How important is teacher training? Untrained community tutors and professional teachers motivation and success in online second language teaching (SLT) and implications for future online SLT

Abstract This study analyzes Chinese, Spanish, English, Thai, Japanese, Korean, French and German speakers’ motivation to teach their first language as a foreign language (FL) online without being trained as a second language teacher (SLT) and compares them with professionally trained SLTs. The threshold for starting SLT without teacher certification in FLT has significantly decreased simultaneously with the increasing number of online platforms allowing untrained L1-speakers to teach it without the need for prior formal certification. Long-term implementation and SLT success in online teaching depend on motivation, contextual and personal variables, determining if professional teachers (PT) or untrained community tutors (CT) continue or stop their online SLT activities. To evaluate possible differences between PT and CT motivation and success quantitative data were collected (using a 22-item survey) from a sample of participants (N = 135) teaching their first language (L1=Chinese, Spanish, English, Thai, Japanese, Korean, French and German) as a FL online. Findings are discussed concerning CT and PT success, professional development and in-service training. Findings suggest that although initial difficulties untrained SLTs may face differ from early-career PT, they can succeed in online SLT being able to make a living from it and under circumstances become a competition for traditionally trained SLTs. This opens opportunities for individuals to participate in a field of labour they would have not had a chance otherwise.


PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT
In recent years it has become much easier to teach a language online without the need to hold a teacher certification.This study analyzes Chinese, Spanish, English, Thai, Japanese, Korean, French and German speakers' motivation to teach their first language as a foreign language online without being trained as a second language teacher and compares them with professionally trained teachers' motivation.
In this research community tutors, teachers without being certified as foreign language teachers, and professional second language teachers were surveyed to find out more about their motivation.
It was found that also second language teachers without a professional teacher certificate can enjoy teaching and sometimes are even able to make a living from teaching online under certain circumstances.

Introduction
Second language learning (SLL) and teaching (SLT) received wide attention in applied linguistics and educational psychology.It is known that teachers are crucial to a successful L2 acquisition process so it is needed to understand the teacher's perspective (Mercer, 2018).Perhaps, no other area of education than foreign language teaching (FLT) is more likely to attract career changers without being certified to teach their first language (L1) as a foreign language.It is not only true for second language acquisition (SLA) but also for second language teaching (SLT) that motivation can greatly affect an individual's effort output and persistence (Dörnyei & Mentzelopoulos, 2023;MacMullen, 2014;McClelland, 1988).Despite this, until very recently, teacher motivation had received only little attention and if so, the focus lied on "the motivation to teach" and the interplay between teacher and learner motivation (e.g., Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2021), early career or in-service professional teachers.Particularly, the motivation of individuals teaching their L1 without being certified in SLT in comparison to professionally trained SLTs received no attention in research.The threshold for becoming an SLT teaching one's L1 without the necessity of holding a professional teaching certificate has significantly decreased in the last two decades with a growing number of online teaching platforms offering community teaching (CT) and learning options besides professional ones.Despite this fact, the potential competition of CT for professionally trained teachers (PT) is neglected in research.This study investigates the motivations of professional teachers (PT) and community tutors (CT) teaching their L1 (Spanish, English, German, Japanese, Korean, French, Chinese and Thai) as a foreign language online and analyzes one-on-one SLT and SLL for children and adults in the fast-growing field of individual online education.

SLT success and well-being
Another focus of research SLT concentrates on teacher well-being and work-life balance while working under stress (Kieschke & Schaarschmidt, 2008), finding, teachers feeling of success and fulfilment in their teaching activities is crucial for their long-term motivation (e.g., Siebenhütter, 2021Siebenhütter, , 2023;;Troesch & Bauer, 2017).Job satisfactions including motivational factors, teachers' psychological fulfilment and the well-being of EFL teachers have been extensively explored (e.g., Gregersen et al., 2020;Han, Yin, et al., 2016).

SLT education, certification and development
Teacher education and in-service development have been conceptualized and studied intensively, starting with a focus on teachers' content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and teaching techniques with influential work such as Larsen-Freeman (e.g. 1990) and Larsen-Freeman and Anderson 2011), Research traces connections to more recent work, e.g., the comparison of traditionally and alternatively certified secondary school teachers' well-being and intention to remain in the profession (Lucksnat et al., 2022) or with a focus on the knowledge, skills, competencies and needs of second language teachers (e.g., Selvi & Bedrettin, 2021), or the SLT identity and self-concept (e.g., Sadeghi & Bahari, 2022).Further, there is a growing body of research focusing on the uncertainty, demands and complexity of teaching future teachers face in the increasingly globalized educational landscape (Cobb & Couch, 2018).
There is a growing body of literature on early/first-career teachers (Ford & Lavigne, 2023;Onyefulu et al., 2022;Watt & Richardson, 2008a, 2008b) and career changers or second-career teachers, mainly done in the field of public-school education (e.g., Fütterer et al., 2023;Lucksnat et al., 2022;Richardson & Watt, 2005).Little is known about the SL teachers, and no research can be found dealing with the quickly growing field of individual online language teaching.

