How to teach English on line?

A common question I am asked when I tell someone that I work as an on line English language teacher with non native speakers is....
"do you speak Russian/Chinese/Ukrainian/and so forth?"
The answer is a resounding NO (I do now know some Russian but certainly couldn't claim to be able to speak it).But I don't need to know my students languages.I need to teach English and so this is the language we communicate in during lessons.Sometimes we find we share similar words with similar meanings and pronunciation and these words  may have their origin in my students language(for example,balaclava,cosmonaut,vodka,pavlova -all Russian words commonly used in the English language)

Another question I get asked is..

 "how do people become ESL on line teachers?" ....                         

There is no clear cut answer to this.It depends on how much you want to earn,what your own level of education is,how easy it is for you to link up with agents based in other countries or finding a company on line in some sort of speculative way.A number of on line companies are actually pretty rubbish(I tried a few and it was very disheartening to begin with)but at the same time ,working with these companies meant I gained experience in on line teaching but just as importantly ,I made some good connections with agents at a time when it would have been very difficult for me to find private students.

Generally/broadly speaking if you have a decent degree level education and a post graduate qualification in teaching and at the very least a CELTA you can earn an ok living from on line teaching.Some people manage it without a degree/PG cert .The CELTA course (if done in one go)lasts about 4-5 weeks and is extremely demanding(that's how I found it anyway)plus it costs over £1,000 to complete and is full time so a potential teacher cannot work while doing the course.There are simply not enough hours in the day.And this is only the beginning of your teaching English career.The knowledge you need to teach the language well on top of knowing how to make lessons individualised takes time to develop.

Another question is "how much does it pay?"..

My answer would be "how long is a piece of string?"

As with most things in life ,its variable.It can be fairly low paid when you first start out as an on line teacher or you could get lucky and find a decent agent who you can  negotiate with in terms of what is an acceptable minimum amount of money for you to charge per lesson.Then we have different types of lessons.For example I teach simple conversation English,Business English,Exam English and General English.These lessons all attract different fee's.And different levels of preparation for me as the teacher.

the final question is usually along the lines of..

"but how do you actually teach...is it via Skype?"

Generally I teach most of my students via Skype.I have also used some specific teaching platforms with interactive whiteboards and chat facilities but I find that I can do most things I need or want to do on Skype plus its simple to use and accessible to almost everyone who has a computer and internet.Some teaching platforms require subscriptions which I want to avoid.Through Skype I can send links,documents,pictures and so on.I can type corrections and vocabulary.The student (if he/she has a camera) can experience real live face to face English language communication and support.Its an excellent medium for this type of work.

So if you are thinking about becoming an ESL teacher,particularly an on line one, then I wish you well.Be prepared to struggle at the start and to not earn much to begin with.Be wary of on line companies(I know one or two to avoid full stop but better not to name them here!),try to find out some information about them.There are some good one's but you have to root them out and this is time consuming plus there is always the possibility that you do lessons for which you receive no pay.So be careful.

On a more positive note,if you enjoy meeting new people,gaining insights into how other cultures live AND you enjoy teaching but want to work from home or anywhere else in the world then this is one of the better jobs to aim for.

In my humble opinion...