Teaching

Volunteer to teach English online

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Are you looking for online English teaching experience? Want to use your teaching skills for good? Find out how you can volunteer to teach English online with Australian, New Zealand and International organisations in order to break into the field, or just give back.

 
Photo by Mikhail Nilov from Pexels

How to volunteer

Each organisation below has their own particular criteria for volunteers so it is best to enquire directly. A few rules of thumb:

  • Many organisations (especially those who work with children) will require you to pass a Background. or Police check and/or have a WWC (Working With Children Check). Volunteer WWC are usually free, but Australia has a regional applications for a WWC, so check your resident state.
  • Make sure that you read the requirements and time commitment/s for the position carefully before applying. 
  • If you don’t find anything on this list that suits, you can also find positions on https://www.volunteer.com.au; many that are short-term or event based. This might be better than a long-term commitment for some. 
  • Finally, have fun and congratulate yourself for your contribution. Thank you. 

Note: If you see the code [NFP] this indicates that this organisation is 100% not-for-profit.

Volunteering in Australia

Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) is a free service to help eligible migrants and humanitarian entrants with low English levels to improve their English language skills and settle into Australia.
https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/settling-in-australia/amep/volunteer-tutor-resources

Navitas (SW Sydney and Canberra)
The Volunteer Tutor Scheme encourages people to join us in supporting adult migrants and humanitarian entrants who complete our Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP), helping them develop their English skills and settle into life in Australia.
https://www.navitas-english.com.au/careers-and-volunteering/volunteering/

AMES (Victoria)
You will work alongside our newly arrived refugee and migrant clients and our committed and passionate staff, joining over 500 AMES Australia volunteers
https://www.ames.net.au/volunteering

Djerriwarrh Community and Education Services (Melbourne West, Ballarat)
Volunteering for Learning for Employment’s AMEP Volunteer Tutor Scheme involves meeting newly arrived migrants and refugees to help them learn English. [NFP]
https://djerriwarrh.org.au/

St Vincent De Paul Society
Refugee English Tutor (QLD)
https://www.volunteer.com.au/volunteering/118659/refugee-english-tutor-townsville

SisterWorks Inc. (Nation-wide)
SisterWorks is a partner of UN Women to deliver UN Women’ Second Chance Education pilot project in Australia. SisterWorks provides training programs to the most vulnerable women with little English of Refugee and migrant backgrounds. As an English Teacher Volunteer, you will be providing a training programme online, empowering migrant and refugee women by teaching them conversational English. [NFP]
https://sisterworks.org.au/volunteering/

STEPS (Darwin)
“We offer a number of flexible, part-time volunteer roles for anyone who wishes to get involved and help our students to gain English skills so they are more confident in accomplishing their future goals in Australia.”
https://www.stepsgroup.com.au/giving-back-by-teaching-migrants-and-refugees/

Volunteering in New Zealand

English Language Partners
Help former refugees and migrants learn English and join New Zealand society. Deliver language support in the learners’ own homes. [NFP]
https://www.englishlanguage.org.nz/volunteer

Help Tank
Volunteer with English Language Partners and help us provide free English lessons to former refugees and migrants.
https://helptank.nz/project/detail/2705

Let’s Talk Language Learning Groups (Auckland)
Did you grow up in New Zealand and did you use English in your home? University of Auckland students who use English as an additional language (EAL) would love to talk to you.
https://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/services/student-learning/ele/language-learning-groups

International Organisations

Language Linkers
We empower refugees with 1:1, digital language courses volunteered by professional language teachers. [NFP]
https://www.facebook.com/languagelinkers/

Stepping Stones China
With a mission to improve the education and general welfare of disadvantaged children in China, Stepping Stones has hosted numerous programs focused on children’s education and well-being since 2006. [NFP]
https://steppingstoneschina.net/volunteer/volunteer-individuals/

Good luck and happy volunteering!

10 FREE online TESOL lesson plan template ideas Australia

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New to teaching? Lesson planning can be a bit overwhelming to begin with. To make life easier, I have compiled a list of 10+ free lesson plan templates for you to use in the design of your online English lessons, with Australasian-specific planning resources.

lesson plans

Why lesson plan templates with an Australian focus?

One of the biggest challenges for new teachers is planning lessons. Some even wonder why you should even create a lesson plan for conversational and informal classes. A lesson plan doesn’t have to be complicated or have each minute of the class written down. 