SLT motivation in an online setting
As digital technologies have fundamentally changed (Hockly & Dudeney, 2017), and it will further disrupt teaching, research on the theory and practice of SLL and SLT needs to include the new technology in their investigations.Research including online teaching and the application of digital technology mainly concentrates on increasing learners' attitudes, e.g., confidence, motivation and output (e.g., Sato et al., 2015;Wu et al., 2011).Research on the benefits for learners and teachers, trends and implementations for further development (Carrier et al., 2017).Starting in 2020, online teaching experienced a large increase as the primary teaching method has inevitably changed from traditional face-to-face teaching (Hong et al., 2021;König et al., 2020).It was not only researched, what teachers can do to motivate their learners in an online setting, but also undermining motivational influences (Hartnett, 2016): The technological medium and the distance associated with online education were identified to influence the student's feeling of autonomy and relatedness, contributed to issues with self-efficacy and undermined the psychological need of learners to connect with other learners (Hartnett, 2016).Another growing field of research concerns remote teaching, teacher well-being and the impact of COVID-19 on teaching and teacher education (e.g., Carrillo & Flores, 2020, 2022;Kidd & Murray, 2022;McDonough & Lemon, 2022;Siebenhütter, 2021Siebenhütter, , 2023)).
However, untrained L1 speakers' motivation to start and remain online SLT is neglected in research.Although online teaching received more attention in recent years along with pandemic restrictions, research on motivation in online education generally focuses on students' motivation, and if teachers were included, mainly to explore their ability to influence students' language learning motivation (e.g., Hartnett, 2016).
The advantages of individual learning include precise adaptation to the needs of each student and significantly greater benefits than language learning in an inhomogeneous group, especially for advanced learners.Online education also offers several benefits for teachers, including the chance to teach on their schedule and from a location that suits them.In FLL, private online lessons might as well eliminate some of the most common demotivational factors of in-person group classes, such as a fixed teaching method, a large classroom size and substantially differing abilities within one class (Sugino, 2010).Despite this, online teaching and particularly community teaching using online platforms were neglected in research.One of the worldwide acting platforms, italki, produced by a Hong Kong-based company (starting in 2006), offers teachers and students a platform for teaching and studying in private lessons online.The threshold for initial teacher-profile-setup, self-introductory video, scheduling, etc., is low.Students and teachers use video-supported social media (e.g., Skype, Zoom) as a platform for private online language lessons after having contacted via the platform.In March 2023 italki lists more than 2.700 community tutors, i.e., untrained teachers without a teacher education teaching English as a foreign language (EFL), more than 600 teaching Mandarin Chinese as a second language (Japanese 550, Korean 220, Spanish 1.900, French 750, German 340 and Thai 90 CT).There are about the same or more PTs available for each language.
While several formats of online education (e.g., group lessons, asynchronous learning, flipped classroom) received higher attention during the last years, this study investigated only one-on-one private online lessons.

Objective and research questions
The transformation to digital teaching has eroded the traditional role of the "expert" in teaching (Hockly & Dudeney, 2017) and opened the field of language teaching (and many other fields) to semi-professionals and laypersons, namely, the so-called "community tutors" (CT).This research analyzes the CT, teachers without specific education in SLT, using the platform to offer video lessons in comparison to PT. Particularly, the motivation of CT and PT for teaching their L1 (Spanish, English, German, Japanese, Korean, French, Chinese and Thai) as a foreign language online.The findings suggest CTs can succeed in online teaching and thus may become a competition for trained or PT in FLT.
The study was guided by the three main questions, to answer if CT and PT differ in their motivation to start and continue or stop online SLT and dependencies with related context factors (e.g., financial, child care obligation, interpersonal support): RQ1: Are PT and CT equally motivated to start and remain teaching their L1 as online FLT? RQ2: Do PT and CT perceive themselves equally successful in online FLT? RQ3: Can differences be determined depending on the L1 background?

Originality
Only recently, research comparing alternatively trained and traditionally trained teachers' motivation (Lucksnat et al., 2022) or second-career teachers' motivation and success (e.g., Fütterer et al., 2023;Troesch & Bauer, 2017, 2020) were noticed.Despite this, there is no investigation comparing the success, motivation and consistency of CT and PT with a focus on online FLT.This research aims to close this gap and provide data from CT and PT online teaching experiences that open the field for future directions in FLTin particular, SLT in an online setting.

Sample and data collection
Data were collected in March 2023 with self-reported questionnaires carried out online via SoSci Survey (Leiner, 2019).Participants teaching their L1 (Spanish, English, German, Japanese, Korean, French, Chinese and Thai) as a foreign language online as PT (N = 75) and CT (N = 60).All participants, teaching online whilst living in Australia, Europe, the USA, South America and South or Southeast Asia were recruited from the online-platform italki.com.Slightly more female PTs and CTs participated in the study, most of them 18-48 years, while altogether the CTs were slightly younger than the PTs (Table 1).
The participants were asked for their online SLT experience, L1, educational background, age, gender, general context (living and financial situation, support from friends and family), teaching success (financial, student feedback, personal) and the main reasons for starting to teach online.Earlier research (Siebenhütter, 2021) included also the CT's prior job in case they were career changers starting to teach their L1 without initial teacher certification.CTs' previous occupation was not relevant to the research questions and was therefore not included in the survey.

