Sara Vroom Fick

Biography

Dr. Vroom Fick came to Wheaton in 2013 after 13 years as an English Language instructor at the middle and high school levels. She teaches courses within the Education and TESOL programs and coordinates the undergraduate endorsement programs for English as a Second Language and Bilingual Education. Her focus is on preparing all teachers to provide holistic language development in multilingual settings.

Dr. Vroom Fick started her career in St. Paul, MN teaching immigrant and refugee students at a public high school. She then spent five years teaching at the International Christian School of Vienna in Austria where she developed and implemented an intensive content-based beginner program for the middle and high school levels. In both locations, she worked in highly multicultural and multilingual classrooms, which developed her interest in culture’s impact on classroom dynamics and multilingual development. She is excited to share these passions and skills with the next generation of educators preparing for increasingly diverse teaching contexts.

In that vein, she is also the coordinator of the International Student Teaching Program which provides the opportunity for education majors to complete their student teaching internships at international schools around the world.

Dr. Vroom Fick is also the Wheaton College liaison for the Illinois Golden Apple Scholar program, supporting future educators in their preparation to serve high need schools around the state of Illinois.

She lives in West Chicago with her husband and two children, where they enjoy gardening, searching out global cuisine, and engaging with their bilingual community.

Education

University of Illinois at Chicago
Ph.D., Literacy, Language and Culture 2021

Wheaton College
M.A., Intercultural Studies and TESOL 2012

University of Northwestern-St. Paul
B.A., ESL Education and Bible 2000

Areas of Expertise

Multilingual Education
English Language Development
Language Ideologies
Disciplinary Literacy

Professional Affiliations

International TESOL
National Association of Bilingual Education
Christian English Language Educators Association
Illinois Association of Multilingual Multicultural Education
Illinois TESOL-Bilingual Education
English Learners Advocacy Council in Higher Education (IL)

Presentations and Event Appearances

I belong there but I never learned the language: TCK language and identity development. American Association for Applied Linguistics Annual Conference. Denver, CO, March 2025.

MK Language Learning: Why & How. Plenary Speaker at MK Synergy Conference. Dallas, TX, February 2025.

Examining and Developing Theologies of Multilingualism. Christians in English Language Teaching Conference. Virtual, March 2025.

Visual Language Autobiographies: Making Our Full Linguistic Repertoires Visible. Multilingual Illinois/ESSA Conference. Tinley Park, IL, December 2024.

Examining the role of context in teachers’ maintenance and enactment of plurilingual ideologies. American Association for Applied Linguistics Annual Conference, Houston, TX, March 2024.

Disrupting Monolingual Perspectives & Practices
Literacies@Chicago Super Saturday. Chicago, IL, March, 2020

Disciplinary Literacy: Connecting Content Area Teachers to Academic Language Development
Illinois Multilingual Conference, Oakbrook, IL, December, 2019

Evaluating texts for cultural and linguistic sustainability.
Leaders in Reading Network Spring Session. St. Paul, MN, May 2018

Issues and models for English language learners in international schools
International TESOL Convention, Chicago, IL, March 2018

Helping parents support their children’s bilingual language development
ESL Ministry Conference, Chicago, IL, September 2017

Giving voice to students’ identity development
Illinois Association for Multilingual Multicultural Education Conference, Oak Brook, IL, December 2016

Biliteracy development in multilingual general education classrooms
Symposium presented at the Literacy Research Association Annual Conference Carlsbad, CA, December, 2015

Techniques for teaching English to younger children throughout the world
Research presented at the International TESOL Convention, Toronto, ON, March, 2015

Courses Taught

EDUC 136 Teaching Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students
EDUC 136L Cross-Cultural Tutoring Practicum
LING 224 Theoretical Foundations of Language Acquisition
LING 326 EL Methods for the Content Area Teacher
LING 328L ESL Practicum
Student Teaching Supervision

Research

Third Culture Kid language development
Native language development
Language and identity
Culture’s impact on classroom dynamics
Disciplinary literacy for language development

Selected Publications

Disciplinary literacy: Empowering teachers and students with tools to access complex academic language. ITBE Link, Fall 2023 Issue.

Developing critical language awareness through the evaluation of multilingual children’s literature. Literacies Across the Lifespan, 2021.

Leveraging language: Teacher-identified influences on their use of linguistically responsive teaching, Dissertation completed at the University of Illinois at Chicago

Cross-cultural perspectives on teaching English as a foreign language to children: A multinational survey, TESOL Journal Seaman, A. & Vroom, S.

Passport to Adventure: Explore C Level Student Book, Teacher Book, Blackline Masters, Audio CDs. Colorado Springs: Purposeful Design Publications. Vroom, S. & Seaman, A., 2014.

Writing skills: Exploring cultural influences and classroom applications, ITBE Link
Markely, H., Sappington, K., & Vroom, S., 2012.