What it does is provide you with a framework to follow and a goal for the time that you have with the student/s. It also helps tie your classes into bigger goals that will be achieved over a longer period of time, not just what can be accomplished in a single lesson. 

Do you want to introduce yourself and your classes with some Australian-themed content? Perhaps you just want things using UK English spelling and grammar? We’ve got you covered and you should find more than enough resources to get you going and planning great lessons – so “get crackin’ mate”.

Blank online English teacher (TESOL) lesson plan templates for free.

  1. Teacher Planet offers a free “Basic ESL Lesson Plan Template” in a easily customised Google Doc here. “
  2. Teachers Pay Teachers have hundreds of thousands of teacher-created materials, including free “ESL Lesson Plan Templates” here. Don’t be afraid to pay for some materials as well, it helps support other teachers.
  3. FluentU have an interesting blog post about “How to Make the Best ESL Lesson Plans with a presentation, practice and production (PPP) Template”, with downloadable .pdf.
  4. Canva offer some really attractive lesson plan templates, for the visual and aesthetically-minded.
  5. Venngage have some amazing lesson plans (with examples and tips for teaching).

Australian-specific lesson planning resources:

There are some great Australian resources as well. Not just lesson plan templates, all of these sites also have great resources for English teachers.

  1. TESOL Australia provide some lesson plans.
  2. Aussie Educator have great general resources, including video and associations.
  3. Australasian Training Academy have free lesson plans including subjects such as “Food” and “Phrasal verbs”.
  4. Australian Curriculum Lessons offer lesson plans such as “Around Australia”.
  5. ATESOL ACT offer a list of Australian only resources such as books and videos.

Videos on lesson planning basics:

Designing your own lesson plan "top tips":

  1. Imagine the end point and break down the time between now and then. How will your students achieve their goals?
  2. You don’t need to make your lesson plan a novel. A basic structure is all that is needed.
  3. Four or five dot points can form a solid basis for a lesson plan. Consider the language goal/s and the methodology.
  4. Draw, journal or use many different colours to create a ‘mind map’ for inspiration, then search the idea and borrow heavily from other prepared lessons (by others).
  5. Brainstorm topics based on free or low cost lesson plans from experienced teachers. Once you know the basics, from learning from others, you’ll be ready to design your own.

Why not ask our teaching Facebook community for lesson plan templates and ideas?

Finally, don’t worry if your lesson plans are simple in the beginning. The more you teach, the better you’ll get at planning and thinking about how to structure your classes. Use the above resources to give you a boost, then experiment and adjust those plans until you’re happy. If something in your class works well and your students respond positively, then you know you’re “on to a winner’.

Good luck and happy teaching!

3 easy ways to pronounce difficult ESL names

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While many ESL students use an “English/Western” name, you may find yourself with a group of learners with names that are not familiar to you and difficult to say. Here are three easy ways for online English teachers to pronounce pronounce difficult ESL names so that you’ll be saying “秀英”, “براهيم‎” and “สมชาย” correctly in no time.  

Photo by Agung Pandit Wiguna from Pexels.

How to pronounce difficult ESL student names

In Australia, I have a really common name (Kate). In fact, it is so common that I remember at one time having knowing five girls at my school with variations of the same name and growing up, no-one ever mispronounced it… until I began teaching English in Latin America. I quickly realised that there was no equivalent sound in Spanish, so anyone reading my name or meeting me for the first time would usually say Katé (car-tay). I would then politely correct them, they would say it accurately and we would move on quickly. Yet enough people either couldn’t (or couldn’t be bothered to) say it right, that after a while I relented and began responding to my ‘new’ name. Even so, it was always a little annoying. In the early stages, I too struggled with pronouncing some of my student’s names but I always made an effort to keep trying until I got it right. This habit followed me into my online teaching career and it’s one of most valuable lessons I’ve learned from living abroad. 

1. Encourage students to introduce themselves and each other.

The aim is to try to hear the student’s name pronounced multiple times, so that you can then pronounce it correctly. 

