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.
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Transcript (coming soon)
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Listening to the “Day for Daniel” example in the podcast reminded me of my own observations during an internship in a primary school in Hamburg, Germany. The interview mentioned how cultural and linguistic assumptions create barriers. I observed a similar issue regarding digitalization in school. That primary school introduced a communication app for parents to report for example absences if their kids are ill that day or to receive updates and information about school trips or other events. However, the registration process was very complex (more complex than registrations for common apps or accounts…), and the technical instructions were in German only. This created a immediate wall for multilingual parents. It made everything even more chaotic because then some teachers had to stay after school to meet parents and guide them through this process. Just like the newsletter that assumed cultural context (wearing a red shirt and not a red costume, “dress up red”), the school assumed native level digital and linguistic literacy. That’s even above normal language necessary for speaking to the children’s teachers. While digitalization can be very helpful, if it is not designed inclusively it only creates a new mechanism of exclusion, freezing multilingual families out of the school community from the start. This could have been prevented for example by providing multilingual or even audio visual setup guides, and a multilingual glossary just like the one Professor Kettle talked about in the podcast.
Thanks, Henrik! Really good example because it shows that home-school communication problems affect not only parents from migrant backgrounds. I’m sure there are parents from non-migrant backgrounds as well who struggle with the use of apps (including the usually onerous initial download, set-up, and verification processes).
Furthermore, even if this particular app was very good, the reality is that many apps are clunky and have design flaws – and individuals are then left to deal with systemic issues …
As a teacher working with multilingual students, I’ve seen how challenging communication with families can be, especially when there’s no shared language at all. I once worked with a mother who didn’t speak any language that someone at our school could translate. Even simple things like explaining her child’s progress or discussing concerns became incredibly difficult, and a lot of communication ended up being reduced to gestures, notes, or relying on the child, which isn’t ideal.
Experiences like that really made me realize that accessibility isn’t just about offering translation, but about thinking more broadly about how we communicate. In my classroom, I’ve found that using visuals, simple language, and multiple formats can make a big difference. It also takes time to build trust, especially when parents may feel excluded or unsure because of language barriers.
I think tools like a multilingual glossary are a great step forward, particularly if they’re used actively in school communication. But it’s just as important that schools create flexible, inclusive ways for families to engage, especially for those who might otherwise be left out completely.
Thanks, Jasmin! Agree 100% that translating everything is impossible but that having flexible and inclusive communication practices in place can make a huge difference.
This year I have witnessed a potential home-school miscommunication situation during Fasching at a German primary school. The school sent home a note saying children should come in “Kostüm” (custome) for the celebration, so one child from the Ukraine, who celebrated his first Fasching in Germany, came in a suit. Even though his costume was appropriate for Fasching, I remembered how Ukrainian President Zelenskyy once used the word “costume” to mean “suit” and was mocked for it by Trump. I suspected that the boy wearing a suit at Fasching resulted from the same translation error, but I was not sure.
So far I haven’t come across a home-school-communication-tool as the one designed by Margaret Kettle. The closest I have seen was just an English translation.
Thanks, Forscherin05! Such an interesting example on two fronts: first, a similar-sounding word (Kostüm, costume, костюм, etc.) exists in many languages but with slightly different meanings. Second, what is appropriate to do (or not) during Fasching/Karneval/Fasnacht differs so much across regions. In my brand of (Southern) German, for instance, “Kostüm” means “women’s suit”; for Fasching you would wear a “Maske/Verkleidung” 🙂
I personally haven’t had any contact with the discussed topic yet in any shape or form. I think it was very interesting to hear about it because I hadn’t even considered problems as such. During my time as a student I was only part of the communication my teachers had with my parents and since they always spoke the same language these issues didn’t cross my mind. The few times during internships at schools I wasn’t involved enough to really grasp the difficulties of multilingual home-school-communication. Very interesting and important for me to learn about this.
Thanks, Hanna_HH! Glad you are enjoying the topic 🙂
I had similar experiences and will add a few words „Glossary“-like at the end of the text, in order to write in a fluent way that readers can follow. I will tell two situations.