Measures
The questionnaire (22 items) to measure motivation to start and remain FLT online was designed according to earlier research (Dörnyei, 2007;Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2021;Visser-Wijnveen et al., 2012;Watt & Richardson, 2007) and included items on personal efficacy (with the subscales context and general), interest/enjoyment and teaching competence and confidence based on Visser-Wijnveen et al. (2012).Following a pilot study to test the items' reliability, validity and unidimensionality, some measures were modified.Participants were asked to rate the items on a 6-point-scale (1= strongly disagree to 6=strongly agree) (Visser-Wijnveen et al., 2012 recommend it over the 4-point Likert scale in their development and validation study to measure teacher motivation).Earlier research (e.g., Lucksnat et al., 2022;Troesch & Bauer, 2020;Van den Borre et al., 2021) measured the intention to stay in the profession with only a single item.To assess the reliability of this variable, multiple items for the construct of retention intention were used in this study.
Additionally, participants were asked to evaluate the usefulness of their professional FLT training background or to describe the situations in which they would miss professional FLT didactic skills during online teaching if they did not hold an FLT certification.The survey included free text comments in case participants wanted to add more details.As the reliance on data collected by self-report questionnaires might have prevented researchers from analyzing the whole complexity of teacher motivation (Alexander, 2008;Han, Yin Mark Boylan, et al., 2016), some interviews were conducted to gain insights.The qualitative data analysis of free text comments and interview data was conducted using content analysis.

Statistical Analysis
Data were evaluated using R version 4.2.1.For the questions with answers on the Likert scale from 1-6, the mean ± the standard deviation and in the far-right column the result (p-value) of a Mann-Whitney U test are recorded.Asterisks after the numbers (p-value) mean that the difference between CT and PT is statistically significant.The tables show the number of responses and the corresponding percentage in brackets.For the questions with answers on nominal scales, Fisher's exact test was used (p-value in the far-right column).Additionally, multiple linear regression and multiple logistic regression were used to measure dependencies on the motivation, personal and context variables.

CT and PT and general context (Financial and living situation)
Table 2 shows the results of CTs and PTs, general and supportive context and specific reasons to start, remain or stop online SLT.

Motivation to remain teaching and dependencies with context
General context variables (financial and living situation) were measured for dependencies with the motivation to remain or stop teaching.
Table 3 shows dependencies of general and personal context (financial and living situation).Regarding the motivation to remain teaching (measured with five items), no significant difference between CT and PT was found.Teachers who started teaching online for financial reasons (A109_01) have a highly significant higher motivation to continue teaching (beta = 0.18, p < 0.0001).A significant positive dependency between curiosity as the initial reason to start teaching online and motivation to continue teaching (beta = 0.11, p = 0.0086) was found: the higher the curiosity for the new experience of online teaching, the higher the motivation to continue teaching.Individuals who took up online teaching mainly for the enjoyment of teaching (A107_06) also have significantly higher motivation to continue online teaching.No dependency on the motivation to continue teaching can be seen in the family life situation (A106_01, A106_03), the support from the environment (A108_02) and the other obligations (A108_01).

Motivation to stop online teaching and dependencies with context
Table 4 shows the results for the regression on motivation to stop teaching (measured with eight items) and context variables.Teachers living alone (A106_01) have significantly higher motivation to quit teaching (beta = 0.27, p = 0.0267).Also having significantly higher motivation to quit teaching are individuals (A108_01) who have difficulty coordinating teaching activities due to other obligations (beta = 0.12, p = 0.0018).Other factors did not show significant relationships with motivation to stop online teaching.

CT and PT motivation to start online SLT
The main reasons for starting online SLT were financial (CT: 4.3 ± 1.5; PT: 4 ± 1.7), personal challenge (CT: 4.5 ± 1.4; PT: 4.7 ± 1.2), or communicative, i.e., interest in talking with others (CT: 4.2 ± 1.4; PT: 4 ± 1.3).Table A1 (see Appendix) shows detailed results for CTs and PTs main reasons to start and specific reasons to remain or stop online SLT.

CT and PT overall motivation, enjoyment and teaching confidence
Table 5 shows the results of CTs and PTs specific motivation measured in item-groups visualized in Figure 1.Except for the motivation to stop online SLT, for PT slightly higher rates were measured for the motivation to remain (five items) and to stop (eight items) and for enjoyment (three items).Further, PT rated significantly higher in teaching confidence (six items) (Figure 1).
As shown in Figure 1 and Table 5 (and Table A2 in Appendix), CT and PT rated high in teaching confidence, while CT were slightly less confident in SLT than PT.Most CT (4.9 ± 1.1) and PT (5.3 ± 0.9) were confident concerning their didactic ability necessary for online SLT and rated themselves as good teachers (CT 4.2 ± 1.1, PT 4.9 ± 1).

