How to Tell if an ESL Tutor is Legitimate
Learning English is a big undertaking and your ESL (English as a Second Language) tutor is teaching you something incredibly valuable. That’s why it’s so important to know that your ESL teacher is legitimate! They are responsible for teaching you vocabulary, grammar, and more that you may eventually use for your academics, career, or personal life.
There are a lot of ESL websites and tutors out there; how do you make sure you get a good one? It’s important to do your research! Following any of the strategies in this article will help you know what to look for as you’re searching for an ESL tutor that is legitimate.
What makes an ESL tutor legitimate? Click on each corresponding link to find out:
EZ-Teach offers legitimate ESL tutors. Click here to see our tutors and watch their introductory videos!
Is Your ESL Tutor Legit?
1. Credentials and Experience
Keep reading for more tips on finding a legitimate ESL tutor!
It’s important that an ESL tutor has credentials to teach ESL. This could mean an appropriate degree or certification in education or English. It may look like:
BEd (Bachelor of Education)
BA (Bachelor of Arts) in English
A professional website will have these listed, or spoken in an introductory video like those found on our website. However, an ESL tutor doesn’t have to have academic certifications to be good at what they do.
Training and experience in teaching ESL and having a good understanding of English can also make your ESL tutor legitimate, but to take some extra precautions, you may want to ask your tutor where their experience came from and how long they have been teaching ESL.
2. Transparent Pricing
Transparent pricing is another way to tell if your ESL tutor is legitimate. The cost of a session followed by the amount of time should be clearly listed or easy to find by contacting the tutor. You will want to ensure that there are no hidden fees that will come up unexpectedly after the session is complete. A legitimate tutor will also be transparent about their terms of conditions, including their cancellation policy. It’s never a good sign of professionalism if your potential ESL tutor is hiding these things from customers.
Check out our prices here at EZ-Teach for weekly sessions:
1-Hour Private Lessons = $89 +HST/mo.
30-Min. Private Lessons = $55 +HST/mo.
1-Hour Group Lessons = $40 +HST/mo.
3. Open Communication
A legitimate ESL tutor will be constructive and positive with their feedback
It’s hard to feel confident that an ESL tutor is legitimate without seeing the tutor in a picture or video. Although a video alone doesn’t confirm legitimacy, it can make you feel more secure in choosing them as a tutor. Many professionals, like EZ-Teach, will include introductory videos to show that they are actual, personable educators. While this may not be listed on the website, a professional tutor will also give progress reports, constructive feedback and respond in an appropriate amount of time. They will be able to communicate your successes and pinpoint areas that may need more work. If you have an ESL tutor, you should inquire about these types of things.
4. Reviews and Testimonials
There is no more reliable type of marketing than word of mouth marketing. When we want to know the pros and cons of a product or a review we can trust, how do we get it? We ask friends or we look online for reviews! The more positive reviews and testimonials we see of an ESL tutor, the more they can be trusted, especially if those reviews are on another website. Therefore, search for satisfied students who give positive feedback on a tutor and testimonials discussing effective teaching strategies.
5. Adaptibility
Legitimate ESL tutors should tailor their lessons to meet your needs!
If you have specific learning needs, a tutor should be able to listen to those needs and tailor their lessons accordingly. If your ESL tutor is legitimate and has education or experience in teaching, they should be able to adapt any pre-made lesson to suit your learning style. If your tutor is not able to bend their teaching style, lessons, or the work they provide, this may be a red flag. They may not have the experience they claimed or they may be difficult to work with. This would make for unenjoyable ESL sessions! After all, you want your ESL journey to be satisfying and enjoyable.
6. Other Considerations
Keep reading for some other important factors in your ESL tutor research!
A) Schedule Flexibility
Besides credentials and cost, there are many other things to consider and compare between tutors. The first is schedule flexibility. Even if a tutor is offering an amazing price, they may only be available during your working hours, or they may be in another part of the world with a different time zone.
B) Additional Benefits
You may also want to look for some additional benefits. Ask yourself the following questions:
Can they provide a lesson plan?
Does the tutor include at-home work to get more practice?
Can you get a free session after a certain number of sessions?
C) Customer Service
Another important consideration is customer service. Take note if they advertise to have excellent customer service and if you contact them if they are eager to have you as their student. When a tutor makes customer service important they must give their best to keep their service of good quality.
D) Professional Website
If the tutor has their own website, make a note of its professionalism. Can you easily contact the tutor? Is there professional photos on the website? There also shouldn’t be any grammatical errors on an ESL tutor’s website.
Trust EZ-Teach for your online ESL tutor!
Looking for an ESL tutor? Trust EZ-Teach!
Learning English with an ESL tutor should be both enjoyable and productive. The point is to improve your language skills, but the best learning environments are those that are enjoyable. Of course, if you have an ESL tutor for a while and it is not suiting your needs, you feel like you aren’t learning as much as you should, or if they just aren’t good fit for you, find another! There’s an ESL tutor out there for everyone, you may just have to find them. Keep in mind that these strategies are not guarantees of an ESL tutor that is perfect for you, but altogether these strategies should find you an ESL tutor that is legitimate.
Let us find the right tutor for you. We have ESL tutors waiting to tutor you. Watch our videos and see how personable they are!
