Looking to teach English online? Wondering what are the best platforms for teaching English? If your answer is yes, then you have come to the right place. In this article, we are going to discuss the best online platforms for teaching English that will help you earn money while not stepping out of your home or even chatting online. Want to learn a second language? Are you teaching yourself a foreign language? If so, then you know that the internet has made it easy to access free, online courses in any subject you want. One of those online courses is learning English as a second language. This article will review some of the best online platforms for teaching english and suggest some of our favorite tools and websites for learning English as a second language.
Online platforms for teaching English are a great source of extra income for teachers who want to get into the world of teaching. This post is going to go over some popular, free sites available for English teachers.
VIPKID
VIPKID is easily the most popular online teaching company out there.VIPKID is set up so that teachers instruct private, 30-minute lessons. However, upon being hired, you’ll have to commit to a six-month contract.
VIPKID has additional requirements for teachers. You have to wear an orange shirt, have a colorful and well-decorated background, and a headset with a microphone. The other major criteria to consider is that VIPKID also only recruits teachers from Canada and the United States.
The biggest draw for many teachers is the earning potential. Teachers can earn between $15-$22 per hour, making it one of the highest paying online learning platforms.
PALFISH
Palfish connects young Chinese students with English teachers through a phone app. Teachers lead 25-minute one-on-one lessons. The teaching material is already created, so there is virtually no lesson planning required.
Perhaps the biggest “pro” to teaching for Palfish is that you can create your own schedule. There are peak hours to teach that correlate with your Chinese students’ time zone, but you don’t necessarily have to teach during those hours; these are just the best times to teach to guarantee booking students. This flexibility is ideal for travelers!
One of the downsides to Palfish is that you are essentially marketing yourself. You will initially teach trial lessons to prospective students. If they enjoy your class, they’ll buy a package and begin as a regular student. How much you earn on Palfish is directly related to the effort you put into your trial lessons and how well you promote yourself on the Palfish app platform. Salaries range from $14-$22 per hour.
The earning potential with Palfish is also determined by a points system that can be a little frustrating. You earn a set number of points for every lesson you complete. You also earn points for being on time. At the end of the month, the number of points you have determines the amount of money you will earn per regular class the next month.
QKIDS
Like other teaching platforms, <a href=”https://teacher.qkids.com/”>QKids</a> runs half-hour lessons with material that is already prepared for teachers. There are, however, a few key differences between other platforms and QKids. The first is that instead of simply teaching one child at a time, you might teach anywhere from one to four kids in one lesson. The second big difference is the pay. Salaries with QKids range from $16-$18 per hour, lessening your earning potential. The third, and possibly the most noticeable, difference is that teachers hired by QKids have to teach a minimum of 12 classes per week.
MAGIC EARS
The Magic Ears teaching app operates one-on-four lessons for students aged 4-12 years old. Its quick, 25-minute lessons are part of an interactive curriculum that doesn’t require teachers to lesson plan. While it’s only open to U.S. and Canadian applicants, the salary range is top-tier. Teachers for Magic Ears earn anywhere from $16-$26 per hour. This rate is set based on your teaching experience and qualifications.
But that’s still not the best part! Magic Ears has one of the most flexible cancellation policies with four free cancellations per month, meaning you don’t get penalized if you’re sick and have to call off a lesson last-minute. Free cancellations is practically unheard of in the online teaching world, so this is a true benefit.
Teaching on Magic Ears means committing to a six-month contract with the possibility of extension after review by the company (think of it like a probationary period). This relatively new company is always hiring and there is plenty of room for earning if you’re willing to apply yourself in your lessons.
Verbalplanet
Listing over 30 foreign languages, Verbalplanet is one of the biggest platforms for those who want to teach languages online.
As an online language tutor on Verbalplanet, you have full control of your hours and lesson rates. The platform itself is free to use and there’s no membership fee. You also get to keep 100% of what you earn.
Languages you can teach:
- English
- Spanish
- French
- Italian
- German
- Chinese
- Japanese
- Russian
- and more
Requirements:
- Accomplished tutor profile
- Identify the languages you wish to teach and your rate per lesson.
- Language teaching qualifications and experience are not particularly required but may help you get approved faster.
Justlearn
Unlike others in this list, Justlearn is a relatively new language learning platform. It is growing fast though, currently offering over 80 languages and catering to over 50,000 students.
Hours are flexible; you can work or less according to your preference. You earn $6 per lesson and each lesson is 25 minutes. Justlearn will match students with you.
