How to Verify a Foreign English Teacher's Credentials

A useful English teacher profile helps you check qualifications, experience with children, suitable learning levels, and teaching style before booking. At 51Talk, our published teacher standards provide a starting point. Combine those platform standards with information about the individual teacher and what you observe in a trial lesson.

Separate platform standards from an individual teacher’s profile

Our official teacher page describes academic requirements, English teaching certifications such as TESOL, TEFL, or CELTA, and ESL teaching experience. It also explains lesson reviews, parent feedback, and ongoing training. These are platform-level statements; they do not replace checking which qualification and relevant experience an individual teacher has.

What should a transparent teacher profile help you check?

Information	How to use it
Named teaching qualification	Ask which qualification the teacher holds and who issued it if that information is not shown. A general badge does not identify a specific certificate.
Experience with young learners	Look for experience with children at your child’s age and starting level. Years of teaching alone do not describe the learner groups taught.
Suitable levels and learning needs	Compare the information with what your child can understand and say. Ask about suitability for a beginner, a hesitant speaker, or a child practising connected sentences.
Teaching approach	Use the introduction as a starting point, then observe how the teacher asks questions, gives thinking time, and responds to difficulty.
Ratings and other numbers	Check what each label measures. An unexplained number should not be treated as a lesson count or number of students.

Available teacher information and booking options can vary by region and schedule. If a detail matters to your decision and is missing, ask our team before booking. Avoid using nationality, a friendly introduction, or a high rating as a substitute for qualification and suitability information.

Use a trial lesson to check the fit

Choose a task your child can attempt, such as introducing themselves or describing something in a picture. Notice whether the teacher gives them time to respond, adjusts the question when needed, and offers a clear model for another attempt. A lively lesson is useful when your child can participate in a way that fits their level.

Write down a concrete example to discuss afterwards: what your child understood, what they said independently, and where they needed help. For a hesitant child, observe encouragement and waiting time. For an active child, observe how changes of activity keep a clear language goal. A certificate and a suitable interaction style answer different questions.

Keep checking after the first lesson

Our published quality process includes reviewing lessons and gathering parent feedback. Use your feedback to describe what helped and what needs adjustment. The guide to teacher quality checks after certification can help you turn a general impression into a practical discussion.

Ask how future booking and teacher-change options work for your own subscription. If you switch teachers, discuss your child’s current learning goal so the next lesson can build on it. Our article about observing teacher fit in the first lesson offers further questions to use.

Start with a 51Talk trial lesson, review the available teacher information, and bring one clear learning goal. Choose on the basis of verifiable details and your child’s actual participation.