Volunteer to teach at local literacy programs. Doing so familiarizes you with the public contact and prepares you for teaching reading, listening and writing skills. Enthusiasm and confidence are equally as important as pedagogical skill— they make learning more exciting for your pupils and illustrate your dedication to your work.

Familiarize yourself with the abbreviations and acronyms and other industry jargon. A select few are explained below, but you will encounter many more, which you will remember easily enough. Increasing your vocabulary to include the lexicon of international teaching will both benefit you and impress your prospective employer(s).

[Sometimes a few of these terms are interchangeable. An international language teacher might refer to himself/herself as either an ELT or a TEFL teacher or an ESL teacher.]

This list is not exhaustive, but it will get you on your way to being familiar with the lingo:

CELTA: Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Okay, so it’s not a perfect acronym, but neither is Unicef (United Nations Children’s Fund).

Direct Approach: Describes the “total immersion” method of teaching. Students are directly introduced to the language and prohibited from using their lingua franca.

ELT: English Language Teaching

Expatriate: This term formerly referred to those who emigrated from their native countries for political reasons, but “expatriate” is now increasingly used as a colloquial term applied to international travelers and ESL teachers.

Global Citizen: An individual captivated by international travel; he or she is charismatic, well-acculturated and highly adaptable to new, exciting environments.

Lingua Franca: The nation’s vernacular, native language, mother tongue, or common dialect.

Oral vs. Aural: Though they are homophones (words that sound the same but mean different things) the former refers to spoken communication while the latter refers to listening comprehension.