Teaching success und teaching experience, certification und motivation
Table 6 shows the results of the logistic regression on teaching success (financially), teaching experience, teacher certification and motivation.Teachers with higher teaching enjoyment have a significantly higher probability of financial teaching success (beta = 1.01, p = 0.0081).Higher teaching confidence is only weakly significantly associated with a higher probability of financial teaching success (beta = 0.49, p = 0.0587).Teachers with high teaching experience (more than 5 years) have a significantly higher probability of financial teaching success compared to teachers with low teaching experience (one year or less) (beta = 2.00, p = 0.0135), teachers with medium online teaching experience (1 to 5 years) have only a weakly significant higher probability of financial teaching success (beta = 1.25, p = 0.0539).Financial teaching success is not significantly related to the completion of teacher certification (p = 0.6456).

Teaching experience, confidence and FLT/SLT certification
As shown in Table 1, the majority of CT and PT had online teaching experience between months and years, most of them at least more than one year.72% of the CTs did not have any certification for SLT, and 91% of the PTs were certified for SLT (e.g., CELT, CELTA, CNED, CTCSOL, DaF, DaZ, DAEFLE, ELE, KFL, PGCE, TEFL, TFLC, TESOL, JLTCT).The participants were asked if the skills they learned during SLT certification did help them in the online SLT.Participants with SLT certification reported they found it helpful (67) for online SLT emphasizing mainly (1) lesson planning and design, (2) theory and methods in SLT and (3) customized private lessons and adjustment to different learner types.Some commented on their judgment in detail: It helped my understanding of lesson planning and structuring (. ..)Regardless of online or offline lessons, the important part is that the aim of each lesson is met for the individual student.Classroom management skills I learned are, of course, not applicable for online classes.The specific situation of SLT in an online-setting was addressed regularly, e.g., I was also very lucky to take my certificate during COVID, so my course was online and I was also exposed to many useful online teaching tools through our instructors.
While the majority of PTs (64) rated their teacher certification as helpful for online SLT, some certified PTs (11, s.Table 1) did not find their teacher certification specifically helpful for online SLT, mainly emphasizing their (1) teaching experience and (2) communication skills as more important than the skills learnt during their SLT certification and commented their judgment, e.g., it helps a little, but mostly it's my ability to get on with people and what I've learned on the job." or "Sometimes, with understanding grammar and lesson plans.But mostly I have learned from experience.
Twenty of the CT without any certification reported they would miss didactic skills during teaching, mainly specific skills, e.g., "the ability to teach children online" or "material preparation" (Table 2).
Uncertified CT, who did not miss didactic skills (30, Table 2), mentioned several reasons for this , notably (1) understanding students' needs due to being a learner themselves: "I think I have most of the didactic skills because I am a language learner myself, so I think I know what students need and how they learn," (2) experience in other fields of teaching which they could apply to online SLT, (3) no need for specific skills for conversation practice or (4) longterm SLT experience/training on the job: "I have over 20 years of teaching experience.So, I have acquired the didactic skills".

First language (L1), teaching experience and teaching success
Answering RQ 3: Can differences be determined depending on the L1 background?
Table 7 showing the results of the logistic regression on the first language (L1) and teaching success visualizes that no statistically significant dependencies could be found for L1 and financial teaching success.Notably, financial teaching success is not significantly related to the teacher's L1.