You can do this in a few ways:

  • The most obvious way is to simply ask the student to introduce themselves. Ask them to repeat their name and clarify that you are saying it correctly. Don’t be afraid to do this a few times but if you are still having problems, move on and don’t get too focused on names you cannot pronounce and make the student feel awkward.
  • Write down a phonetic version of the student’s name as it sounds to you. I always make a list of the students and then write down how their name sounds to me, e.g. hye jung (I wrote: HEY-JONG). It’s often not perfect but helps move you closer.
  • Ask students to write their name in the chat section (if possible) for future reference or to use online tools (below).
  • “Name + favourite thing” game. Say your name, followed by your favourite colour/food/animal etc. Ask all the students, one by one, to say their own name and their favourite thing (or age, for basic learners). Then, begin to ask students information about the others. Repeat a few times during the introduction stage and adapt to the topic of the class. You can do this again during the first class (or every class as needed) by changing the thing and asking the students again, e.g:

    “Kate, who likes x?”
    “X, who likes Y?”
    “Y, who likes F?”
    and so on….

    The idea is to hear names said by multiple people, multiple times. Some students have strong accents and hearing their name said by another person might help you. Of course, other students might also get the name wrong but more often than not names are common in a particular country and students are familiar with the pronounciation (well, more than you are anyway!).

  • Screen record the screen during introductions (Mac, Windows). You can then go back and review the names after the class.

2. Ask someone to help you.

If you have any kind of regular contact with your company, make a list of names that you might be having difficulty with and ask a staff member to help you pronounce them. My experience has been that people are usually really happy to share their language and culture and it shows that you’re putting in a little extra effort. If you know anyone from that country (or speaks that language fluently), you could reach out to them as well.

3. Use technology.

If you’re still having problems pronouncing student names, you can use tools to help, such as nameshouts.com. a site that have over 360,000 names in Mandarin, Spanish, French, Hindi, Greek, Arabic, Japanese, Russian and more. You can search for up to 50 names a month, spoken by native speakers, for free.

Another free site is pronouncenames.com. While not as comprehensive as Name Shouts, it’s a great option if you’ve already used up your 50 names and are unable or unwilling to pay for a subscription. If all else fails, you can try Google Translate but as anyone who has used that service before, results vary.

Conclusion

Of course, there are many factors that make it a little more difficult to learn and remember student names online (only seeing students for a limited period, age etc.) but when possible, it is worth the time and effort. Not only does it show respect and care but it also helps keep them engaged with the lesson. A 2017 study on the importance of students perceiving that an instructor knows their name can be best summarised by the following quote: “I know there are close to 200 kids in this class and I’m not in any way a top student or someone special, but I sure felt like I was when the instructor knew my name.”

Although it takes a little extra time and can be uncomfortable, unless you’ve been repeatedly called by name that isn’t your own, you may not understand how much it can mean for someone to make the effort to say your name correctly. Ask your students what they want to be called, try a combination of the above tips and ultimately, just give it your best try. Even if you don’t get it exactly right, your students will respond to the effort.

International payments for online English teachers in Australasia

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If you are getting paid by foreign online English teaching companies or students overseas, the process can leave you receiving much less than you anticipated. We’ll compare traditional banks and online money transfer services to save some serious $$$!

Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels.

Disclaimer: We are teachers, not financial experts, so please take all of our information as suggestions not financial advice! If you are unsure, please speak with a professional. We receive a small commission for sending you (at no cost to you) but we offer all of your available options in an unbiased fashion. We are based in Australia so our information is “Aussie-centric” but if you have any New Zealand related info, please comment below or email us and we’ll update our post.

Receiving money from overseas

If you receive your salary from a foreign/overseas company or students to your Australian/New Zealand bank account, it is known my many terms, including:

  • BANK-TO-BANK transfer; SWIFT transfer; Wire transfer; Telegraphic transfer; IBAN money transfer; Inward transfer;
  • Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT);
  • International money transfer;

These are all electronic transactions but differ slightly in how the money goes from A to B.

BANK-TO-BANK TRANSFER

Also known as an “Inward transfer, SWIFT transfer, Wire transfer, Telegraphic transfer, or IBAN money transfer”, this is the most common way to receive money from overseas. Most of the major online English teaching companies use this method. The sender has to ‘initiate’ the transfer of funds from their bank account to yours. This then occurs via a third party system such as the SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) International payment network, for a fee (of course).

You’ll need to provide information including your name, bank account and BSB number, residential address, your bank’s name and a SWIFT or a Bank Identifier Code (BIC) to receive money. If you don’t know these, a quick search for “Bank X SWIFT and/or BIC” will usually bring them up but you can request these from your bank if in doubt.

