Experience Over Global Orientation: A Content Analysis of Self‐Branding Strategies and Pricing Among Chinese, Korean, and English Online Tutors

ABSTRACT Language tutors use online teaching platforms (OTPs) and other digital platforms to recruit students. These contexts require tutors to promote themselves via self‐curated profiles that appeal directly to potential students. Despite increasing interest in language tutors’ self‐branding, little quantitative research has explored the prevalence of different self‐promotional discourses. The present study addresses this gap via a content analysis of the self‐promotional discourse in the profiles of online tutors of English, Korean, and Chinese ( N = 598). After establishing that English tutors charge significantly more for their lessons than both the Korean and Chinese tutors, the study identifies the six main discursive strategies that online tutors employ. The results of the study reveal broad similarities in the six self‐promotional discourses adopted across the three languages, especially with regard to the high frequency with which tutors of all three languages stress their professional qualifications and experiences. However, the study also observes some statistically significant differences in the prevalence of the six strategies across the three groups. Various potential explanations for these differences are discussed, and suggestions for future research are put forward.