Motivation and dependencies with personal and general context variables
The study aimed, to answer if CT and PT were equally motivated to start and remain or stop online SLT and equally successful in online FLT and which context factors (e.g., financial, child care obligation, interpersonal support) influenced their motives and their personal and financial teaching success.
Analyzing correlation is a proven tool to investigate the relationship between motivation and other characteristics in applied linguistics and SLA (e.g., Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2021;Gardner & Lambert, 1959).Besides motivation (including enjoyment, self-efficacy and teaching confidence) general and personal context (support, financial, other responsibilities such as childcare, etc.), overall job satisfaction, enthusiasm and well-being of both teacher groups were investigated to identify dependencies among the measured variables.The findings of this study showed similar high motivation of CTs and PTs to start, stop and remain teaching their L1 online (Table 5, Figure 1).Specific motivation measured in item groups is visualized in Figure 1.Except for the motivation to stop online SLT, for PT slightly higher rates were measured for the motivation to remain (five items) and to stop (eight items) and for enjoyment (three items).Further, PT rated significantly higher in teaching confidence (six items).While earlier research (e.g., Lucksnat et al., 2022;Troesch & Bauer, 2020;Van den Borre et al., 2021) measured the intention to stay in the profession with only a single item, in this study, 5 items were used to measure the motivation to remain teaching.The results are in line with findings of Lucksnat et al. (2022) who found traditionally and alternatively trained teachers similarly motivated.This suggests the results gained with the five items used in this study to measure the motivation to remain in the profession are reliable for further research.
Slightly more CT (2.2 ± 1.5) than PT (1.8 ± 1.1) reported, they would prefer to return to their former job (e.g., a language school) or find another income.Some CTs commented on their intention: "I had a good experience with teaching and maybe I will continue with some lessons besides my main work, however, only teaching was not the right thing for me-I prefer to leave the house for work"."I missed contact with people and I am happy back in my former workplace."These findings can not only be understood as evidence, SLT might be a challenging task for untrained CT.Further, the comments remind us, workplaces and schools are not only places to complete tasks, but also places for face-to-face social interaction many students and teachers enjoy (König et al., 2020).Earlier research found career-changers shifting to online teaching mainly for financial reasons during COVID-19 tended to return to their pre-pandemic or another job option as their main intent was an income during the restrictions or they did not like the teaching profession, e.g., the need to speak a lot (Siebenhütter, 2021(Siebenhütter, , 2023)).Missing in-person social contact was found in earlier research on online teaching, to be a reason to return to face-to-face teaching, e.g., in the classroom (Siebenhütter, 2021(Siebenhütter, , 2023)).
Reasons for CT plans to stop online FLT were among others experiencing teaching their L1 more difficult or less enjoyable than expected.Also, some PTs experienced online SLT as more difficult and wish to return to teaching in a language school, etc. (Table A1; Table A2).This is in line with Moser et al. (2021) describing those teachers without prior online teaching experience who were least confident in remote teaching during COVID-19 emphasizing the abrupt shift from face-toface contexts to remote learning is fundamentally different from planned online learning.The PT in this research commented on the shift from classroom teaching to the online setting was not always easy and some of them preferred to teach face-to-face in the classroom even after teaching in the online setting for a longer period.Others instead even preferred the online setting as they found it less exhausting than face-to-face teaching (Siebenhütter, 2021(Siebenhütter, , 2023) ) and decided for long-term implementation of the online teaching due to reduced commuting stress and commuting costs (Siebenhütter, 2021(Siebenhütter, , 2023)).Similarly, alternatively and traditionally certified school teachers did not differ in their emotional exhaustion and intention to stay in the profession (Lucksnat et al., 2022).Fütterer et al. (2023) found higher job satisfaction among first-career public school teachers than second-career teachers, while initial education was found to be more important for firstcareer teachers' job satisfaction.One reason for this might be second-career teachers initially planned to work in another field, e.g., in academia, while first-career teachers voluntarily decided the profession initially.On the contrary, Lucksnat et al. (2022) reported higher enthusiasm in alternatively certified teachers and Troesch and Bauer (2017) found second-career teachers to be more satisfied with their job than first-career teachers.In this study it was found, that teachers who took up online SLT mainly for the enjoyment of being in contact with others without financial interests, had significantly higher motivation to continue their teaching activities (Table 3).Personality characteristics were not part of this study, but certainly influence the CT and PT experiences with online FLT and other research found, higher rates of extraversion can positively and neuroticism can negatively predict Internet and academic self-efficacy (Hong et al., 2021).Open-minded teachers may find it easier to start and more likely to keep up with online SLT regardless of their educational background, and the samples used in such studies do not include emotionally unstable persons as they would not decide for the profession from the beginning.Not only are the educational skills and SLT connection to their students important for the achievement and well-being of the learners but also for the SLT thinking, feeling and believes (Mercer, 2018).Language teachers are already increasingly under enormous stress including a growing teaching complexity also driven by digital teaching requirements (Mercer, 2018;Siebenhütter, 2021Siebenhütter, , 2023)).
Utility values, e.g., the desire to work independently from home (CT 4.8 ± 1.2, PT 4.9 ± 1) and freedom to structure their day (CT 5.3 ± 1.1, PT 5.1 ± 1), motivated teachers to remain SLT online: 58% of the CT and 47% of the PT found this freedom an important reason for teaching online (Figure 2).Context factors, e.g., time for family and childcare, were identified earlier as a reason to remain teaching online (Lucksnat et al., 2022;Siebenhütter, 2021Siebenhütter, , 2023)).Lucksnat et al. (2022) found that alternatively certified school teachers more frequently than traditionally certified teachers chose to teach to have more time for their families.Despite this, some CT (2.9 ± 1.5) and PT (2.8 ± 1.4) reported occasional difficulties with coordinating online SLT and their other responsibilities.
More than half of the participants, CT (56.7%) and PT (64%), reported living with a partner/family.Measuring the context variables showed that teachers without support were more likely to have difficulties in teaching than the privately well-settled (e.g., living with their family, receiving support from partner or friends).Teachers living alone showed slightly higher motivation to stop online SLT as did the teachers having difficulties coordinating online teaching with other responsibilities such as child care (Table 4, Figure 3).Only a few CTs and PTs wanted to stop SLT as they struggled with financially difficult situations and could not earn enough with online teaching, and no significant relationship was found (Table 4).
Indirect conclusions on didactic ability were drawn from the success in teaching online.Thirtyfive percent of CT and 40 % of PT reported they were able to make a living from online SLT, while 60% of PT and 53% of CT reported additional income (Figure 4).A reasonable number of CT (28%) and PT (16%) mentioned, they would not care much about the online SLT income, as they would teach mainly for fun (Figure 5).
A large portion of CT (4.2 ± 1.4) and PT (4 ± 1.3) reported communicative reasons to start online SLT.Teaching online gave them the possibility to express themselves and contribute to society.This is in line with Hong et al. (2021) findings that self-efficacy in online learning (Internet selfefficacy and academic self-efficacy) can positively predict practical performance anxiety.Not to be overlooked is the place from where the CT or PT are teaching.Some teachers commented it would depend on where they are living (e.g., "I can make a living in Spain but never in the U. S").This suggests online teaching via platforms like Italki may be a possibility for participation for individuals from rural areas without other income options.For living in a city like Tokyo or Frankfurt, the hourly price for each lesson would have to be high which reduces the chance to find new students.Some CT (1.6 ± 1) and PT (1.5 ± 0.9) complained, they were unable to teach as much as they would like to, as they could not find enough students.Students stopping to book lessons with a teacher might be a sign of low didactic skills or little empathy for the needs of the learners.A high level of empathy allowing teachers to sense the needs of their students may increase also teachers' enjoyment and teaching confidence.It might also be a sign of not enough learners are interested in booking lessons in comparison to the number of available teachers.Earlier research on online Japanese SLT found teachers were surprised by the many inquiries they reached (up to 8 or 10 hours every day if they wished) (Siebenhütter, 2021).The ability to make a living from online SLT seems to depend on the demand for a specific language.

