Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Five Top Websites for ESL Students

Career Center - by Carie Bishop

Teaching English abroad is not only a great way to see the world, it’s a great opportunity to discover who you are. When you work in a foreign country, you learn how others see you and your country. You’ll also have a fantastic opportunity to learn new languages, study new cultures, see historical landmarks, and make new lifelong friends.

However, it’s not always easy to melt into your new home while still developing lessons, navigating cultural differences or language barriers, and dealing with local bureaucracies. If you’re exploring ESL career training, looking for a job overseas, or rounding up lesson plans, there are many websites that can make your life easier. Here are five gems:

Tesall
This huge site is an amalgam of riches. There’s a powerful job-search vertical showing thousands of listings, a news ticker for industry headlines, downloadable lesson plans, a forum, blogs, and a recruiting directory.

ESL Café
Communicate with working ESL professionals and students around the globe via this impressive forum. You’ll find general discussions on teaching around the globe, along with detailed forums on individual countries, the schools, the governments, housing, and details on country-specific issues in teaching and living. Visit forums in Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, Oceania, Latin America, and the Middle East.

TESOL.org
The home site of an association that represents 14,000 English language teachers around the globe in 140 countries. Includes a quarterly magazine, resource center, bookstore, personal stories from educators, and the latest news in the field.

ESL Job Find
Search job listings in Asia, Europe, and South America. The site offers articles from working teachers. Posts data on countries including languages, climate, typical teaching salaries, and major cities where ESL specialists find the most jobs. Specialty: allows you to search for consulates or embassies for your target country to help with visas and other entry requirements.

English Job Maze
Post your resume, search for jobs by position, country, or qualifications. Post your own advertisement for hire and more.