Top tips to teach English in France
When I came out to France, I eventually wanted to take the opportunity to try something else professionally. At that time the TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) employment opportunities were at an all time high, and this gave me the opportunity to branch into something new.
In this post I will share with you 5 tips on what you need to teach as an TESL teacher in France, and how to get TESL employment that pays.
1. Higher education institutes are your best friend
While there are some language training companies in France, the largest employer is by far Higher education institutes. Public or private, English is included as a mandatory subject in the majority of degree programmes, and this means due to the sheer number of classes to be taught, English teachers are in high demand – especially native speakers.
Higher education institutions don’t expect you to be a traditional high school English teacher, but you will need to have a higher degree of some sort (Bachelors at the very least) to be approved by the Rectorat to teach.
If you live in Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux or any other major French city, there are plenty of institutions – and therefore employment opportunities.
2. An TESL certificate is not mandatory, but can help
Now this really depends on what your target audience is, but if it involves teaching to university level students they often won’t be receptive to traditional TESL teaching methods.
Many institutions look for professionals in specific subjects that can teach in English, especially in Marketing and Communication, but not only. If you are an experienced professional in a specialist industry, do some research and find schools that need your expertise.
Of course having an TESL certificate on top of your specific expertise will just make you even more employable and help you feel more confident.
3. Act like a trusted service provider and not an academic
You may be teaching at an educational institution, but you are not a revered academic (yet). Institutions need reliable, friendly and professional service providers. They don’t need primadonnas that don’t want to grade papers over Christmas break, or want to change class schedules at the last minute or are disagreeable to deal with. If you can be a reliable, friendly and professional service provider, you will have a busy schedule and a good yearly income with repeat classes year on year – trust me on this.
4. You must unlearn what you have learned
I may be abusing the wisdom of Master Yoda here, but honestly if you try to apply a classic TESL methodology when teaching French University level students, you will find it difficult.
Due to their advanced but imperfect exposure to the English language over the years, students sometimes have quite advanced vocabulary, or can understand English well but may have trouble speaking and writing it. Some students are just terrified of speaking it for fear of being judged on their accents. This means that you will have to adapt your approach to a wide range of individual needs and learn to “read the room”.
You do need to understand how the English language works so you can answer questions that come up and to help students prepare for standardised tests such as TOEIC and TOEFL, but trying to teach French higher education students entire lessons on how to use “used to” in a sentence is not going to go well.
French students need teacher supported discussion – but with structure.
5. Specialise and build a great career
After some time, you will start to realise that there are areas that you can specialise and become known for. This may be a Communication class syllabus in English that you have perfected and can tout to other institutions, or you may become a Marketing expert that teaches Marketing on an all-English degree program. This has happened to many colleagues that I have known over the years. Other colleagues have gone on to head Language departments and even whole campuses! I spent some time myself as a full faculty member and academic counsellor. So, be a trusted provider, get good at what you do and find a niche – the opportunities are there.
