For an English teaching position, the candidate must prove that he has experience working with a wide range of literature. It is equally important that he exhibit a knowledge of his target school's specific English program and be able to demonstrate an ability to successfully handle the varying intellectual levels within an English classroom.

Learn About School
As with any job interview, it is important to find out about the potential future employer. When preparing for an interview as an English teacher, think about the school's curriculum. A school that is heavily science-based might have English classes where students read literature about science. A public school with a more general curriculum might read more classic literature. An interviewee should show that she understands the particular English-curriculum expectations of the school at which she's interviewing.

Review Work Experiences
When teaching an English class, teachers will be exposed to students of differing abilities and interest levels. The potential English teacher must be able to make books like Black Boy, 1984, the Great Gatsby, and Romeo and Juliet--all very different books--interesting to a class of up to 30 students. The interviewee should show that he has dealt with these circumstances in the past, whether it was in another English classroom or in a completely different setting that presented similar circumstances.

Show Off
When interviewing for an English teaching position, an interviewer might want to see that the interviewee can lead a lesson. The interviewer might ask about the interviewee's favorite genres and how she would teach her favorite books to students. A candidate should be prepared to come up with discussion questions about a passage she may be given to read during the interview. The interviewee could also describe activities she would use to make a reading lesson more engaging, like comparing 1984 to a period of history.