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Teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL)

Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) offers opportunities to teach and live around the world while experiencing different countries and cultures. This page provides an overview of TEFL careers, including job roles, required skills, entry routes, job search advice, and useful resources.

A vibrant city street at night lined with brightly lit shops, digital billboards, and illuminated buildings. People walk across a pedestrian crossing and along wet pavements reflecting colourful neon lights, creating a busy urban atmosphere. Elevated walkways and Japanese signs suggest a modern commercial district in Japan.

Teaching English abroad is a popular option, allowing you to experience a new country while working in a community and earning a decent salary. English as a second language accounts for roughly 375 million English language learners, according to the British Council. The types and ages of students you work with will shape your experience in the job. Clients can range from children to business professionals and other adults; when you are thinking about where you would like to teach, think also about the types of students you would enjoy teaching.

If you work abroad in a state school, you are likely to work during term-time only. You may not get such generous holidays teaching adults in a private language school. Many jobs require you to work outside normal working hours, particularly if you have business clients. You will also need to find time to prepare your classes.

There are also English-language teaching (ELT) opportunities in the UK: in private language schools, colleges and universities; this is usually referred to as TESL or teaching English as a second language. Work is often seasonal; in the UK jobs tend to be advertised for the summer vacation months, though a limited amount of year-round work is available. 

TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages)  is a hybrid term, referring to a qualification for, or experience in, teaching English both abroad and within English-speaking countries.

Further information

Using AI in applications

While employers look for tech-literate graduates, they also expect you to use AI ethically and appropriately. AI is used widely in a wide variety of organisations to speed up processes and improve efficiency according to professionals we’ve heard from at Careers events. Before you are tempted to do the same during an application process, we advise that you: 

AI and TEFL  

Websites such as TEFL.org and TEFL UK have produced content and podcasts all about the use of AI in TEFL teaching. In 2023, the British Council wrote an in-depth report on AI in English Language Teaching and, although given the rate of change in this area some of it will now be out of date, there is a lot of relevant insights there. 

Some predict that AI will revolutionise the TEFL classroom, making lesson-planning easier and more efficient, and finding news ways to spot students' strengths and weaknesses. As always with AI, the challenge is in maintaining the human interaction, cultural understanding and accuracy. We recommend using the resources in the External Resources section of this briefing to research what TEFL organisations predict will be the impact of AI on TEFL teaching. 

CareerConnect Vacancies

CareerConnect Events

Read the Oxford Guide to Careers

To explore an overview of the sector, including entry points, possible roles, and insights from Oxford alumni, download the Oxford Guide to Careers.

Read the Guide