How can school communications become more accessible to multilingual families?
In this episode of the Language on the Move podcast, I speak to Professor Margaret Kettle about the Multilingual Glossary of School-based Terms. This is list of school-related terms selected and translated to help multilingual families connect with schools. The research-based glossary was developed jointly with the Queensland Department of Education, Education Queensland school personnel, Multicultural Australia, and community group members and families.
If you enjoy the show, support us by subscribing to the Language on the Move Podcast on your podcast app of choice, leaving a 5-star review, and recommending the Language on the Move Podcast and our partner the New Books Network to your students, colleagues, and friends.
Related content
- Monolingual school websites as barriers to parent engagement
- Community Languages Schools Transforming Education
- What do migrant parents expect from schools?
- Studying abroad is amazing, or is it?
Transcript (coming soon)
This work is licensed under a
Hi there!
I have experienced similar problems to those discussed in the podcast. In my work as a pedagogue at a primary school in Hamburg, I communicate with parents every day.
Some parents didn’t know about school holidays, parent-teacher meetings or other days when the school was closed and their children came to school only to be standing in front of closed doors. These are the same children who don’t wear costumes on holidays like Halloween and Carnival. It’s the same sad experience here: The children are sad, they feel like they don’t belong and are ashamed. As someone who only works in after-school care, it’s difficult to build a connection with the parents. This is especially difficult because these children are often not picked up by their parents after school and because of the language difficulties, the parents don’t even read the emails or notes that we write to them. Overall, it’s very hard to consistently fill the language gaps. A glossary would be very helpful in a multilingual city like Hamburg.
This podcast reminded me of a communicative problem I have witnessed between a first grade teacher and the mother of a young boy in her class.
The family had recently come to Germany, they neither spoke German nor English. The teacher read the form the family had filled out for enrolment and found out that the boy and his parents speak Dari (a variety of Persian spoken by specific communities in Afghanistan). She then organises through the “Sprach- und Kulturmittlerpool” of the city of Hamburg a translator for a sit-down with the parents and works on a list of sentences in Dari, which she then copied and cut up in little strips so that she could glue them into the boy´s homework booklet. However, the teacher told me she never got any kind of response from the parents about the notes. It was only much later into the school year that the teacher discovered that the parents were from Dari-origin, but spoke only Turkish, which is why no communication had taken place.
This illustrates quite nicely the conundrum Prof. Kettle spoke about, making me wish for an instrument as the Multilingual glossary for the use in German schools.
Thanks, SBahOr, for this pertinent example! This may sound like an extreme example but this kind of linguistic misdiagnosis happens surprisingly often … a related problem lies in the fact that speaking a language does not necessarily mean being literate in the language. In addition to a multilingual glossary, we might also need more information about linguistic diversity 🙂
I liked your example, Helen! And being dressed differently can result in embarrassment, especially for certain age groups, which is such a real impact of unclear communication. I still remember having had to google the term “sensible shoes” when it came to the dress code at an Australian workplace (and I must admit I still find it very vague).
Such great examples! “Smart casual” is another Australian dress code I’ve never managed to fully figure out …
One of the home-school communication problems that is described in the podcast is that multilingual families may not understand written instructions in English, such as the request to wear something red to take part in the event. During my “Bundesfreiwilligendienst” (a voluntary year of work) in an international class (IVK) there were some similar situations. For example, we had planned a trip to a football stadium and told the students to wear “practical” clothing. Some of them arrived in suits, which wasn’t a big problem, of course, but not the best clothing for playing football. I realised that its not just the language that can be a barrier, but also associating words differently. To me, “practical clothing” means that the clothes can get dirty and you can move around comfortably, but to someone else that might mean that the clothing is appropriate for a nice place, such as a stadium.
During my time as a mentor, I attended a learning development meeting for a fifth-grade student. The class teacher had sent out invitations to the families well in advance, offering the option to bring an interpeter. These interpreters are mothers from the community who are fluent in both: the family’s native language and the institutional language of the school. The mother of my mentee did not take up this offer and attended the meeting without an interpreter.
During the conversation, communication barriers became apparent, and the teacher clearly stated that she should involve an interpreter next time. The mother replied that she would bring her son (the girl’s older brother) to the next meeting. The teacher disagreed, explaining to me afterwards that these meetings are intended to be a safe space where students can express their thoughts and doubts freely. He felt this might not be possible in a setting involving both, the mother and the older brother.
While I think providing interpreters is an excellent initiative, educators must ensure that such offers are actually noticed and understood. Furthermore, one must consider who these interpreters are. In this instance, they were women the mother knew well. She later told me that she felt uncomfortable with them knowing about her child’s academic performance or having them witness her own language difficulties. Furthermore this situation showed me how language barriers can lead to social exclusion. Once the teacher realized the mother lacked full fluency, he began to withhold information and overlooked the fact that her receptive understanding was better than her ability to speak.
Thank you, Eva, for this detailed example! So many important aspects around (informal) interpreting and also the shame that many people feel who don’t speak the dominant language well.
A similar communication problem to the one described in the podcast can be seen in the use of school-related terms that are not clearly explained. In a situation I witnessed, families were given information about a “parent-teacher conference” without any further explanation. For parents unfamiliar with the school’s language, the meaning remained unclear. Some assumed that participation was optional, while others didn’t understand the purpose of the meeting and didn’t attend.
This example relates to an issue that is also discussed in the podcast. Schools often assume that all families have the same knowledge about how school systems work. However, this isn’t always the case, especially for multilingual families. As the example of “Day for Daniel” shows, misunderstandings can easily occur. It’s a day dedicated to child safety, where students are asked to wear red shirts in memory of a child who was abducted while wearing a red shirt. However, the phrase “dress up in red” led some multilingual families to understand it as wearing a costume.
This shows that parents may struggle to participate fully if there are no clear explanations or translations, leading to one-sided communication.
Thanks, Ann! Can you describe the context of the “parent-teacher conference” example a bit more? Was that in the German school system? If so, was the term really “parent-teacher conference”? What was the school’s language? What was the actual meaning and purpose of “parent-teacher conference” in that context? What can you tell us about the parents who did or did not attend? Did the school eventually realize the misunderstanding? Where there any measures taken to change communication? What were the consequences of non-attendance for parents and their children?
I would like to add to Ann’s comment:
While listening to the podcast, I realised that there are multiple home-school communication problems I haven’t been aware of before. But my first thought was also about the topic of teacher-parent conferences.
In my case, the situation happened in a German school where German is the only spoken language of teachers.
Usually, every school year, there is a so called “Lehrer-Eltern-Gespräch” at our school. The goal is to have a conversation about the social and educational status of the students and to give feedback to their parents about possible improvements or general positive feedback. Depending on the class level, there might also be help regarding the child’s educational and professional future.
As already mentioned, our school also realised that parents from linguistically diverse backgrounds do not understand the intent of our school’s “Lehrer-Eltern-Gespräche” (teacher-parent conferences). Even though there was a parental notice with all the information needed and also an easier version of the text, it had been a challenge for those parents to even be able to set a date for that conversation. We reflected on whether the unusual time frames were misleading because these teacher-parent conversations were supposed to take place during school and students had to stay at home.
Thinking about it now from a different perspective, I see the challenge more clearly. Instead of a simplified version of the text, there should be a possibility to receive this parental notice in different languages to ensure a general understanding.
Thanks, Vanessa! I agree that offering the text in different translations might have been a better solution although some parents may not be literate in the home language, either. Beyond language, the timing does sound like a potential barrier because many parents work jobs with little or no flexibility and/or don’t have childcare outside of school hours. Good example that inclusion needs to be considered on many levels.