As well as the most common method, it is also usually the most expensive. Banks generally charge a ‘receiver’ fee to accept the money into your account.

How much are "bank-to-bank" transfer receiving fees?

Receiving fees (per transaction) for the major Australian/NZ banks (2021):

WordPress Responsive Table

Why not just use those banks that charge $0?

If only it was that simple!

As you can see from the table above, two of the “fee-free” banks (Beyond and Heritage Banks) use Western Union Business Services. If you are working for an overseas company, they must be happy to use this for payment and most don’t (or won’t). You can always ask or check your contract to see your options. Suncorp only offers transfers in limited currencies, so check if your company’s bank is available and if so, you might save yourself money here. Citibank charge 2.50% on the Australian dollar conversion of the relevant transaction which might be cheaper but it will depend on the total amount of the payment as to whether this is true. As per usual, what you save in one area, you might pay for another, so read the T&C’s carefully.

Other fees

As well as receiving fees, some banks also ‘skim’ a little more of your money off in the form of a foreign exchange fee. Read the T&C’s of your bank (in the above links) to see if there are any other hidden fees that you are being charged as well.

Transfers may also pass through another intermediary ‘middle-man’ bank between the sender and you and they may also take a fee as well. It’s really hard to find out IF this is going to happen and all the literature on the bank’s websites isn’t totally clear on this either. If you see another charge on your account from a bank that it not yours, it is likely to have come from this third party.

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels.

Exchange rates

It’s also important to consider the exchange rate that your bank uses to convert your money from another currency to AUD/NZD. The exchange rate that appears when you search for “CNY to AUD” in a search engine, for example, is called the mid-market rate. This is the average of all the rates. This is not the one the bank uses though. They use their own rate. Consider this when calculating your salary. Unfortunately, banks are far from transparent about this and we could not compile a list of exchange rates (as they change daily) but if you receive a little less than you were expecting, this is likely the cause.

Real-life example

I was paid 135CNY for a class. This converted to $27.48 (AUD) by the mid-market rate but my bank (NAB) paid me $26.94 (AUD) using their “own” rate. They then charged me $4.94 (AUD) in foreign currency transfer fees, leaving me with $22.00 (AUD). I paid $5.48 (AUD) in fees – or 22%!!!

As you can see, bank-to-bank transfers are NOT the best deal around.

Finally, think about sending fees as well.

Some companies will also charge you a monthly fee to cover their costs to send your money, so check your contract.

If you are getting payments directly from students and they insist on bank-to-bank transfer, it is worth looking into the sending fees for your bank as well as the receiving ones, as this adds to what the students pays for your services.

ELECTRONIC FUNDS (EFT) TRANSFER

If you and the sender of your money use the same bank, the transfer with be considered an Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), just like a domestic transaction within the country. It’s worth asking the company that you work for what bank they use and opening an account with the same bank to save yourself money. This is going to be the exception (likely with international banks like HSBC or Citibank) rather than the rule but it never hurts to ask. If you are teaching privately, ask your students the same question.

INTERNATIONAL MONEY TRANSFER

There has been a big surge in the use of online money transfer services such as PayPal, Payoneer and Transferwise and they are a great way to avoid some of the fees that we encountered from the traditional banks above. If you are working for a company, you’ll need to ask if they send payments via these methods but at this stage, only about 10-15% of companies do.

Wise

Many teachers rave about Wise and for good reason – they will convert your money at the mid-market rate instead of the marked up rate that the bank offers and their fees are very reasonable (A flat fee of 0.58 AUD (approx) + 0.42% of the total amount per transaction). Unfortunately though, at this stage, there are some limitations.

How does it work?

Firstly, you’ll need to open an account. You’ll get an Australian or New Zealand Account (with a BSB for Australians) that functions just like a bank account. You can open a multi-currency account to receive payments from (as the name states) multiple currencies, currently – EUR, GBP, AUD, NZD, RON, HUF & SGD. If you are receiving payments in any of these currencies, you get them straight into your Wise account and then transfer them into your ‘traditional’ bank account if you want. This way you can avoid the receiving fees that we covered above. A physical Mastercard can be purchased for an additional $10 (AUD) and you can withdraw $250 AUD for free each month.

This is from Wise customer support:

“We’re unable to support CNY payments into the multi-currency account due to regulations. Additionally, we’re unable to accept SWIFT payments into the AUD balance for this reason; however… we can support receiving USD via SWIFT.

