About
I want you to know that what you taught me did not stay in a notebook. It followed me into every classroom, every support plan, and every conversation I have had with a struggling multilingual student since.
- Lucia J., EL Coordinator
Our work ensures that no student is held back by a system that fails to teach them the very code they need to succeed within it.
At Westerlund Consulting, we use Visible Language Pedagogy (classroom-ready systemic functional linguistics) to help districts, publishers, and education agencies unlock the power of language and disciplinary learning for every student.
Our work is deeply rooted in community and Dr. Ruslana Westerlund’s own personal journey. A daughter of Ukraine and author of the cross-cultural memoir From Borsch to Burgers, she serves as President of Friends of Ukraine Madison, a non-profit dedicated to supporting the Ukrainian community and fostering global connection through local action.
Dr. Westerlund consults internationally on language-focused instruction, mentors educators in SFL-based approaches, and writes about the intersections of literacy, culture, and identity. Her work positions her as a bridge between linguistic research and classroom practice, and between her Ukrainian heritage and American educational leadership.
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Co-author of the WIDA 2020 Framework which has impacted millions of students and helped transition national benchmarks from compliance into blueprints for student learning.
Author and editor of seminal publications, including Scaffolding for Multilingual Learners and Making Language Visible in Social Studies.
Over three decades of experience scaling evidence-based practices for school districts and agencies from Glasgow to Georgia.
A leader in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), a powerful area of research that makes the hidden language demands of math, science, and social studies visible to every learner.
International keynote speaker and researcher dedicated to debunking systemic myths about education for Multilingual Learners and providing practice-ready visible language pedagogy.
Facilitates cross-continental collaboration as a convener for LLENA North America and serves on the LLEN Expert Panel.
Visiting Scholar at Leysin American School in Switzerland
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TESOL International Convention (Multiple Engagements)
State TESOL Affiliates (Carolinas, Dakotas, Maryland, Minnesota, Virginia Wisconsin)
Guest Presenter at the University of Bath, Third Disciplinary Literacy Symposium
WIDA Annual Conference (Featured Presenter)
AAAL (American Association of Applied Linguistics)
NABE (National Association for Bilingual Education)
Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Ukraine
TESOL Ukraine
International Systemic Functional Linguistics (ISFL) Congress (Scotland, UK)
The Reading League (Illinois & Minnesota Chapters)
State-Wide Professional Learning Conventions (Georgia, South Carolina, Michigan, Missouri, Delaware, Wyoming, North Dakota)
A functional approach to language development highlights the idea that language is our resource not only to express ideas, but to enact roles and relationships and act in and ON the world.
“Language is for the living of life, not for the production of structures.”
- Ruqaiya Hasan
New Project
Dr. Westerlund is collaborating with Keith Kelly on the Cafe CLIL Podcast, exploring connections between disciplinary literacy, Systemic Functional Linguistics, and CLIL to support multilingual learners.
Kelly, based in Plovdiv, leads a CLIL program at Anglia School, Bulgaria, and coordinates the Forum for Across the Curriculum Teaching. He collaborates with Phil Ball in San Sebastián, whose work in trilingual schools inform the podcast.