Educational Technology: Communicating With Multilingual Learners & their Families

 

Communicating with Multilingual Learners & their Families

2/20/25

By Mackenzie Regan

Communication As Teachers

Being a teacher is hard. There are so many things to do, keep track of, and work on. There is one major thing that sometimes can get lost in the chaos of everything else, and that is Communication. Communication is one of the biggest benefactors to you, your students, and your students' families. That communication can be through phone calls, sites like Class Dojo, email, or parent-teacher conferences. Something that those resources don't account for, are language barriers. When there is a language barrier between us and our students' families, things can get tricky. I'd like to talk about a tool that has great benefits for this conflict that so many of us face.

Microsoft Translator: What Is It?

Microsoft Translator is a tool that allows people to talk and be translated in real time. Sail the 7 Cs by by Becky Keene and Kathi Kersznowski, dive into the world of Microsoft technology and tools. In it, they state, "School districts never have enough interpreters, and those who are on staff are burdened with more need than they can cover. Many times, this means that a family won't have access to their student's teacher that day," (Keene, 2020). This is an extremely impactful statement. It can be difficult enough with the anxieties of sending your child to school. Let alone sending them to school without a concrete way of communicating with your child's teacher. I can't imagine the emotional turmoil this could have on a student and their families. 

Microsoft Translator is a great tool to help keep the communication between teachers and families, even Multilingual families, concrete! Of course, when emailing and messaging, you can use any translator to speak with parents, and I urge you to do so! However, Microsoft Translator allows for your words to be directly translated and communicated through the app. It can also show the translation on the reverse side of the phone, making it easy to communicate in real time, such as during parent-teacher conferences. 

Overall, it is a great tool for translation. As a future educator, I urge all aspiring, about-to-be, or even veteran teachers to think about this. What would it feel like, if we couldn't directly communicate with the person who is with our child each and everyday? Take the time and the effort to make sure your students' families can communicate with you, and in turn it will benefit not just them, but your students and you!