Explore 6 English Language Teaching Niches With TEFL Insiders

Are you a prospective English teacher feeling clueless about which types of learners you should teach? Or, maybe you’re an experienced teacher looking to expand your student audience? From teaching youngsters to teaching legal English, different specializations can help you carve out a new career path or stand out as an ESL teacher. Below, six English teachers share how they’ve pursued their own TEFL niches and the advantages of teaching these specializations.

Belinda Peyrelongue, from Malaysia, teaching legal English in France

After years of working as a lawyer in the U.K., Belinda shifted to teaching English upon relocating to France, specializing in teaching Business and legal English for French professionals and lawyers.

How did you build the essential skills needed to teach legal English?

With a Bachelor’s degree in Law from the UK and completion of the Bar Finals as a non-practicing barrister, my foundation in legal English was solid from the start. Coupled with 10 years of experience working in a law firm, I developed the necessary skills to teach legal English with ease.

Crafting exam questions and grading papers came naturally to me. Despite branching into teaching, I’ve stayed current with legal matters due to my passion for the subject.

What are the benefits of this niche?

Although I no longer practice law, teaching legal English allows me to remain connected to the legal community and help professionals and students enhance their English skills.

I assist them in

improving legal vocabulary
understanding jargon
preparing for effective communication with global legal practitioners

This includes participating in meetings, phone conversations, and drafting emails that are clear to native speakers. By integrating general English with legal and Business English, I thrive in this niche, finding great satisfaction and fulfillment.

Read Belinda’s story.

Eddy Salgado, from Nicaragua, specialist in customizing English courses

Starting his EFL teaching career in an online classroom, Eddy has always sought professional development opportunities. His commitment to lifelong learning also led him to land a teacher-trainer role at a university in Nicaragua.

How did you start building the essential knowledge and skills to design custom English courses?

I started building my skills through the Specialized Certification in Designing Custom Courses. In the course, apart from diving into valuable content, I also received valuable support from my tutor, who answered each question whenever I needed clarification and provided me with feedback at the end of the course. 

An essential aspect I wish to highlight is that in addition to gaining valuable knowledge from the course content, I was able to design my English course for teenage students, and my tutor motivated me to implement it. Ultimately, the course helped me create an effective course for my niche.   

How have you benefited from this niche?

The biggest benefit is that my students can use English in their everyday contexts, allowing me to design lessons tailored to their specific needs and vocabulary. I achieve this by identifying their target goals and analyzing their needs through surveys, interviews, and other methods.

Furthermore, designing your own course helps you gain a deeper understanding of what students truly need to learn and the most effective teaching methods for meeting those needs. By simulating real-life contexts where they will apply their knowledge, you make learning both relevant and meaningful – something students will genuinely appreciate in your lessons.

Read our interview with Eddy on customizing English courses.

Simone Webb, from the U.S., teaching medical English

Simone runs her own online English language school, Honed English. She provides General English classes to adults who speak English as a second language and Medical English classes for nurses and other healthcare workers.

How did you build the essential skills needed to teach medical English to nurses?

I built the essential skills needed to teach medical English to nurses by acquiring a Master’s Degree in TESOL, gaining over ten years of experience teaching adult English language learners, and understanding the pain points of nurses who speak English as a second language.

What are the benefits of this niche?

One of the benefits of teaching medical English to nurses is being able to instruct a specific group of professionals with similar struggles, goals, and working environments. Because of their similarities, they can relate to each other.

Nurses can immediately apply the English communication skills they acquire in their work environment, benefiting not only themselves but also their patients, patients’ families, and coworkers.

Read Simone’s story.

Ruth Nabaasa, from Uganda, teaching Business English

Teaching online from her home country, Ruth specializes in helping her adult Chilean learners with Business English.

How did you build the essential skills needed for teaching Business English?

After doing the IDELTOnline™, a friend and I thought it would be good to have a specialist field. After looking at all the specialized courses, we both felt that the Specialized Course in Teaching Business English would be a great one for us to prepare for this field. At that time, I truly felt that I would have increased contact with people in the corporate world who needed to learn English either because they had relocated to an English-speaking country for work or because they had frequent interaction with English speakers in and outside of their companies.

