If you’d like to teach English in France but the idea of singing Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes with a bunch of elementary school kids makes you cringe, you may want to apply to be a lecteur d’anglais in a French university.
In addition to being guaranteed that you’ll work with university students instead of kids, or worse, teenagers, the job of lecteur d’anglais has the advantages of being better paid, being renewable for one year, and getting you a visa for 12 months instead of TAPIF’s 8.
Lecteurs d’anglais are paid about €1.200 per month after social charges, which is about 50% better than the measly 800€ per month TAPIF teachers receive. And lecteurs d’anglais are often paid September through September, meaning you’ll be earning paid vacation during the school year as well as getting paid for summer vacation. Cool, right?
Unlike TAPIF, though, there are far fewer positions available for lecteurs d’anglais, and many of them are never advertised. It’s relatively easy for universities to find qualified applicants among their own exchange students, so if you want this job, you’d better be proactive.
On the bright side, because many jobs are never advertised, there are often far fewer applicants.
French universities require native English speakers for this job, and as such, they’re willing to sponsor your visa for you to come to France. However, in order for that to happen, they must hire you in the spring, before the universities close in July, to enable you to get your work visa in time.
In some cases, the position of lecteur d’anglais requires at least one year of study towards a Master’s degree, but that isn’t always necessary. Even if you only have a bachelors, or plan on enrolling in a Master’s program in France, send your application anyway.
Here are three steps towards applying to a job as a lecteur d’anglais in a French university:
1) Subscribe to the SAES listserv.
SAES, or the Société des Anglicistes de l’Enseignement Supérieur, is a listserv for Anglophones in the French university system.
As such, many of the open lecteur d’anglais positions are advertised through this list. Sign up for the listserv on the SAES website to be notified when positions become available.
2) Contact Universities Directly.
If there are specific universities you’d like to apply to, you can try contacting their UFR de Langues Etrangères Appliquées or human resources departments to ask about open positions for lecteur d’anglais.
Some universities (like Paris 7 – Denis Diderot) have a strict policy of reserving their lecteur d’anglais jobs for students from universities in their exchange programs, and there’s nothing you can do about that. But others, like Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle, accept applications on an open-ended basis. Even if the deadline has supposedly passed, it doesn’t hurt to send your application in case the person changes her mind.
To find where positions are posted on university websites, try googling “lecteur d’anglais site:(university website)” and see what you come up with. Otherwise, search for the English department and contact the department secretary.
3) Write your CV and Cover Letter focusing on your teaching experience.
Unlike the TAPIF program, which doesn’t require much in the way of teaching experience, it can help your application to be a lecteur d’anglais greatly if you’ve ever been a teaching assistant in your home university or if you have any teaching experience at all.
Of course, if you have no teaching experience, it doesn’t hurt to try, but you may want to apply to TAPIF first.
When you write your curriculum vitae in French and your lettre de motivation, play up all of your work experience related to teaching, or skills that you can cross-apply to teaching.
Hi Allison,
Thanks a lot for all these wonderful posts! It’s reassuring to have the information I need while living in France spelled out so clearly.
How do you go about subscribing to the SAES website? If you go to the website, there’s an “Adherer” button, but it looks like you have to pay something. Is this what you need to sign up for in order to get the advertised Lecteur d’anglais job posts?
Thank you!
Hi Mackenzie,
It is over a year later, but I just came across this blog! Did you ever figure out how to subscribe to the SAES listserv…? I would love to know if/how it worked.
Hope you had a great year!
Hey guys! I just discovered this post (I know it’s 2017) but in case anyone is wondering about joining SAES, I found this : http://saesfrance.org/saes/messagerie-saes/ it sounds like all you have to do to sign up is follow their directions.
Hello,
I too have the same question. I have looked at the SAES website, however, I am not sure how to sign up for the listserv that you mentioned in your article. Does one actually need to have a membership with SAES in order to join the listserv?
Thanks!
Just curious, but is it possible to get a work visa as a lecteur d’anglais in France without going back to the US? I am currently living around Paris as an au pair, but I would love to stay in France longer, and I actually do have lots of tutoring and teaching experience. However, it would be really expensive for me to go back to the US (west coast) and then return to France, so I would prefer to find a job like this and then stay here if possible.
You may be able to switch from an au pair visa to a temporary work visa, but you’d have to go to the préfecture to confirm.
Otherwise, maybe you should think about enrolling in a degree program to keep your student status, which would also allow you to work 20h/week. (Au pairs are considered students and can renew a student visa). I’m sure the program tuition of €400 would cost less than traveling back to the west coast!
Hi Allison,
This is a good article but i have a question, cause i would like to do the same in an american university, do you know if it’s the same?
At least, do you know how to traduce “lectrice de français” in english cause i’m not sure it’s “reader of french” for this situation.
Thanks for reading it!
Hi Stéphanie,
You will have to contact individual universities in the US and see what their application process is. The job position would be “French lecturer.” Also check with your current university to see if they have exchange programs with schools in the US.
Hey, thanks alot for this information. I applied for lecteur d’anglais for this upcoming academic year. I have a question, are you sure about the paid vacation? because that seems a bit too good to be true lol.
Hi Allison,
Thanks for this helpful article! I have a question related to lecteur d’anglais positions and TAPIF, which I’ve read about on your site before.
I was a TAPIF primary assistant a couple years ago, and unfortunately, did not have a great experience. I loved being in France and teaching, but the teachers and principals I worked with were extremely unsupportive. I was assigned to FOUR schools, which was technically a violation of my contract, but my supervisor (a conseillere pedagogique for the Academie) justified it on the basis that I’d only be working 11 hours a week instead of 12, despite the fact that I spent more time – and money – traveling to all of my schools than any other assistant I knew. It was also unfortunate that my supervisor was not one of my teachers or principals because it created a lot of confusion and miscommunication between my me and my teachers when coordinating schedules and lesson plans.
As a result, I did not have a good relationship with my supervisor or many of my teachers. Because I worked in four schools and only saw some of my teachers and classes once a week, I think they saw me as even more of a transitory figure than I already was, and consequently, invested little time in helping or getting to know me.
All of this to say, I’d like to apply for a lecteur d’anglais position, but I worry that the people I worked with in my Academie would not give me a positive recommendation if contacted. Do you have any insight in this area? Are recommendations from past supervisors as important in France as in the U.S.? There are some teachers and principals with whom I had a good rapport, but France is so hierarchical, and I imagine a university considering me would only want to hear from my direct supervisor.
Any insight you have would be much appreciated. Merci!
Hello Allison,
Thank you very much for this post. I am currently teaching in a high school in Los Angeles. I have already completed my M.A. in Secondary Education. I have lived in France (Dijon) in the past and would like to return! I believe this teaching position would be the most fulfilling. The questions for you are: If I have an extremely basic level of French will that hinder my chances of getting a job? Is it better to set a time to interview tete-a-tete?
Thank you again for this information! I am hoping to start working this fall 🙂 even through it is extremely last minute.
This website is very helpful. I would also like to sign up for the list serve mentioned above, however I am unaware how to do so. Please advise.
Thank you-
Christina
Comment: I want to be receiving mails on job vacancies on French.
Great resource. Thanks!