This site is a great platform if you wish to teach languages online, especially if you are a native speaker of lesser-known languages like Telugu, Kurdish, or Kikuyu.
Languages you can teach:
Justlearn offers 80+ languages, some of which are lesser known but the popular ones are:
- English
- Spanish
- German
- French
- Arabic
Requirements:
- Accomplished profile and application form
- Native fluency in the language you want to teach
- An introduction video will help your chances of getting accepted
- Language teaching qualifications and experience are not specified but may help you get accepted faster.
MyLingoTrip
MyLingoTrip is an online language school that lets learners schedule private, one-on-one lessons via Skype. Lessons for two are also available.
The site currently offers 12 languages. Each lesson is scheduled to last 60 minutes.
Using MyLingoTrip as a tutor is completely free. Teachers invoice their students directly for their lesson fee using PayPal or an alternative invoicing service, which means you can receive payment electronically from your students regardless of currency.
Languages you can teach:
- English
- French
- German
- Italian
- Spanish
- Greek
- Swedish
- Dutch
- Russian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Chinese
Requirements:
- A love for teaching languages
- Must enjoy working with international students
- Must be a native speaker of the language you want to teach
- You feel comfortable speaking English if you want to teach a non-English language
- Basic computer skills
VivaLing
Created by a team of language and education enthusiasts, the VivaLing Academy is perfect for kid lovers who want to teach languages online. It offers language courses for kids 3 to 15 years old.
It also offers business language courses, exam preparation courses, and conversation courses for adults.
Your skills in child management, language teaching, and online teaching, as well as your character, will be reviewed during the recruitment process. Onboarding includes online language teaching training and teaching practice.
Languages you can teach:
- Mandarin
- English
- Spanish
- German
- French
Requirements:
- Native level of the language you want to teach
- A minimum of two years of experience working full time with children or adults
- A teaching certificate and/or an educational degree in the language you teach (minimum 120 hours)
- High-quality computer and stable internet connection
- At least 12 hours over 4 days of availability per week during after school hours in Europe and weekends
Verbling
You can learn a new language as per your schedule and the teacher you are comfortable with on Verbling.
Started in 2011, it grew to one of the most successful online language teaching websites. Busuu, a popular language-learning app, had acquired Verbling in 2020.
The teachers on this website set their bios and price by themselves. Some even offer the first class free or provide a discount. But not everyone does that.
As a teacher, you can teach anytime and from anywhere and make decent money in the process.
The educators show proof of teaching certificates. If you have experience and you wish to teach your mother tongue, you have an edge. This is to get approved as teachers for the platform.
They have their own video calling service. Plus, the trainers can upload any document they think will be convenient for teaching. Their services also comprise a flashcard service.
You can book a class with them at a decided time and can set a timer for the same time every day. In this way, you don’t need to schedule a class for the same time each day.
Let’s get a payment thing clear.
You won’t end up paying the same amount you get to see at the start. It’s because Verbling takes about 15% commission of each class. This means that if you set your hourly rate at $20, you will earn $17 (85%).
Talking about languages, they offer 70. It covers English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Arabic, Japanese, Russian, Chinese, and many more.
You can also learn one of the lesser-taught ones, such as Polish, Persian, Indonesian, Romanian, Portuguese, Greek, Swedish.
As a teacher, you can apply for any language as they are introducing new languages regularly.
Preply
A unique aspect of this website is that they offer tremendous courses for each language. Students can decide whatever they like to pursue.
This means that if you want to learn Spanish, you get to choose from several programs. For instance, conversational Spanish and Spanish for beginners, advanced, study abroad, travelers, kids.
Or if you want to go for a specific accent or Spanish dialect, like Mexican, Argentinian, Caribbean, or any other.
If your dream is to pass the official language exam, you can select that too. Like, IELTS for English, JLPT for Japanese, HSK for Chinese, CILS for Italian, etc.
Preply team manually verify and approve tutor profiles. The teachers also set their own rates and select the timing that suits them.
They also take a 100% commission fee from the tutor for the first trial lesson. It varies from 33 to 18% for all following sessions, as per the number of completed lesson hours with students.
In short, more tutoring with Preply means less commission you will pay.
They allow the most well-known languages, like English, Japanese, Chinese, German, Arabic, and French.
But the list does not end here. As it also has Hebrew, Dutch, Ukrainian, Urdu, Serbian, Czech, and Danish.
Conclusion:
There are several online platforms or tools available that allows you to teach English online without any prior experience. The main target of these online platforms is to connect students and teachers worldwide, regardless of the location, the age or educational background.