Teachers' Biggest Challenge: Not Being Able to Communicate with Students and Their Parents

By Dr. Suzanne Irujo, ELL Outlook™ Contributing Writer

This is the fifth and last in a series of articles exploring classroom implications of some of the findings of a study done by Gándara, Maxwell-Jolly, & Driscoll (2005). These researchers interviewed teachers of English language learners (ELLs) in California and identified challenges they face.

In our series of articles on the challenges identified in the study done by Gándara and her colleagues, I have left until last the issue that may be the most challenging of all: How do you teach when you can't communicate with your students? How do you elicit the support of parents when you don't understand their language and they don't understand yours?

Problems communicating with students and parents was cited most often by both elementary and secondary teachers as the greatest difficulty they encounter in teaching English language learners (ELLs). For elementary teachers, the "inability to connect with parents … was the most commonly named challenge" (Gándara et al, 2005, p. 6). The challenge most often mentioned by secondary teachers was "communicating with, understanding, and connecting with students" (Gándara et al, 2005, p. 6).

Why does it matter?

Why does communication with parents and students cause teachers so much frustration? If two people don't speak the same language, of course they're not going to be able to communicate well. Why not just be patient until students and parents learn some English?

In the Gándara et al. study, elementary teachers spoke of not being able to inform parents of standards and expectations, of parents' inability to help their children with homework in English even when they wanted to do so, and of their own inability to use families and communities as resources in the education of their children. These teachers recognize the importance of parental involvement in the education of young children, and feel frustrated because they can't tap into this important resource.

Secondary teachers spoke of the difficulty of motivating students, of making them feel comfortable enough to try to use English, and of making academic content accessible enough so students will feel engaged and challenged. Teachers at this level recognize the importance of student motivation and involvement in the learning process, and feel frustrated because of the difficulty of trying to challenge these students without discouraging them.

And of course, we know that learning another language is not something that happens overnight, so "waiting it out" until parents and students learn English is not really an option. The initial weeks and months of schooling that immigrant children and teenagers experience in a new country can be crucial in determining later school success or failure. We can't afford not to use every possible resource to help them.

What should school systems do?

It would be nice if every school system with a substantial number of ELLs had translators and interpreters in every necessary language, available whenever they were needed. Large school systems often do try to provide this service. For example, the Los Angeles Unified School District employs 19 full-time people, plus additional part-timers, to translate and interpret in 10 different languages. That may seem like a lot, but the Translations Unit could only fulfill two-thirds of the requests it received last year because of its limited budget-which came out to about $4.95 for every student in the district, less than many of us spend on coffee every day (So, 2006).

But this article is not meant to be about what school systems are or are not doing to help ELL teachers. The Gándara et al. report made a series of recommendations for California policy makers and administrators, including "a summit to address the issues raised by teachers" (p. 19), but I hope no teachers out there are holding their breath until help arrives. If you've read this whole series of articles, you know that most of what teachers can do to improve the issues raised in the study must be on a "do-it-yourself" basis.

What can teachers do?

Well, to begin with, you can't speed up your students' process of language acquisition. You also can't force parents to learn English, or provide the necessary resources for those who want to learn but can't find the help they need in order to do so. And realistically, most of you probably don't have the time and resources necessary to be able to embark on the lengthy endeavor of learning to speak another language with reasonable fluency.

But while you can't totally remedy the situation, there is a lot you can do to improve it. To start with, there are three principles that will help you communicate with somebody when neither of you speaks the other's language. They apply equally to communicating with students and with parents.

1. The first principle is probably easiest and most effective: Find somebody who speaks the language. Students can interpret for their classmates and parents (although be sensitive about using a child to translate for his or her parents during a parent-teacher conference). English-speaking students who are studying the language can be asked (with their teachers' supervision) to translate notices that are sent home. Community members are often willing to volunteer their services as translators or interpreters. If you live near a college or university, you might be able to locate international students who would be happy to help out somebody from their own country.
2. The second principle will be easier for some people than others: Don't be embarrassed. The people who are most successful at communicating with somebody without a shared language are those who are not afraid to look a bit foolish. When verbal communication is difficult or impossible, the alternative is nonverbal communication. I don't mean the kind where people claim they can tell others' personalities by how they cross their legs. I mean acting out what you can't communicate through words. Or drawing pictures of things you can't describe. I can't act, and I can't draw, and I definitely feel foolish when I'm trying to communicate with somebody who doesn't speak English or Spanish, but I've learned to overcome my embarrassment. Pretending that I'm playing Charades or Pictionary helps. Nobody is embarrassed by the crazy antics performed by players acting out movie or book titles, or by the often unrecognizable things people create as they try to define words by drawing pictures. If you can transfer some of that "don't-worry-about-looking-foolish" attitude to your interactions with students and parents who don't speak English, and learn to do anything it takes to get meaning across, you'll find that you can be much more successful communicating than you thought.
3. The third principle is probably the hardest, but very worthwhile in the long run, especially if all the students you teach come from the same language background: Learn whatever you can of their language, even if it's not much more than Buenos días or Mahad sanid (Thank you in Somali). A few words won't help you explain to a parent what an individualized education plan is, or explain cell structure to a student, but they will show that you recognize the home language and welcome it in school. This will then help release the tension in the exchange. People really do communicate better (even when they both speak the same language) when both parties are relaxed and comfortable with each other. And although the task may seem daunting when you begin, if you start out with the attitude that you're in it for the long haul, before you know it you'll be carrying on conversations.