Teaching experience, teacher certification and teaching confidence
It was analyzed if the professional teacher training (teacher certification) before participants started online SLT and the teaching experience they got while teaching online (in-service training) related to online SLT success (personal and financial).It was further asked if a) there was a difference between trained and untrained SLT (CT and PT) motivation to continue dependent on their teaching experience, and b) if the untrained SLT (CT) missed didactic training during teaching their L1 and c) if the PT rated their pre-service teacher training helpful for teaching their L1 in an online setting.According to the findings of this study, the majority of PTs rated their teacher certification as helpful for online SLT (Table 8).Only some untrained CTs missed didactic skills while teaching their L1 online and wished they would hold a teacher certification (Table 9).Teachers explained their with a) the large number of teaching materials they can find online, b) the teaching experience that made them able to handle the teaching process, and c) their own SLL experience that provided them with the needs of students learning a foreign language.
Self-efficacy does not only motivate individuals to start activities but also influences how much effort one puts in coping with challenges (Bandura, 1977).In general, self-efficacy is believed to increase with age (Bandura, 1977;Heckhausen & Heckhausen, 2018) which is understood as one reason for regularly higher self-efficacy in career changers in teaching (Lucksnat et al., 2022;Troesch & Bauer, 2017).The PT and CT in this study (18-78 years) included a wide range of age groups.However, the majority were between 18 and 48 years.PT and CT did not differ much in feeling competent for online SLT.The overall self-efficacy/teaching confidence of CT (4.6 ± 0.9) and PT (5 ± 0.7) was high (s.Table 5) but higher teaching confidence was only weakly significantly associated with a higher probability of financial teaching success (beta = 0.49, p = 0.0587).Preparedness can also develop and grow in-service along with growing teaching experience, which might explain the results found in this research, showing teachers with high teaching experience (more than 5 years) had a significantly higher probability of financial teaching success compared to teachers with low teaching experience (one year or less) (Table 6), while findings showed that teachers with medium online teaching experience (1-5 years) had only a weakly significant higher probability of financial teaching success (Table 6).The completion of pre-service teacher certification was found to be not significantly related to financial teaching success.
They reported enjoying teaching more after they got used to teaching their L1 online and had more long-term students booking lessons regularly.Enjoying teaching is not necessarily an indication of good educational skills and self-report data may not demonstrate teachers' knowledge (Alexander, 2008).However, regarding general work satisfaction and teaching success, as earlier research has shown, teachers' preparedness (e.g., curricular or for handling challenging situations) is an important factor influencing the enjoyment and job satisfaction of teachers (e.g., Fütterer et al., 2023).While (Fütterer et al., 2023) found no difference between first-and second-career public school teachers' work satisfaction concerning their professional development, Siebenhütter (2021) found that untrained online SLT struggled with similar challenges to public school teachers during COVID-19 when they had to teach online (Carrillo & Flores, 2022;Hong et al., 2021).The pedagogical education might be an advantage of PT to handle challenges specific to SLT expertise.Challenges reported by PT related more to technical issues in online teaching, which is in line with König et al. (2020).
Earlier research found a connection between missing teaching confidence in SLT and a high stopping rate of especially beginner students which could be reduced with increasing teaching experience (Siebenhütter, 2021(Siebenhütter, , 2023)).Other online language-teaching research revealed low confidence in former classroom-setting teachers that were forced to shift to online lessons was found, even if they reported well-designed courses (Moser et al., 2021).A shift was found in teachers' perceptions of their determination to use technology in their classrooms in a postcorona era when they got used to it after one month of online teaching (Van der Spoel et al.,