Situation 1: In the school where I used to work, an IVK-teacher* asked me to interpret on three occasions, because there were Latin-American parents that didn‘t speak very well German. In one of the occasions the matter of the reunion was to fill in a formulary for a class trip. The father had filled it in incorrectly. So he came with the papers, and the three of us met. It turns out that it ended up being a team work, because I spoke Spanish and German but some words were very typical from German Burocracy, so I had to kind of explain what they meant without having a specific word for it. For example we all didn‘t know which kind of Sozialleistung* he had, in order to cross that out in the formulary. The meeting took quite longer than we all expected, because also the IVK-Teacher who is German didn‘t know some things (this is very typical because „Behörde-Sprache“* is a complicated one, even for Germans of both low and high class). But we managed. It was really helpful to be three people with three languages and knowledge about different areas, because two of us, in any constellation [IVK-Teacher + me / IVK-Teacher with the dad (both spoke english) / The dad + I] wouldn‘t have worked. The IVK-Teacher was genuinely thankful for the support.
Situation 1.2: The same dad texted me in whatsapp to know if it‘s true that we had the next day free. It was true. He could have seen it in Webuntis*. But he didn‘t know of its existence before. The daughter knew but she didn‘t pass along the information / didn‘t know how to log in and use the app. So also there it would be helpful to have information sheets in their languages, and one would think that Spanish is not the hardest language to have access to a translation – both AI ones or an interpreter / mother-tongue person whose competences in the topic to check the correctness of the translation.
Situation 2: A colleague from Ganztag (GT) had mentioned in a few team-meetings that it would be helpful to have the Register-Formularies and Info-Sheets translated into a couple of languages, specially arabic, turkish, russian since we have many students that have these as their heritage language, but then of course also the „obvious go-to“ languages like english, spanish, french, etc. He suggested knowing the languages from the families of all the students that go to GT, so that they could take them into consideration for the translations. It took around 1,5h years and a couple of reminders until this step was done by the coordinator. I just asked my colleague and he says he thinks that the formulary wasn‘t translated per say, because it comes from the Behörde* but that he knows the coordinator came with a couple of translation copies in different languages. He doesn‘t know though if it was the formulary or an info sheet or both. I asked if that changed anything, if they maybe got less questions from parents. He doesn‘t remember. But he said that they did have Infosheets in German and English during the Tag der offenen Tür* and many parents were happy to see that there was information in English.
I think in all cases a translation and glossary of specific terminologies in different languages, as many as possible and present, would be very helpful for the better inclusion, understanding and participation of students and their families in the scholar support system.
IVK (Internationale Vorbereitungsklasse) = „International Preparatory Classes“ that are intended for pupils from abroad whose language skills preclude them from attending a regular class. The students usually spend 12-24 months in that class before they can change to a regular class, once they have the required competences. They have different levels depending on the age of the students and also inside one classroom there might be a few groups (i.e. 1, 2 & 3) depending on their level of German, with the purpose of differentiating and supporting every student as well as possible according to their conditions, needs and levels. This is at least the attempt, but it is also challenging.
As one can see down below, it‘s sometimes not enough to know German, not even at a C1 level. Technical vocabulary is learned by doing. Bildungssprache and Behördensprache have a different level of complexity.
GLOSSARY:
Sozialleistung: Social help. For example, for people who don‘t have a lot of financial resources because of unemployment, refugee status, etc.
Behördensprache: Language used in official offices (i.e. the immigration office, banks, etc.) I had to google this one because I think my explanation may not be concrete enough. This is what I found in google: German officialese, often colloquially referred to as civil service German or administrative language, is the specific style used in government offices, institutions, and official documents. It is characterized by high complexity, long, unwieldy words, and specific technical terms, which often makes it difficult to understand.
Webuntis: An application in which, among other things, students can see their timetable. They can also see, color-coded, when there are events, exams and holidays.
Ganztag: It‘s an after class afternoon program. Students can be enrolled by their parents if they have to, for example, work until late, so that they don‘t have to be home alone, or just because students want to take part in this extracurricular activity, in which they can play, study, or go outside and do sports, etc.
Behörde: Official offices, such as the school board, the immigration office, banks, etc.
Bildungsprache: Academical language – it tends to be more complex than from spoken German.
Tag der offenen Tür = Day of the open door: It’s a day in which parents and students can go and visit schools to figure out which one they like. It usually happens once a year. Normally it is for the students that are passing from one school type to another, i.e. from Elementary to Middle School. The school, the teachers, and the students organize activities, and each subject presents itself (with introduction to languages, experiments, etc.)
Thanks, Valencia, for all these examples and the actual glossary! Very helpful – this is the first time I’ve heard of Webuntis myself … just looked them up & enjoyed reading about the company’s history.
