With over 10 years in the TEFL industry, I can tell you that at some point or another, you will face one or all of the challenges I’m going to cover in this post.

Part of being an ESL teacher means that you are resourceful and solutions-oriented.

So what do you do when you’re faced with limited or no resources?

No Textbook

When you’ve chosen to work for a smaller ESL language school or perhaps you’re volunteering or you’ve set up your own services, you may be faced with the challenge of providing a curriculum without a textbook.

Not to fret. The wonderful thing about teaching ESL is that you are not confined to the boundaries of a textbook.

You are teaching language and language can be learned via a multitude of authentic texts. If you’re confused about where to start building your curriculum, I highly suggest you read this article first.

Once you have your head wrapped around what your students want to achieve you can start procuring your content. Here is a list of texts you might consider using in lieu of a textbook:

• menus

• brochures

• advertisements

• news articles

• short stories

You can also use non-text-based content to support your curriculum which could include:

• YouTube videos

• podcasts

• songs

• movie / television clips

• social media posts (Instagram, Facebook, twitter, snapchat)

The caveat here is to make sure your content has some linear progression and it makes sense to your students. Don’t haphazardly piece together their curriculum.

No Copy Machine

A common complaint among old and new TEFL teachers is the damn copy machine that is always broken!

Either there’s a monster paper jam (or better yet no paper), no toner, or no power.

What’s a teacher to do?!

First, breathe. Second, try these methods.

• If you have a classroom projector, tell students to get out their pens and papers and start copying! Studies have shown a strong link between physical writing and a memory boost.

• If your students are totally against having to write down a bunch of stuff, tell them to take out their phones and take a picture.

• If you don’t have a classroom projector, you’ll have to do a lot of writing on the board. However, if you want to give students time to complete the tasks on their own or in groups (before doing it as a class), have students either copy on their own paper or take photos.

• You could also head down to your local copy place and make a few copies of your own. Students can work in groups to complete the task. Try having the worksheets laminated so the papers can be reused.

No overhead projector

If you’re in a school with basic facilities that don’t include projectors, what should you do with your class when you want to show them a video, teach them internet literacy, or show them how to format their essays? Here are a few ideas you might try out.

• If you want to show a video to your class, bring your computer and make an activity out of it. Select a group of a few students and tell them to watch the video together (outside or somewhere the others can’t hear it). From there you can do a number of things.

  • Have one group gather information from one section of the video, and the other group gather another.

  • You can have them try to retell their partner as much as they can about the video.

  • You can have the other partner try to guess what the video is about. There are lots of fun things you can do with this approach

• If you need the whole class to see how you’re doing something on a computer, you may consider recording a quick tutorial and sending it to them by email. There are lots of free tools you can use to do this and it’ll take almost no time for you.

• If you want to teach the students about online literacy, you may have to go back to old-fashioned copies and take screenshots of online pages. You can have these laminated so they can be used again.

No WiFi

As a teacher who fully embraces technology, one of the most disappointing things a school can do is not provide WiFi access to the staff and students. I enjoy interactive lessons as much as the students. If you’re like me, here are some ideas you could consider if you’re left without WiFi:

• Depending on which country you teach in, you may be able to get a very cheap WiFi stick that you can use on the go. In Kyrgyzstan, I got one of these for about $20 a month. It really came in handy when I wanted to use Nearpod or when students needed to access their presentations from their email.

• You can view lots of content offline nowadays if you download them in advance. Try to download as much as you can at home, including YouTube videos or web pages.

Part of being an ESL teacher - especially one who goes abroad - is being resourceful when your circumstances are less than ideal. Take it from me, your anger, frustration, and complaints won’t get you as far as your ability to see through the challenge and find a solution.

It took me far too long to understand this concept.

Therefore, I hope you get inspired from some of these ideas and take action so you can feel more in control of your classroom and career.

What are some other ways you can overcome limited resources? Comment below.

Was this post helpful? Be sure to let your friends know about it and share!