Yes
Is the teacher certification helpful for online teaching?
No 11 Yes 64 No answer 6 No 30 Yes 20 No answer 4 2020).Research showed career changers forced to online teaching by pandemic restrictions might start to enjoy SLT and decide to keep online teaching as their main profession even if they were able to return to the job, they had before COVID (Siebenhütter, 2021(Siebenhütter, , 2023)).
Most participants were confident about their didactic skills, while PT were overall more confident than CT (Figure 6).
Untrained SLTs felt challenged by teaching their L1 and were surprised about the difficulties of FLT, especially when teaching beginners and uncertain students that did not speak much (Siebenhütter, 2021(Siebenhütter, , 2023)).As performing authentic conversational training was possible with advanced students, a lack of educational skills (e.g., explaining specific grammar) was less obvious (Siebenhütter, 2021(Siebenhütter, , 2023)).This suggests that for teaching without being certified in SLT, conversational practice with advanced students can be equally successful for less experienced CT and PT.When explaining grammatical details was needed, some CTs but also PTs commented they would have wished to be more confident with grammar rules and could explain grammar better.Though overall, as shown in Figure 1, Tables 5 and A2 CT and PT rated high in teaching confidence, while CT were only slightly less confident in SLT than PT.Most CT (4.9 ± 1.1) and PT (5.3 ± 0.9) were confident concerning their didactic ability necessary for online SLT and rated themselves as good teachers (CT 4.2 ± 1.1, PT 4.9 ± 1).

Personal and financial success, enjoyment and advantages of online SLT
Teaching success was defined in this study as a combination of personal interest and enjoyment, teaching confidence and self-efficacy and also the ability to make a living from online SLT (Figure 7).Findings show CT can not only succeed with online SLT from a financial perspective but also in a personal way.Some CT (28.3%) and PT (16%) experienced the online lessons as something they did for themselves; teaching was something they enjoyed and not so much a means to earn money.The ability to teach without leaving home via video CT (4.8 ± 1.3) and PT (4.8 ± 1) was appreciated, and a large portion of CT (5.1 ± 0.8) and PT (5.3 ± 1) enjoyed teaching their L1 online.
CT and PT mentioned several-also unexpected-benefits of online SLT.These related to personally important experiences which meant personal success, e.g., finding themselves more confident after some years of online SLT than before performing this job.Several teachers reported, their initial intention was not to teach their L1 but to improve, e.g., their English, or to meet people from other countries: This is only my story.Actually, at first, I just wanted to learn English and make friends who speak English as native.Then I found the language learning website 'italki', but I avoid paying there, so I needed to earn italki-credit first and have started to teach Japanese.However, I noticed that teaching Japanese is more interesting than learning English.Since then, I've been still teaching Japanese.This is my 10th year.I'm satisfied with my decision, because I met great people and a best friend there.
Several CTs did not have the goal of earning their living from online SLT but found other benefits from teaching online: Two things that I'd like to add: first, I think teaching has helped me overcome my shyness, at least up to a point where I now feel more comfortable around other people.And second, I discovered that it's lots of fun for me to learn new things about other countries, lifestyles, etc.

Future perspectives on online SLT
Seeking to embed the results in the larger context of FLT, the author investigated the practical implementation of community teaching as one future scenario of SLT.The results suggest the anticipation of further changes in SLT by opening the field to untrained CT.At least CTs were able to manage the initial hardship in online teaching their L1 to SLL became competitive for at least part of the PT.The fact that the platform Italki closed its applications for CT and PT for all languages included in this research, except for Thai and Spanish, shows demand for becoming an online FLT.
This study provides implications for future changes in SLT not only towards digital work and digital education but also towards a more open handling of authorizations to teach.These developments also concern the individuals responsible for transforming university and school curricula to include digital education.Research on public school teachers' education and learning opportunities on digital teaching and learning is to improve and does not yet include much professional information and communication technologies tools, particularly digital teacher competence and teacher education opportunities to learn digital competence (König et al., 2020).
Although technical challenges specific to online SLT are out of the scope of this study, future research should include constructing and testing educational design principles for effective professionalization of SLT in adopting technology in educational practices (e.g., König et al., 2020;Van der Spoel et al., 2020).Prospective online SLT should not only focus on their pedagogical practice but also on effective technology implementation into their pedagogical practice (cf.Van der Spoel et al., 2020).
Even when it became to teaching one's L1 online without needing preparatory training, there is no guarantee for long-term success in online SLT.The majority of CT (53%) and PT (60%) added online SLT while continuing other on-and offline-activities.The reasons for the need for other income besides online teaching may be found in benefits of SLT in an online setting attractive for SLT in specific situations, e.g., childcare, academic education and other part-time work.
For those living in rural areas and unable to complete a teacher training course (or any other educational degree), e.g. in South Amerika or Southeast Asia (Siebenhütter 2016;2019;2020;2022) to participate in working life and reach not only a local but a global market via an online platform.Languages are learnt everywhere and potential students can log in from anywhere.This opens a wide range of possibilities for CTs able to bring a certain amount of self-efficacy and the ability to organize themselves.
It is worth stating that SLT without teacher training may fill gaps existing due to teacher shortages as described for career changers and alternatively trained school teachers (Fütterer et al., 2023;Lucksnat et al., 2022;Troesch & Bauer, 2017, 2020).Although teacher education certainly equips early teachers with skills to overcome difficulties untrained CT does not have, this study could show, most of the L1 speakers did quite well in finding their way to teach and to learn the needed skills during their teaching experiences.This is a sign, at least some L1 speakers may be well able to be successful in the FLT profession without ever having participated in an official teacher training or educational course.
Further, this paper can add to a better understanding of the effects of globalization on education and training in the context of FLL and FLT as a global service coming with low thresholds to allow individuals to start learning and teaching as soon as they can connect to the internet.There is no need to move, commute, pay high fees for education or take lessons.Teachers and learners are free to choose their preferred time during the day.Therefore, positive implications of CT are not only seen in a potential change in SLE in adults and children but also in the possibility that individuals will have the chance to work in areas in which they would not have had the opportunity in the traditional teaching system.
As the results of this study showed, online SLT with or without initial teacher training is not always successful.Even when teachers would have preferred to make a living from it, they were not able to do so.It has to be mentioned, however, that this result is not for sure due to the lacking ability of CT as an SLT.Rather, factors such as supply and demand for a specific language, the lesson price, the suggestion algorithm used on the online platform to advertise teachers, etc., can be crucial for financial success as an online SLT regardless of whether CT or PT.Nevertheless, the barriers to entry CT are significantly reduced by online teaching-platforms, and the training and certification paths for FLT are about to change.It could be shown, although the threshold to becoming an online FLT has significantly decreased with online platforms, whether the untrained CT continue their teaching activities and thus becomes a competition for trained foreign language teachers depends not only on motivational factors but also on personal characteristics such as persistence and flexibility.
The research is limited as the online teaching success from learners' perspective was not included and comparing CT and PT via students' evaluation would be a fruitful future research goal.If the results can be proven valid with untrained teachers of further languages, the research offers implications for further changes in SLL, and other areas of digital education.

