Help ESL Students Worldwide Practice Their English

Save to Favorites

We are a non-profit whose mission is to provide ESL(English as a Second Language) students with access to native English speakers. So many people all over the world simply want to talk, one on one, with a "real English speaker". It is so simple, yet so many just do not get the chance they need.

We are trying to help solve this by partnering up native English speakers with ESL students. We call our program "The Cackle Program" (talking just for fun).

See more about the program here:

www.chatfriend.org

Volunteers will chat with students from all over the globe. This sessions are not "teaching", they are just conversation. No teaching background is needed. All volunteers need is the willingness to talk about everyday things. (weather, music, sports, film, politics, etc).

Students range in age from 18 - 55. Some students want to practice writing (email or text) and some want to talk via video chat or phone (Skype, Google hangouts etc).

Volunteers can chat with as many students as they feel they can manage. But we think no more than 3 is best. We are asking for volunteers to chat for 15 min one to one with each student they are given. (If texting or emailing, we ask for at least 5 exchanges in writing per chat "session" or conversation).

ESL Helpers asks that all conversations remain SFW (Safe for Work). This means no use of profanity (unless you are teaching a student the meaning of curse words), no adult content, no sales). If volunteers notice a particulary offensive student, simply tell us and we will take them out of the program. We ask for a minimum 3 week committment, althought most of our volunteers stay well beyond this time.

Volunteers can use their own Skype or Twitter or Facebook accounts, or they can create ones just to be used with students. It is your choice. ESL Helpers has chatted and texted with 100s of students without any problem, but we understand volunteers may not want to use their own accounts.

This is a excellent opportunity to make a remarkable difference in the life of an ESL student. English is the language of global business and popular culture. Many need English fluency to create a better life for themselves.

For those seeking Community Service hours, we will happily provide you with a letter of verification. Volunteers must keep their own logs which we will verify before providing a letter of verification. Once a volunteer clicks the I WANT TO HELP button, they will automatically be sent more information about hours. Download the three documents.

Reasonably, one could accumulate about 10 hours per week provided they talk to at least two students.

There is a brief "orientation" which is reviewing our web page and watching some training videos.

Thank you for your interest in this opportunity. We hope you join in.