How Teachers Can Communicate Effectively with Parents Who Speak a Different Language

Abstract

Language differences between parents and teachers, if not carefully managed, can cause miscommunication or communication gaps that could hinder both the school’s and students’ progress. This paper explores various ways of translating real-time conversations between teachers and parents who speak a different language. Fourteen K-12 teachers in the United States were surveyed and nine were interviewed to determine how English-speaking teachers can communicate effectively with non-English speaking parents. The findings from the study suggest Microsoft Translator technology for speech translation for conversations to break the language barrier, bridge communication gaps and promote effective bi/multilingual parent-teacher conferences.