Breaking Barriers: 10 Ways to Navigate Your ESL Career
Background
ESL educators in various ELL-serving circles encounter or know someone who has encountered barriers in the
process of career growth. These barriers can be low wages, part-time work with no benefits, and lack of
professional development. This presentation will engage the audience with not only the symptoms of a “gig
economy” in our field but also multiple 21st-century remedies to help accelerate the barrier-breaking process.
Objectives
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Identify professional hurdles that ESL instructors face and TESOL students will face
Comprehension of data received from career coaches, ESL instructors in Adult Education, International
Education organizations, and expert anecdotes
Provide cutting-edge strategies in “job search” process, advocacy, and overall professional growth
Outline tactics to produce personal branding and “business of one” in the current gig economy
Create “bucket list” of future employers that interest audience, and how to apply “disruptively”
Offer intersectional solutions for ESL instructors and prospects in overcoming career barriers
Scope
Presentation will begin with informal, real-time polls and questions to the group. It will lead to a summary
and analysis of research and formal data collected by the speaker, which will lead to discussion, group work,
and hopefully “aha moments”. It will conclude with open-ended questions and stories from the audience.
Evaluation
Questions will be asked verbally, in groups, and in slides during the presentation to:
 assess audience comprehension
 produce anecdotes, real-time poll results, and other useful tools
 “bridge the gap” between ESL instruction and career growth in the field