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Teach English to Adults Online

Teaching English online to adults is a gigantic market, filled to the brim with job opportunities for all kinds of English teachers. How do you get started? Here’s our advice!

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It’s genuinely hard to fully grasp the importance of language learning and English teaching around the world. Nothing quite empowers people like a shared language, and with the historic and current economic importance of English being so obvious, there’s no career quite like teaching. This is especially true when it comes to teaching adults, who have any number of learning goals and exciting outcomes in mind.

The online English teaching sphere is something quite remarkable. A multi-billion dollar industry with countless practitioners, it’s a home for any number of discerning adults who want to learn English. Everyone from students who want help writing essays, adults looking to conduct conversations in English, to business professionals looking to advance their careers in English-speaking countries, needs high-quality teaching.

When they’re looking for high-quality teaching, they’re not short of options. From a teacher’s point of view, then, the possibilities for online English teachers to find online teaching jobs are beyond vast. Whether you’re looking for an online language learning platform or dedicated online tutoring companies to work for, there are numerous avenues for employment.

Let’s take a look at some of the best companies where you can teach English online to adults, as well as some facts and figures about the industry as a whole.

Teach English to adults: an overview

With close to 1.5 billion English speakers in the world, it’s the most-spoken language in the world, comfortably seeing off Mandarin, Hindi and Spanish. What does that mean for TEFL teachers? Opportunity to teach English to adults and teach English online more generally, of course.

While we roughly know how many people speak it, you can never put an exact number on how many people are fluent in English, and of course, that is where TEFL teachers enter the equation. Teachers who have completed a high-quality TEFL course have seemingly endless options, armed with enough qualifications to teach English online to a rapturous and ever-expanding audience.

Online teaching positions can be wildly variable. For one thing, you’ve got to decide whether you want to work for an online teaching company as an employee or join the ranks of millions who work freelance on an English teaching platform. The key differences? On a platform, you can teach English online without a degree, or teach English online with no experience, should the platform not require much more than demonstrable fluency in English. Companies, meanwhile, often expect a degree and some experience in a classroom setting or online teaching environment.

From a financial point of view, when you teach English online, you'll find companies and platforms also differ in terms of salary. As we’ll explore, companies are more likely to pay a fixed wage, whereas most platforms will allow you to set your hours and rates. So, there’s more flexibility, but it comes without certain assurances.

In either case, it’s a hugely exciting - and rewarding - career, side hustle or hobby!

Download our teaching English online guide

Companies where you can teach English online to adults 

So, where can you teach English online to adults? There are loads of options out there, but we’ve narrowed it down to some of our favourites in the industry.

Each has its own job requirements, company history and salary, which we’ve noted down for your needs. Teaching English online is truly what you make it; there’s a world of possibilities!

Here are some of the best companies and platforms for teaching English online to adults, whether you want to teach university students, teach international students, want to teach groups in a virtual classroom setting, or just want to build conversational skills and schedule your own hours on the web!

Company Hourly rate Degree required Lessons provided Students Min. hours per week TEFL qualification required Accepts non-native speakers Previous teaching experience required? Additional requirements Application link
AmazingTalker £12.62 - £78.87
($16 - $100)
Noa cross icon Noa cross icon All ages None Noa cross icon Yesa tick icon 1 year Apply
Cafetalk £8 - £22
($10 - $28)
Noa cross icon Noa cross icon Adults None Noa cross icon Noa cross icon None None Apply
Cambly £7.65
($10.20)
Noa cross icon Noa cross icon All ages None Noa cross icon Noa cross icon None None Apply
English First From £9.50
(From $11.85)
Yesa tick icon Noa cross icon All ages None Yesa tick icon Yesa tick icon None Teachers must live and work in the UK or the USA
English Hunt £10.50
($14.50)
Yesa tick icon Yesa tick icon All ages 10 Yesa tick icon Noa cross icon 4 years Must be US citizen Apply
Engoo £2 - £7.20
($2.80 - $10)
Noa cross icon Yesa tick icon All ages None Preferred Yesa tick icon None Apply
FluentBe £7.20 - £8.70
($10 - $12)
Yesa tick icon Yesa tick icon All ages None Yesa tick icon Noa cross icon 1 Year Apply
Italki* Set your own hourly rate
Noa cross icon Noa cross icon All ages None Preferred Yesa tick icon None Apply
Latin Hire £5 - £9.50
($7 - $13)
Noa cross icon Yesa tick icon All ages 5 Yesa tick icon Yesa tick icon 1 year Elementary level Spanish or Portuguese required Apply
Learnlight £9 - £10.50
($12 - $14)
Noa cross icon Noa cross icon All ages 10 Yesa tick icon Yesa tick icon 2 years Apply

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Q. What qualifications do I need to teach English to adults?

    The qualifications you need to teach English to adults as an online teacher start with a high quality TEFL certificate. TEFL training will allow you to teach English across a range of different online teaching companies and platforms. Being a fully fluent English speaker, having experience teaching ESL and holding a degree also help massively, though the latter two aren't always required.

  • Q. Can you teach English to adults?

    Yes, you can teach English to adults. The market for teaching adults online is gigantic, from university students to business professionals to retirees!

  • Q. How do you teach an adult to speak English?

    Teaching English online is a great way to get adults to speak English. Through video conferencing and online English teaching companies, you can teach a variety of important English phrases and vocabulary.