Also called: Foreign Language Teachers, Postsecondary
Foreign Language and Literature Teachers build instructing, complex problem solving and judgment and decision making skills that carry over to other work. Below are 25 careers ranked by how closely their skills match, with pay from BLS May 2025. The closest match is Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education (84%).
Updated October 2026 · Data: O*NET 31.0 and BLS OEWS May 2025 · How we match careers
Sorted by skill match.
| # | Career | Skill match | Median pay | Pay change | Extra education |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education | 84% | $72,040 | −9% | None |
| 2 | Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructors | 77% | $61,540 | −22% | None |
| 3 | Instructional Coordinators | 75% | $77,440 | −2% | None |
| 4 | Sociologists | 74% | $106,030 | +34% | None |
| 5 | Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education | 74% | $63,970 | −19% | None |
| 6 | Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education | 73% | $64,370 | −19% | None |
| 7 | Special Education Teachers, Secondary School | 71% | $74,260 | −6% | None |
| 8 | Anthropologists and Archeologists | 71% | $70,770 | −11% | None |
| 9 | Political Scientists | 70% | $142,080 | +79% | None |
| 10 | Speech-Language Pathologists | 69% | $97,870 | +23% | None |
Compared with Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary, median $79,350. Skill match is our estimate (0–99) from O*NET 31.0 skills, knowledge, work activities and interests, adjusted for preparation and big pay drops. Pay: BLS OEWS May 2025, national median.
How important each skill is in work as foreign language and literature teachers (O*NET importance, scale 1–5).
The gaps that show up most often across your top 10 matches.
Free and low-cost training: use the CareerOneStop training finder below.
A concrete first step, the skills to add, and the hard parts of each job, from O*NET 31.0 education, training and work context data.
84% skill match · $72,040 · −9% pay
Coordination · Management of Financial Resources · Social Perceptiveness
No work-context factor stands out as unusually hard in O*NET data.
77% skill match · $61,540 · −22% pay
Service Orientation · Operations Monitoring · Social Perceptiveness
No work-context factor stands out as unusually hard in O*NET data.
75% skill match · $77,440 · −2% pay
Management of Financial Resources · Management of Material Resources · Coordination
If you want to stay close to what you do now, these roles are the nearest.
The closest matches are Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education (84% skill match, median $72,040), Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructors (77% skill match, median $61,540) and Instructional Coordinators (75% skill match, median $77,440), based on O*NET 31.0 data and BLS May 2025 pay.
Among the 25 matches, 5 pay more than foreign language and literature teachers at the median. The biggest increases: Political Scientists (+79%, $142,080), Sociologists (+34%, $106,030) and Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary (+33%, $105,870).
25 of the 25 matches usually need no more education than you have now, based on O*NET Job Zones.
We compare the importance of skills, knowledge, work activities and interests in O*NET 31.0 for your job and every other career, then adjust for extra preparation and big pay drops. The full method is on our Methodology page.