Must Known Soft Skill That Every TEFL Teacher Should Possess For A Successful Online Teaching Career

21st November 2023

In this continuously evolving digital era, the online way of learning has gained more popularity than the traditional way of learning. This creates a huge opportunity for TEFL teachers who are looking to teach online and for experienced TEFL teachers as well. However, abundant online teaching opportunities have more challenges for TEFL teachers as well and you must improve your soft skills to stand out in this competitive industry.

According to vervoe.com, we can see that 92% of employers agree that soft skills matter equally with hard skills.
 

Source: vervoe.com
 

In this blog post, we have shared multiple key strategies to improve soft skills for TEFL teachers, which will increase the overall teaching skills and method as well.

Before moving to the topic, can we ask you a question? Do you follow us on Social Media? We regularly share upgraded educational content, tips, feedback, and more. Check us out by clicking the profiles here - Facebook / Twitter /  LinkedIn / Pinterest / Instagram / YouTube

So, without any further delay, let’s get started.

7 Effective Strategies to Improve Soft Skills For TEFL Teachers

1. Time Management Skills

Time management is one of the key skills for any online teacher, which can help teachers utilize time in an appropriate manner and helpfulness. Efficient time management makes you a well-organized person, allows you to meet deadlines, and makes your students experience a structured learning environment. Good time management skills can be developed by any personality type if one makes some effort.

To manage your time effectively, start by creating a list of tasks such as lesson planning and resource research, and then prioritize them based on their urgency. You should also learn to set boundaries and be able to say ‘no’ when needed. This skill can be developed by writing schedules in a calendar. Fortunately, there are several tools that can help in effective time management:
 

• Tutor Cruncher

It’s a platform that integrates all the requirements of modern-day tutoring including scheduling, assignment submission, invoicing, and communication seamlessly.
 

• Google Calendar

It’s an easy-to-use tool that helps organize tasks and sends alerts or reminders.
 

• Trello

It’s a project management software that will help to organize tasks into sequence.

2. Creating a Engaging Virtual Learning Environment

Creating an engaging learning environment online is essential if TEFL teacher wants to stand out in the online teaching industry. To make your online class more engaging you must employ various effective teaching methodologies that you might have utilized in the physical classroom. You can use a combination of video, audio, one-on-one doubt-clearing sessions and different slides related to the lesson can create an engaging learning environment that can keep the students hooked.

Additionally, you must know that as the attention span of students is getting shorter and shorter, teachers should use quizzes, interactive games, and hands-on activities to keep students engaged in the virtual classroom.

3. Effective Communication Skills in the Virtual Classroom

Teaching is incomplete if teachers not being able to communicate in such a way that students can understand. Communication skills is one of the crucial skill in both traditional and virtual classrooms. However, in the virtual class communication skills needs to be more sharp and effective. To become an effective TEFL teacher online you must enhance your active listening, your way of communication style with your students, and understand student body language cues during online classes.

You can take the help of articles available online, videos, and different online resources that can help you enhance your communication skills. By doing this, you can foster an engaging learning environment and you will be able to convey your lessons in an effective manner.

5. Adaptability and Curriculum Support

Traditional classroom education can effectively be supplemented using online teaching. As an online teacher, you just need to have a wide knowledge of the curriculum and the specific requirements of the students particularly when preparing them for examinations. Therefore, this involves going through the examiner’s reports and using past papers from relevant exam boards as a way of ensuring comprehensive curriculum support.

Adapting the curriculum to the online teaching environment may present challenges, but it also tests your teaching skills. You must make yourself more aware of various technology tools and digital lesson delivery methods in order to be able to adapt the curriculum for online teaching across different platforms. By being more adaptable you will be able to provide a seamless and effective learning experience to your students.

5. Increase Student Engagement Rate

Whether you’re teaching in the traditional classroom or in a virtual classroom you must possess the ability to engage students in the classroom. In the case of online learning, it is fundamental that teachers should find out what interests their students and relate what they are learning to practical situations of life. By encouraging active participation of students by giving various tasks, discussions, and physical activities among others will improve the engagement rate of students significantly.

As an online teacher, there are many resources that you can use to make sure that learning is interactive and engaging like by integrating online quizzes, games, and multimedia presentations into class lessons.

6. Continuous Learning and Subject Expertise

Irrespective of the profession continuous learning is the only way to achieve success in every profession, especially in the education industry. TEFL teachers should always strive to expand their knowledge and teaching methodologies. Online TEFL teachers must stay updated with the current teaching trends in digital media and changes in their subject areas to enhance the learning experience of students.

Additionally, pursuing different professional development courses, seminars, and workshops can help you gain knowledge continuously and keep you updated with all the teaching trends.

7. Conduct Time-To-Time Feedback Sessions

Lastly, to continuously improve your online teaching skills, taking feedback is one of the important aspects. If you take time-to-time feedback from your students, then it will enable you to gain valuable insights into every student’s learning needs and what challenges they are facing. It will also help you to develop effective strategies to conduct your online English teaching classes.

Upskilling With Soft-Skills is Essential For Online English Teachers

The online English teaching industry is becoming more and more competitive as the days pass by. If any TEFL teachers want to make a mark on this industry then they must need to focus on upskilling their soft skills. Those TEFL teachers who have pursued courses like the Online 120 Hours International TEFL Certification Course, know the importance of soft skills which are equally important as hard skills.

In the above-mentioned blogs, we have shared multiple strategies to learn soft skills with which every teacher can enhance their teaching skills which will help them to stand out in the online TEFL industry.

We believe education should be accessible for everyone. That’s why we don’t charge for our blogs. Find the right course that will help you in your career with us, contact us at - + 6621056101. You can mail us at act@asiancollegeofteachers.com.