As demand for fluency in English increases, there will be a need not only for more English As a Second Language teachers, but also for professionals to manage the teaching process. Secondary school ESL specialists are professional teachers who oversee the delivery of an English language curriculum to pupils for whom English is not their native tongue. Their duties range from management and administrative tasks to teaching classes.

They may work in an ESL center, a community education facility or in a conventional secondary school, either public or private. Secondary school ESL specialists will have a bachelor's degree, an ESL teaching qualification and, sometimes, an advanced degree in ESL or linguistics.

Teaching
Most ESL specialists are required to have some form of ESL qualification -- the most common being Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL or TESL), Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) and Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) certification. Most ESL specialists also have usually had experience as an ESL teacher. They must be able to teach classes as required, if, say a tutor is sick. ESL lessons use a combination of rote learning, role playing, textbooks, videos and quizzes to improve students' listening, speaking and writing skills.

Management
An ESL specialist manages ESL teachers and tutors attached to the teaching department. These may include full-time salaried staff members and freelance tutors. The specialist oversees teacher training programs and ensures that lessons fit the facility's goals and policies. Specialists will often "sit in" on lessons to monitor the performance of teachers and tutors.

Curriculum
The ESL specialist determines the curriculum offered by the facility. This may include following a recognized external curriculum, such as those produced by Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press, or the emphasis within classes. At the secondary level, ESL teaching is likely to focus on vocational, literacy and workplace English, given that students are in the last stage of compulsory education and may be about to enter the workplace or higher education. Linked to this, the ESL specialist oversees the assessment procedures used by the school. These will often be a combination of grammatical and multiple choice written tests, as well as oral examinations.

Administration
Secondary ESL specialists spend some of their time performing administrative tasks. These include scheduling lessons and teacher training sessions, keeping track of the hours freelance tutors have worked, managing payroll and writing reports. Word processing and spreadsheet computer skills are required for this aspect of the job.