive skills
  • Understand how to develop language skills
  • Reflect and improve on professional practice

Who is the course for?

This course is for experienced or recently qualified English language teachers who would like to transfer their teaching skills to a live online context.

Who will you learn with?

English Language Teacher, Teacher Trainer, Assessor and Joint Chief Assessor for a range of teaching qualifications from Cambridge Assessment English.

English teacher, teacher trainer and materials writer. Author of several coursebooks for English language learners.

Who developed the course?

Cambridge University Press & Assessment

We are a department of the University of Cambridge. Together with teachers and our partners, we’re here to engage and inspire millions of people throughout their entire learning journey. We help them confidently prove their skills to the world.

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Ways to learn

Choose the best way to learn for you!

Subscribe & save

$27.99

For the first two months. Automatically renews

Develop skills to further your career

  • Access to this course
  • Access to 1,000+ courses
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Tests to boost your learning
  • Digital certificate when you're eligible

Cancel for free anytime

Buy this course

$89/one-off payment

Fulfill your current learning need

  • Access to this course
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Tests to boost your learning
  • Printed and digital certificate when you’re eligible

Limited access

Free

Sample the course materials

  • Access expires 16 Apr 2024

Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades)

T&Cs apply.

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