7 Tips To Write a TEFL Cover Letter

You’re applying for a TEFL job. You’re excited to start. But, wait! They’re asking for a cover letter. What do you write? How do you stand out from the crowd? What should you avoid? These questions and many more are what we all face when writing a TEFL cover letter. Panic sets in, you’ve googled for help and you’ve landed here – that’s half the battle!

What Exactly Should A TEFL Cover Letter Include?

With the hype surrounding CV writing, people often overlook the power of the TEFL cover letters. English teacher Cover letters are a lot more flexible in how you can show off your assets and personality. They are also the first thing potential employers will read, so make sure it’s a good one! Believe it or not, some professionals even skip this part when it’s optional. This is a big no-no, and you’ll be dismissed almost immediately. 

Here are our top 7 tips to write a TEFL Cover Letter for english teacher:

Tip 1: Follow The Standard Format

Although writing a cover letter for teaching english abroad can vary across the globe, there is a standard format that everyone follows. There are also lots of great resources online where you can get templates for this too to save you some time: 

  1. Keep it short. Your cover letter should be no more than one A4 page long. As a teacher, you’ll know that there is nothing worse than getting too many corrections to do, and potential employers just want you to get to the point. 
  2. Always include your contact information. Put your contact information at the top of the page so they know who they’re reading about. Teaching cover letters and CVs can get mixed up and you want to take the credit for your amazing cover letter. 
  3. Write short paragraphs. Writing 3 or 4 short paragraphs will make the ESL cover letter a lot easier to speed read and the employer won’t lose where they are. 
  4. Use a standard greeting and closing line. Depending on where you’re applying, this might change, so it’s always good to research this. Some of the main ones are “I hope you and the team are doing well” and “Thank you for your time and consideration.”
  5. Write their information on the top. Although snail mail is going extinct and a forward address isn’t necessary for emails, this will reiterate that the letter is personalized and for them. Bonus points for getting the name of the manager or HR director in there! 

Tip 2: Mention Your CV

Your CV and cover letter for teaching position go hand in hand when applying for TEFL jobs. A nice thing to do throughout your ESL teacher cover letter is to mention parts of your CV and link the two together. This will show that you’ve put effort into the application and remind the employer of all your great achievements.

For example: 

  • As per my extensive work experience noted on my CV, I have a proven track record in classroom management. 
  • During my time with [school name], I have learned many skills that I feel will contribute to the role of [role] at [company]. These skills include classroom management, lesson planning, and much more as stated on my CV. 

Be sure not to completely copy your CV over and list all your skills again. This is taking up a lot of your precious space to show off your assets. They have access to your CV for this. 

Tip 3: Show Your Personality 

Unlike most industries, the TEFL world has a lot of interesting people with a vast range of skillsets and experience. Luckily enough, letter of introduction for a teaching job is one of the most interesting to read. This is fantastic news for you! There are lots of things you can’t really link into an IT or retail cover letter. But with a TEFL position, all the interesting things about you are assets to the role. So, make sure you mention them! Here are some cool bios of people we’ve gotten in the past: 

  • A Judo teacher looking to move to Thailand where they trained many years ago got placed in the mountains of Thailand. 
  • A young, newly qualified TEFL teacher who can play 6 instruments got placed in Europe to teach kids music through English. 
  • A business professional with 20 years of experience in pharmaceuticals got placed in Germany to teach business English. 

See how everything can be looked at as an experience? 

Tip 4: Personalize It To The Company You Are Applying To 

ESL teacher introduction letters are a little more personal than CVs. CVs are meant to look vague and standard. Cover letters are meant to be written for the company you are applying for. A great way to reiterate your effort in the cover letter for teachers is to mention the company itself. You can do this by: 

  • Naming the HR Director and addressing it to them 
  • Researching their mission statements or vision statement and quoting it. 
  • Mentioning the school throughout the content. 

Tip 5: Choose British or American English

While you are researching the company for some name drops, you should also check out where the HR Director and school are based. Most schools globally will use British English, but a lot of the top organizations are American, so it’s nice to switch over to American English for them. You can also try out transatlantic English, which is a blend of both, but be careful not to mess it up as it may look like bad spelling. 

Tip 6: Use Grammarly

Grammarly is an amazing tool to make sure that everything is perfect. Yes, even English teachers can make errors along the way, especially if you’re nervous or working on a deadline for the application. Not only will it correct your spelling and grammar, but it will also give you tips to make your language concise and give you alternative options. What’s more, the free version will work perfectly and there’s no need to upgrade for a cover letter. 

Tip 7: Save it

Now that you have your perfect TEFL cover letter, don’t forget to save it before you submit it! Why? 

  • You can refer back to it before your interview 
  • Your WIFI might cut out and you may lose your work during the submission process
  • You can use the bones of it for other applications too and recycle your work. 

We hope you’ve learned something and feel a little better about writing a TEFL cover letter! Remember that for our internships and supported jobs, we have a  dedicated recruitment team to proofread this for you before sending it to the hiring committee.

Best of luck to everyone applying for jobs! 

We have 7 amazing tips on how to write a cover letter for TEFL jobs. Read it and unlock the secrets to creating the perfect cover letter and help you stand out in front of the crowd!

Writing an international cover letter can sometimes be a little daunting. A lot of cultures will have different ways of writing one. Most a very similar, but you can see some differences throughout the globe. The good news is that TEFL cover letters are written in a standard way. Read our blog, follow the rules, and you’ll get on great.

Application letters on a job post are sometimes set up where you have to type directly into a contact form. For instance, Indeed has this feature for employers who choose the “Easily Apply” route for applications. It can be hard to stick to nice paragraphs and formatting. The best thing to do is to write want you would like to say on a word document first. Read it over and make sure everything is perfect. Then, simply copy and paste in. If it doesn’t paste in perfectly, it’s actually okay. These employers will see that all applications are coming through like this and understand it’s their feature and not laziness from the applicant.

If you’re looking to write a cover letter for a single English class, you’ll be most likely chosen by the customers. This may be a parent or an adult student. Keep it even briefer, and use simple English throughout. They are taking the class for a reason and you don’t need to use flowery language. Add some friendly language to it, and make it inviting and comfortable. Reminder to stick to our top 7 tips in our blog!

An English teacher’s cover letter has a standard format. You can see our full description in the blog. In nutshell, the main features you should include in your cover letter are your contact information, an introduction, a summary of your experience, text to prove you know who they are and you’ve done your research, and an attractive closing paragraph.

A cover letter template is a resource you can use to help you structure your cover letter. There are plenty of these online that you can avail of for free. They will have text boxes and a nice format for you to work from. If you have a Microsoft Office package, check the templates out here as you’ve paid for them and they are generally higher quality than free ones. A little warning not to copy and paste examples online as they do commonly circulate and you will be caught out. If you use this vague language also, it does look quite obvious.

If you’ve no experience in teaching English, it can be hard to think about what to write. You want to make it look professional and long enough, but where to start? In these instances, you can write about your experience abroad or with other cultures, your experience in management, proven loyalty with contracts in past, and you can write about your aspirations with their company.



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