I live in Montreal and am currently stuck in a dead-end job. I’ve taught English in the past and think I might like to give it a try here. Is there anyone who knows enough about the job market for English teachers that they could give me their impression of it? Is there much demand?
I’ve never lived in Montreal but I’ve visited there quite a bit. My impression is that most residents already speak English even if French is their primary language. Those who speak French only are probably doing so by choice and have no desire to take English lessons.
OTOH, Montreal, like Toronto and all other big Canadian cities have a large immigrant population that typically begin English classes as their first activity when they arrive. After they’ve completed basic ESL classes, they typically go on to more advanced English classes.
In terms of a market, you may want to investigate post-secondary institutions that have ESL intakes and stream that group into regular classes. They all need college level English.
Your main employer would mostly be the federal civil service, with that I don’t know how large the federal civil service is in Montreal but I wager it’s not as large as the Ottawa area. There would be a market for it in Montreal albeit small.
Otherwise most francophone montrealers motivated to learn english do it the old fashion way, get an english girlfriend/boyfriend and watch english TV/movies.
Are you thinking of teaching at the primary/high school level? In which case, you would need a bachelor’s degree and a teaching certificate issued by the MELS. I’m not sure how strict the requirement for a BEd is, but there are specific courses that teachers certified outside the province have to complete, namely pedagogy and Québec law pertaining to education courses. McGillis a Montreal-based English-language university with an education program; they can probably help you. This is true for teaching English in the English-language school system as well as for teaching ESL in the French school system.
If you want to teach adults at a Cegep or Continuing Education/ Adult Education program, you’d also have to be certified since they are under the mandate of the MELS. Most immigrants take FSL courses made available by the provincial government, but English is not a requirement for immigrating to Québec.
Teaching privately, either through a tutoring company or a language academy or somesuch probably varies based upon the company.
Being bilingual, I’m not sure what the demand is for private ESL courses in Montreal, or anywhere in the province, really. I’ve never looked into it.