Conclusion
This paper analyzed CT teaching their L1 (Spanish, English, German, Japanese, Korean, French, Chinese and Thai) online without being professionally trained as a SLT in comparison to PT. CT and PT FLT motivations and in particular the motivation to become and remain teaching as an UCT on the online platform italki.comwere compared.The "free market" for individual online SLT and community-tutoring was not researched yet.Particularly, the online-setting and the potential correlation between L1 background and motivation, job satisfaction and self-efficacy of CT and PT were analyzed.This study investigated as one of the first motivation to become and remain an FLT as an L1 speaker without professional teacher education in an online setting.
It was found that PT and CT are equally motivated to start and remain teaching their L1 as a foreign language online.It was also found that PT and CT perceive themselves as equally successful in online SLT.CT and PT rated their online SLT teaching experience equally or even more important than skills they could or had learnt during SLT certification.Findings were discussed concerning the CT and PT personal and financial success, professional development and inservice training.The findings suggest, although the initial difficulties untrained SLT (CT) may face differ from early-career PT, they can succeed in their online SLT activities and under certain circumstances even become a competition for traditionally trained second language teachers.The findings suggest teaching experience is equally important for success in online FLT as enjoyment and self-efficacy/teaching confidence.Both CT and PT reached high rates of self-efficacy /teaching confidence and were confident concerning their didactic ability for SLT, while PT rated significantly higher in teaching confidence.However, higher teaching confidence was only weakly significantly associated with a higher probability of financial teaching success.Concerning the differences that could be determined depending on the teachers' background, it was found that teachers with high teaching experience (more than 5 years) have a significantly higher probability of financial teaching success compared to teachers with low teaching experience (1 year or less), teachers with medium online teaching experience (1 to 5 years) have only a weakly significant higher probability of financial teaching success.Financial teaching success is not significantly related to the completion of teacher certification.With regard to the L1 of both teacher groups, no statistically significant dependencies could be found for L1, and financial teaching success was not significantly related to the teacher's L1.
This paper further presented a study of the effects of globalization on education and training in the context of FLL and FLT as a global service coming with low thresholds to allow individuals to start learning and teaching as soon as they can connect to the internet.Although teacher education certainly equips SLT teachers with skills to overcome difficulties untrained CT does not have, this study could show, most of the L1 speakers did quite well in finding their way to teach and to learn the needed skills during their teaching experiences.The aspects of CT are not only to be seen in a potential shift in adult and children SLE but also in the opportunities for individuals to participate in a field of labor they would have not had a chance in the classical teaching system.Therefore, this paper can add to a better understanding of the impacts of globalized education on education and training.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.CT versus PT motivation to stop and remain teaching, enjoyment and teaching confidence.

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Figure 2. Descriptive statistics for the item freedom gained through online SLT.

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Figure 3. Descriptive statistics on PT and CT personal context factor childcare.

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Figure 4. Descriptive statistics on CT and PT additional income besides online SLT.

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Figure 5. Descriptive statistics on PT's and CT's specific motives for online SLT.

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Figure 6.CT's and PT's confidence about having the necessary didactic skills for online SLT.

Figure 7 .
Figure 7. Descriptive statistics on PT and CT financial success in online SLT.
Descriptive statistics on CT and PT enjoyment, self-efficacy and teaching confidence (SE/TC)