We don’t charge a fee for you to receive USD into your account via SWIFT but there’s a possibility you may receive less due to SWIFT fees charged by intermediary banks.  You can read more about SWIFT payments here.

To send the money from your USD balance to your Australian bank account, we charge a fixed fee of 0.44 USD (approx. 0.58 AUD) plus 0.42% of the amount converted.

You can use our pricing calculator here to confirm fees for the multi-currency account.”

So, if you work for a major Chinese company or your students are located in other countries/currencies, you can ask them to pay you in one of the eligible currencies. If not, Wise might not work for you at this time.

Up bank and TransferWise

If you also send money overseas on a regular basis, you may also want to consider opening an Up bank account. Up is a “neo-bank” (or a digital bank) backed by Bendigo and Adelaide Bank. While you can’t use Wise to receive money (yet), it is integrated into your account for sending payments. Save yourself the sending fee from the major banks. They offer the (joint) lowest receiving fee at $10 (AUD) and you even get $5 (AUD) just for signing up. Read more here.

Payoneer

Payoneer works similarly to Wise, accepting EUR, GBP, JPY, AUD, CAD, MXN for free. You pay between 0-1% to accept USD but the exact fee is different in each country. They also convert at the mid-market rate. Their fees to withdraw money are a little confusing (see below) but it appears that on top of that mid market rate, you’ll pay up to an additional 2%. Again, like TransferWise, they offer a physical MasterCard but you’ll be converting currency with MasterCards rates plus a conversion fee of up to 3.5%. We recommend emailing their customer service and asking about your specific situation.

Many of the major English teaching companies are now offering this as alternative to a bank-to-bank transfer so it’s worth investigating. It’s a great option if you also work for freelance platforms such as Upwork or Fiverr, which pay via Payoneer. They are also offering $25 to sign-up, so go check them out.

Paypal

The most well-known online international money transfer service, this is the service most commonly used by online English teaching companies other than bank-to-bank. We counted 24 currently supported currencies. You’ll save yourself the receiving fee but you’ll also pay PayPal’s own fees. In our research, we found PayPal’s fees the most confusing of all (see below).

If your company offers you the choice between receiving payment via PayPal or bank account, we recommend “guesstimating” a likely monthly salary, calculating the bank fees then emailing PayPal’s customer service with your particular scenario (currency, amount etc.) and asking them to calculate the fees you’ll likely pay. It might be cheaper, it might not.

I have paid approximately ~5.5% fees on payments via PayPal and WooCommerce on WordPress, after all fees are considered (but this is just a guide and you might pay more or less).

Stripe

Another option if you have your own website is Stripe. You’ll need to set up your classes as a product using a WordPress Plug-in such as WooCommerce. You can then accept payment using a variety of methods (Credit Card, Apple Pay etc.) via Stripe. If you want to accept payment from Chinese students, you can use AliPay.

I’ve found that Stripe fees are about half (~2.7%) of PayPal.

CONCLUSION

Traditional ‘bank-to-bank’ transfers are still the most common way to receive payment. While the receiver fee from your bank is generally the highest of all your options, it is also the most simple to calculate and you don’t have to convert the currency yourself. For this convenience, you will be also be losing a portion of your money during the currency conversion and possibly via any ‘middle-men’ banks that your funds pass through.

Depending on your currency and the willingness of your payer to use a service like Western Union, some banks will not charge the receiver fee but check T&C’s carefully as there are often hidden charges. If you can use the same bank as your payer, there are real savings here. For freelance teachers, also consider Sender fees encountered by your students.

International Funds Transfer companies like TransferWise, Payoneer and PayPal are all excellent alternatives if your company offers them and will GENERALLY be much less than via a traditional bank. BUT… Again, please take a look at the T&C’s and email them if you are unsure or contact a financial professional. Intermediary banks may still charge a fee during the transfer.

If you have your own website, Stripe is an affordable option.

Ask your teaching company or students for their preferences and check your contract. Email the customer service of your chosen International Transfer Fund company and ask to get an idea of the particular fees and charges for your situation. When you start teaching English Online, spend an hour or so looking at your options and you can save yourself a nice chunk of change every pay day.

Any other payment options we have missed or any tips and trick on how to save on fees? Comment below.

Good luck and happy teaching!