Report: The Day-to-Day of an ESL Teacher

After learning a lot about theory and suggested practices, I was interested in finding out the realities of
being an ESL teacher, and what their “day-to-day” looked like. I interviewed the ESL teacher at our
school, and she gave me a lot of insight to this topic.

The interview can be found below:

Do you have an ELD class or group of students? How do you run -- or how would you run that class?
I have a group of ELD students across different grade levels. I have one period scheduled a day for
tutorial support with those students. I work with them in small groups or individually to do intensive
English language learning. Initially, the focus is on survival English basics and vocabulary, using
translanguaging to complete tasks they are assigned, or language experience approach to expose them
to content learning. If we have a large group, the ELD students will also take time to play games or talk
to each other about their home country or past experiences.

How much L1 do you use to support ESL students? Do you use a lot of translation work between their
L1 and English?
I use L1 quite often for students in the early steps of ESL/ELD continua to harness as much prior learning
as possible and to encourage the development of L1 literacy skills. Translation work using Google
Translate is important during the early phases because many of them are stifled conversationally in a
new environment and so they are eager to share what is on their minds. I use L1 and encourage teachers
to do the same in subjects where language isn't a primary focus of assessment: perhaps it is solving a
math problem, learning science concepts, or social studies. I also have access to multilingual volunteers
and students that make using L1 socially engaging for newcomer students.

How often are you teaching grammar / vocabulary explicitly?

Grammar and vocabulary are usually taught in the context of a writing or reading task they have been
given. For example, If they get a reading in science or social studies, I might just focus on one paragraph
and decode it using a translator with the student. If the student is writing a report and has no periods,
we might just spend the editing process focusing on that one concept.

How much of your job involves supporting students with their classwork, as opposed to running your
own language program?
I'd say about 70% of my job involves supporting students with their classwork: ESL/ELD students want to
the same work as the class and it is empowering for them to present similar learning outcomes. I have a
separate language program using level appropriate resources, but it is designed so that they can jump
on and off the program at a pace that makes sense for them and the schedule they are following in their
programs.

Do you know if your ESL program/schedule is similar to other schools? If not, how is it different in
other schools that you know?
I think my program/schedule is similar to schools that I know that have been building a culture of
collaboration and co-teaching alongside traditional tutorial approaches. But those schools are also quite
dedicated to supporting ELLs which definitely not always the case. Every school has a different allocation
for their ESL program so I would imagine there are a lot of differences if the ESL is combined with ISSP or
contact.
Overall I would say that her practice is very similar to what we have learned in class. For example, in her
responses you can see elements like interactive language learning (having ELD students play games or
talk to each other about their home countries), use of L1 and prior learning, and collaboration are all a
big part of how she runs her program. I was at first surprised that she said 70% of her job involves
supporting students with their classwork, but her reasoning makes sense to me in terms of
empowerment and motivation. In fact, teaching ELL students grammar without context, or connection
to anything else they see going on in the classroom would likely be met with resistance or at the very
least, be super boring and de-motivating!

One of the issues I brought up was the idea of teaching grammar explicitly. I was curious to see how this
worked in contrast to what you see in the Core French classroom, where grammar concepts are often
taught explicitly by rote (who remembers chanting verb conjugations, “je suis, tu es, il elle est...). I was
pleasantly surprised to hear that she does not in fact teach grammar explicitly as the aim of her lessons,
but rather will integrate it in the context of a reading or writing task they are working on. From our
module on Grammar and Errors, I would say this approach is most similar to the “Reading Approach” as
described in the moramodules website. However, I’m not entirely convinced this is the best way to help
ELL students with the “ELL Grammar Issues” that Keith Folse mentioned. I’ll have to do more research
into this, although I know it’s still a widely-debated topic.

Altogether I’m happy I got to do this interview, as it really brought the content of this course to life (yay,
it’s authentic learning!). As we did this interview and spoke about her job I managed to sit in on a couple
of her one-on-one sessons with an ELD student, and observed how she interacted with him as they
worked together to finish his geography project. It was neat, and I walked away with some great tools
(e.g. using Adobe Spark for narrated picture videos) and inspiration for my next steps as a teacher of
English Language Learners.