Questions You Might be Asked at a Job Interview for an ESL Position

Are you hoping to get hired as an ESL teacher or specialist? Take a look at the questions compiled below from colleagues and experienced ESL teachers that have been in your shoes. 

Hopefully, these will begin to give you ideas about how you might answer questions that the interview committee could ask you.

• Name strategies that support English Learners.
• Discuss ways to communicate, involve, and engage families of ELs. 
• How might you accommodate curriculum to make it accessible for English Learners? 
• Describe your beliefs or philosophy on education/language acquisition. 
• Tell us how you manage behaviors. 
• What is the difference between BICS and CALPS? 
• How can you effectively use technology to build language and learn content with  English learners? 
• Share your knowledge of the PLDs. 
• A new student has arrived. He speaks no English yet. Describe how you will support him. What will his instruction look like? 
• How do you monitor progress for English learners? 
• What would you tell a teacher/administrator who says that their ELs do not need accommodations or support? 
• You are co-teaching in a classroom. The general education teacher does not want you to work with native English students. He asks that you only work with ELs out in the hall. What do you do? 
• What are the characteristics of a language rich environment? 
• How do you support general education teachers who have ELs in their room? 
• What will lesson plans look like when you work with ELs at mixed proficiency levels? 
• How can you leverage students' primary language when you don't speak their primary language? 
• What is culturally responsive teaching? 

Some readers wondered why I didn't share my own answers to the questions above. I thought about doing that. However, others thought independent reflection on the questions was more authentic. 

Good luck and please don't hesitate to ask us any questions about the questions via the comments or in our face book group (see below for details). 
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Related reading: Once you get hired...you'll want to hop on over to this article Help! I'm Teaching ESL Next Year. What do I do NOW to prepare? 

Feel free to join our Facebook group to share ideas, advocate, and ask your own questions about serving English learners.