After completing the Specialized Course in Teaching Business English, I felt I had the confidence and the skills to teach learners in different fields in the corporate world. One of the things I still remember from the course was that the Business English teacher should have the wisdom to acknowledge that his or her learners might be more knowledgeable than them in certain areas in their fields. Nevertheless, the Business English teacher should still move with the confidence that they have all the required language skills to effectively teach their Business English students.

Learn more about the essentials of teaching Business English online and in person.

How have you benefited from this niche?

I love teaching adults, and teaching Business English has allowed me to meet and connect with adults of different ages and nationalities. Adult learners have a wealth of experience and learning, which they bring with them to the Business English class. This truly makes teaching them a unique and fulfilling experience.
Business English students are some of the most highly motivated learners! Every teacher understands how motivation is vital to keep their students learning and growing. It’s such an added benefit when you teach a class of highly motivated individuals. Everything that you use to enrich their learning experience and teach them effectively (technology, music, games, quizzes) goes a long way!
I get to experience a whole new world as I interact with each student and learn more about their work. My perspective has grown, and my world has grown broader as I have taught human resource managers, marketing executives, and data analysts. I was even pleasantly surprised when I got to teach students working with a big pharmaceutical company during the pandemic – it was interesting to hear what was being done to produce an effective vaccine!
Having a job teaching Business English students helps me to travel the world and experience different cultures and jobs from the comfort of my home. I look forward to visiting these countries in person in the near future!

Read Ruth’s story.

Joshua Sohn, from the U.S., teaching military English in Saudi Arabia

After teaching for several years in South Korea, Joshua landed an opportunity to teach English to Air Force and military personnel in Saudi Arabia.

How did you qualify to teach military English?

I qualified for teaching military English by having a Master’s degree in Education, a U.S. teaching license, and six years of international teaching experience. Although these are not mandatory, most companies require a Bachelor’s in English, a CELTA certification, and five or more years of teaching experience. No prior military experience is required but, unfortunately, companies in the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia, are looking for males under 60 years old from the U.S.A., Canada, or the U.K.   

My experience working with the military is only in Saudi Arabia, and most of these contracting jobs are in the Middle East, including places like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, and Oman.

Should you get a Master’s in TESOL? Find out.

What are the benefits of this niche?

The benefits of this niche are:

Working for a U.S. company
Getting paid in U.S. currency
Earning above-average salary
Enjoying a tax-free salary
Working with adults
Having rewarding teaching opportunities
Not all, but most companies provide housing on a western compound, a car (shared or personal), insurance, vacation, paid sick time, flights, and access to the APO (Army Post Office)

Read Joshua’s story.

Uchechukwu Wezeali, from Nigeria, teaching phonics and phonetics

Uchechukwu used to teach English at secondary schools before deciding to start his consultancy organization that focuses on teaching phonics and phonetics to schools and EFL teachers.

How did you prepare for teaching English phonics and phonetics?

Studying Linguistics as an undergraduate got me trained in the aspects of phonetics. Then, I started teaching speech to secondary school students. That was appropriate; there was no challenge. But as time went on, there was a need to teach both primary and nursery pupils.

I soon realized that what I taught secondary-level students didn’t apply to nursery learners. So, I began studying online how to teach early learners. Given my training in phonetics, I built the skills required to teach phonics in no time. I soon realized phonetics and phonics are two sides of the same coin.

Now, I teach every category. I also train teachers of primary and secondary education.

What are the benefits of this niche?

As a specialist in teaching phonics and phonetics, you stand out. That is, when students are challenged in this area, schools think about reaching out to you. This was my experience in 2013 when I was invited by a school to help teach two Spanish female students who couldn’t read and communicate in English.
In addition, having this specialization gives you a competitive edge as an English teacher.

Read Uchechukwu story.

Qualify for jobs with a TEFL certificate. You can explore online TEFL courses to get started or to specialize in an ESL teaching niche!