BLOG: Teaching English – Sowing Seeds

As our church planting teams seek to make Christ know in the Arab world, they aim to practically bless the communities in which they live. And as they build friendships and show God’s love, seeds are sown and opportunities for gospel conversations arise.

Using medical skills, establishing good businesses, running community development projects, and other vocations, are all excellent ways of blessing communities and getting embedded in cross-cultural living. But have you ever thought that your seemingly simple ability to speak English can be utilised as a tool too?

English is the most widely spoken language in the world, and the desire to learn it spans the breadth of the Arab world. From Saudi to the Sahara; Lebanon to Libya; Refugees in Birmingham, to Royals in Bahrain; English is in high demand.

A great opportunity

Teaching English is a great way of engaging with communities overseas, or of blessing refugee communities in our hometowns. As such, many of our teams use English teaching in some format…

For example:

Teaching English in local schools, colleges, and universities.
Setting up English language school businesses.
Teaching English as part of community development projects and centres.
Running English language summer camps.
Running informal English classes for refugees in the UK.
Leading one-to-one conversational classes.

Formal or informal, beginners or advanced, kids or adults, paid clients or free, in person or online; you name it, we’ve probably got it.

Can anyone do it?

If you’d like to give it a go, test the waters, and visit one of our teams in the UK or overseas, then yes! Assisting with classes, or having one-to-one conversations with higher level students, are great ways to practically contribute.

To take English teaching to the next level, where you are confident, and well equipped to teach classes of any stage, some training is a must. But the good news is it’s relatively inexpensive, takes just a few months, and can be done alongside a fulltime job.

There are two main options that open up the world of paid English teaching jobs or equip you for higher quality teaching a voluntary setting:

A TEFL course: This costs between £150 and £250, is usually done online, and equips you with all the basics to get you going. ChristianTefl.com is a great place to start.
A CELTA course: This costs around £2,000, is usually done as a combination of online and in person training, is more in depth than a TEFL, and opens up higher level opportunities.

So what do you reckon? Could you transform your day-to-day skill of speaking English, into a tool to teach others, and to make a Kingdom impact?

If you’d like to know more, or would be interested in a short-term placement with one of our teams who teach English, contact Charlotte at charlotteb@awm-pioneers.org.