What resources might help?

In addition to following those three principles, you can start collecting print and online resources that can help you communicate better with students and parents who don't speak English.

Resources for communicating with parents:

• ¡Colorín Colorado! is a Web site with suggestions for teaching ELLs. The section for teachers is found at http://www.colorincolorado.org/reachingout/outreach.php, and includes ideas for reaching out to parents. The suggestions include using parents' language whenever you can, educating parents about the U.S. school system, arranging home visits, welcoming parents into the school in various ways, and helping them locate adult learning opportunities. Another section, on empowering parents at home, includes suggestions teachers can give to parents. These can be found at http://www.colorincolorado.org/reachingout/empowering.php.
• The section of the ¡Colorín Colorado! Web site for parents includes resources in Spanish. Their use presumes that the parents are literate in Spanish, but the reading level is fairly simple. Some of the topics included are what parents can do at home to help students, fun activities for reading, and suggestions for books and stories. Find them at http://www.colorincolorado.org/index.php. They also have a bi-monthly newsletter in Spanish, which parents can subscribe to at http://www.colorincolorado.org/boletin.
• You can get a "crib sheet" for communicating with parents. Benvita Education Solutions (http://www.bentiva.com), whose motto is "No Spanish? No Problem!", has a Parent/Teacher Kon-ver-SAY-shun Kit, which provides the teacher's side of various dialogues in Spanish, written first in English, then in a Spanish translation, and finally in phonetically transcribed Spanish. The dialogues are on topics such as attendance, homework, tests, and report cards. I can't say that using the kit will mean you will have no more communication problems, because it doesn't tell you what to do when the parent answers and you don't understand what she or he said. However, it's probably better than nothing if no other resources are available. The Spanish translations are accurate, and the phonetic transcriptions are easy to read. The same company also has a Communicator, which provides useful phrases for written communication with parents. See the section on communication with students, below, for this company's Pocket Kon-ver-SAY-shun.
• The School Specialty Publishing Company has books that provide help communicating with Spanish-speaking parents. Teacher Messages for Home includes reproducible forms and letters for telling parents about field trips, open houses, conferences, and much more. It is available for grades K-2 or 3-6. Their Hola! Communicating With Spanish-Speaking Parents provides reproducible letters that are customizable by checking off information. They're at http://www.schoolspecialtypublishing.com/spanish.php.

Resources for communicating with students:

• As mentioned above, Benvita Education Solutions also has a Pocket Kon-ver-SAY-shun kit, consisting of five cards containing short phrases for use in the classroom, cafeteria, and hallway. Each phrase follows the same pattern of English, Spanish translation, and phonetic Spanish transcription as the more extensive dialogues found in their Parent/Teacher Kon-ver-SAY-shun Kit. They're at http://www.bentiva.com.
• If you want to try learning some Spanish, classes with a real Spanish-speaking teacher are the best way to go about it. If that's not possible, the Spanish for Educators CD is designed specifically to teach the basic Spanish that teachers need to know in order to communicate with Spanish-speaking students. It contains short, simple phrases (with no grammar, according to the label) covering classroom management, general commands, parent conferences, first aid, asking questions, playground and gym, and praising students. Find it at http://www.spanishonthejob.com.
• Get a dictionary, but be cautious about how you use it. Dictionaries are good tools for high-intermediate and advanced learners; with beginners they are helpful only when communication gets totally derailed because of the meaning of one word. When students know very little English, a monolingual English dictionary will not help, even if it's a learner's dictionary. For students with low native language literacy, look for picture dictionaries. They are available in versions for children or adults. Check to see how a picture dictionary is organized; topical organization is fine for vocabulary development, but alphabetical organization is easier for looking up particular words. When students are literate in their native languages, bilingual dictionaries are useful, but can be difficult to use. A comprehensive dictionary will provide multiple meanings of the same word, and students with little proficiency in English will have no idea which meaning is the correct one for what they want to say. A bilingual learner's dictionary that includes only the most common meanings of words, with example sentences that demonstrate the meaning, is the most helpful.

Conclusion

ESL teachers who work in multilingual programs often tell of being summoned to "translate" whenever a parent who doesn't speak English visits the school. The person doing the summoning (usually a secretary or the principal) knows that these teachers don't speak the languages of all of their students, but appear to believe that the ESL teachers have some sort of magic wand that they can wave to create instant understanding. It is true that the training ESL teachers receive teaches them skills that make communication between people who speak different languages easier. But the main component of that magic wand is simply knowing that this communication is possible, and thus not panicking at the thought of trying to carry on a conversation with somebody who doesn't speak English.

So my final words of advice for communicating with students and parents who don't speak English: Don't panic.

References

Gándara, P., Maxwell-Jolly, J., & Driscoll, A. (2005). Listening to teachers of English language learners: A survey

So, H. (2006, April 28). School interpreters' goal: Being word perfect. Los Angeles Times, p. B2.

If you have any comments about this article or questions for for the author, please send them to: alex@coursecrafters.com.