Running head: ELL/ESL EDUCATOR INTERVIEW 1

ELL/ESL Educator Interview

Delaney Bartlett
Washington State University
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ELL/ESL Educator Interview

For my Teaching and Learning 333 ELL teacher interview I chose to interview Shanna

Lundstrom. Ms. Lundstrom is an 8th grade science teacher at North Whidbey Middle School, and

has been teaching for around 10 years. Oak Harbor Middle School is known for its diverse

population of students, due to being in the middle of a large military town. Therefore, Ms.

Lundstrom has had a lot of experience with ELL/ESL students, and was happy to share her

thoughts and experiences with me as a future teacher. I found her experiences and future advice

to be particularly helpful, as she expressed many strategies and ideas that I had not yet thought of

as a future teacher. For contact purposes, Ms. Lundstrom’s phone number is (360) 279- 5549,

and her school email is slundstrom@ohsd.net.

Some of the interesting ideas and striking issues that stuck out to me when interviewing

Ms. Lundstrom were that in the Oak Harbor School District, they do not always make teachers

aware of which students are ELL/ESL students. Therefore, it is left up to the teacher’s digression

as to which of their students need assistive language help. Ms. Lundstrom quotes, “There have

been a few times where I had no idea the student was an ELL/ESL student because the student

was proficient enough throughout the first month of school, and the district never let me know.”

This surprised me that after having experience with ELL/ESL students, Ms. Lundstrom couldn’t

always identify which students were native English speakers and which were not because they

were so proficient. I feel as an experienced teacher; her school district expects her to know her

incoming students and their learning situations, which clearly is not always the case. Ms.
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Lundstrom noted that she would have found it helpful to know that certain students were non-

native English speakers in order to give them more help, different seating arrangements, and

possibly break their work down for them in order to create better understanding of assignments.

This relates to some of the themes that we have discussed in class, as we discussed

strategies on how to better accommodate ELL/ESL students, as well as different teaching and

interactive methods that could be applied within the classroom. Ms. Lundstrom expressed that

she did not get an opportunity to start off with these strategies, simply because she did not know

who was an ELL/ESL student, because they were proficient enough to follow along. As

explained in chapter 10 of our classroom textbook, when learning that these students were

ELL/ESL students, Ms. Lundstrom could have then used differentiated instruction. She

mentioned that she began using this method after learning their proficiency levels. Differentiated

instruction is used by teachers who know their students on a deeper level, and can apply their

language and academic needs into instructional goals (Wright, 2015. 268). They can then

develop the student’s curriculum intake, vocabulary, and instruction to better develop their

English skills for their future. In doing this, it personalizes their learning structure, allowing them

to work at a pace that is better suited for them and their proficiency level. By using this form of

instruction, Ms. Lundstrom’s ELL/ESL students would then have better success in her classroom

and a better overall understanding of their learning styles.

Another interesting idea that stuck out to me when interviewing Ms. Lundstrom was that

because she is a science teacher, she noted that a lot of her ELL/ESL students find it easy to pick

up on the vocabulary of the class. She quotes, “In science, the majority of vocabulary is Latin
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based, so a lot of the vocabulary terms we use in our class are sometimes rooted in their home

language, and they (ELL/ESL students) pick them up very quickly.” This surprised me as I did

not think about the Latin words being rooted in ELL/ESL student languages. I found this to be

particularly interesting, as it would then be easier for ELL/ESL students to learn and pick up on

the vocabulary.

This relates to our course themes as we have discussed the use of language and how

sometimes phonology, syntax, and lexicon may carry over between languages. This is shown in

chapter 2 of our classroom textbook as it quotes, “emergent bilinguals draw on all of the

languages in their linguistic repertoire to make meaning” (Wright, 2015. 39). This implies that

students who are bilinguals often draw on their previous knowledge of one language and apply it

to the language that they’re learning. In Ms. Lundstrom’s example, her students sometimes use

their native language as a resource when learning science vocabulary terms, as the words are

sometimes rooted from the same origin and have similar meanings and sounds. This is very

helpful for students, as it helps them connect the two languages together and recognize common

themes within their learning. These connections help bring cultural relevance into the classroom,

and as Ms. Lundstrom noted, help tie the languages together and therefore help the student learn

better. By bringing cultural relevance into the classroom, students can then develop and deeper

connection to the content that they are learning, as they are already somewhat familiar with it

from their home language. In this example, Mrs. Lundstrom could also use forms of scaffolding

to build upon a student’s prior knowledge from their home language (Wright, 2015.57.) Thus

explained, she could encourage them to express what they already know from their home
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language, such as vocabulary terms or suffixes, and help them to build upon their home language

to develop new skills in the English language. This is expressed in our classroom textbook as it

explains that a teacher can assess where the student is in their learning, and identify their zone of

proximal development, then help them build upon their knowledge to achieve greater goals

(Wright, 2015.57.) In doing this, it relates the student’s home language to their learning, which

creates cultural relevance within the classroom and makes the student create connections

between their home life and their school life. This helps the student retain the knowledge better,

as they then feel they have a connection to their learning, and can have confidence that they

understand the topic in a deeper meaning.

Interviewing Ms. Lundstrom gave me a better perspective of what it means to be an

ELL/ESL teacher, and gave me a lot of things to look for in my future classroom. I never would

have thought about how science terms can root to a child’s home language, and how they can use

that previous knowledge to better develop their current knowledge. Some of the responses given

changed the way I see myself as a teacher. I would of course see myself as an educator, but now

also as a facilitator and connector of learning. I will use these ideas to better understand my

future students and their learning, as well as create many ties to their lives outside the classroom.
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References

Lundstrom, S. (2017, November 22). ELL Educator Interview (Personal Interview).

Wright, W. E. (2015). Foundations for teaching English language learners: Research, Theory,

Policy, and Practice. Philadelphia: Caslon Publishing.

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Appendix
1) Introductory questions. (Name, school they’re teaching at, teaching experience etc.)
2) What are the demographics of your classroom?
3) What adjustments had to be made when teaching ELL students compared to native English
speakers?
4) What obstacles have you encountered when working with ELLs in your district? How did you
overcome these obstacles?
5) What are your views on current teaching strategies and which do you find the most effective?
6) What changes have you made to your teaching style from when you first started teaching to
now?
7) How is the interaction between ELL students and native English speaking students in the
classroom?
8) Do you teach only ELL students or do you have a mixed classroom? What is the ratio and
how effective do you think the learning is in this type of environment?
9) What are your favorite strategies to use in the classroom with ELLs?
10) Would you say teaching and working with ELL students made you a better teacher? Why or
why not?
11) What advice would you give to a future teacher who plans to work with ELLs?
12) How do you encourage parents to become involved in the school setting?
13) In what ways do you accommodate ELLs in your classroom? Did you find it to be effective,
why or why not?
14) In what ways does your school support ELLs? Do you find it effective?
15) How many languages do you speak and when did you learn them? Why? Is it helpful to
know these languages? Why or why not?
16) What is the best way to communicate with ELL parents?
17) What is the most important thing to teach an ELL when they are learning a new language?
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