Growing up in Schleswig-Holstein in a small village, the topic of multilingualism was not prevalent. Almost all pupils came from German-speaking families with no migration background. In this largely monolingual environment, the lack of support mechanisms for parent-teacher communication was considered normal, since there seemed to be no need for them. The fact that I had no experience with this issue illustrates how drastically the linguistic demands in schools have changed and how quickly society has transformed over the last twenty years. That being said, there were still communication problems, for example with the packing list for the class trip at the parent-teacher conferences about what “weather-appropriate clothing” actually meant, even within an otherwise monolingual setting. This shows that misunderstandings in family-school communication are not only caused by language differences, but can also arise from unclear expectations and differing interpretations what a simple word means.
In addition to the times changing, it’s also an urban-rural difference, I would think … good example about how context-specific meaning actually is; what “wetterfest” means presumably depends to a large extent on the actual weather on the day …
There are problems with communication between schools and multicultural families. The practical example of Daniel shows that a text cannot be translated exactly from one language into another, especially when it comes to meaning.
So far I have not had much contact with families, but I can imagine that teachers often use words that are common in German and have a specific meaning. However, when these words are translated, their meaning can change or even become completely different.
Therefore it is important to use simple and clear language and to explain situations and tasks carefully instead of hoping that everything will be understood.
Thanks, Jonathan! It’s really tricky because what is easy and obvious to a longtime member of a group or society may be difficult and unusual to a newcomer … when I moved with my young child from Australia to Switzerland years ago, I received a list of things she needed for preschool and one item on the list said “Muddybuddy” – I had no idea (despite being a highly proficient speaker of English and German …) – it’s some sort of rain suit/Regenoverall – what is it even called here in Hamburg?
I really enjoyed listening to this podcast episode, as it addresses such a common problem. Miscommunication due to language barriers is something probably all of us have experienced in the past. What I had to think about immediately was a situation where I had a teaching assignment in an IVK class (= international preparatory class). Within this teaching assignment I had to communicate with five to six migrant students coming from Ukraine or Russia. The difficulty was, that none of these students were able to speak German or English and I was not able to speak their mother tongue. So how I tried to minimize these language barriers, I tried to include a lot of pictures in my lessons, as also mentioned in the podcast. Luckily, we were able to make use of Google Translate, which is not possible with every language, as I just learned. Regarding the communication with the families of these students, I believe there was only very little. Most of them came to Germany without their parents, grew up with other family members or were orphans. So next to the experiences they made while fleeing to Germany, not all of them had family members here, which made communication even more difficult
Thank you, Lara, for raising yet another difficult issue in this space and questioning the assumption that all minors even live with their parents/guardians or have adult carers in their lives …
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.
Thanks, Luana_HH! You are right that everyone who works in diverse schools has so many of these experiences and examples, and how they result in children feeling ashamed and excluded. I think it’s easy to feel helpless as an individual teacher and hopefully our Forschungswerkstatt contributes positively and at least helps to raise awareness of the problem.
Being a teacher myself, I have had an opportunity to observe a number of situations, which illustrate the podcast. I work at a school, where it is not uncommon for parents to have a background which ich multilingual. So, I had the chance to be in a parent-teacher conference for a student to discuss his rather poor performance in school which jeopardized his graduation. In this context terms like „special educational needs“, and „deficits“ are usual. The student’s parents only spoke Turkish, lacking knowledge of German or English completely thus not understanding the mentioned terms, making the communication very difficult. Our only help was a translation tool. The problem is, that words and terms are often context dependent. Using the translation tool for „special educational needs“ misunderstandings were the result. The parents believed, their son was performing exceptionally well, receiving additional support. The exact opposite of what was actually said was the result by using a translating tool. The communication failed and an interpreter was requested for a second meeting.
Here I saw a fundamental connection to the podcast. Words are often context dependent and translation tools are not reliable for translating specific terms. The podcast illustrated that by using the words „dress up“, for „costume“. Misunderstandings can have major consequences, when we remember the example with Daniel’s day. Instead of wearing a red T-shirt in honor of Daniel, children came in funny costumes due to the translation „costume“.
However, it also becomes clear that a multilingual glossary might have helped in my stundent’s case, clarifying some words in the beginning of the conversation.
Thank you, Forscherin01, for this striking example! I really worry that the increasing reliance on automated translation and digital communication tools will lead to many more such misunderstandings.
I was working at a school in the south of Hamburg for many years. A big part of the school’s students and therefore parents are migrants, many of them don’t speak German or English. The support mechanism was talked about very briefly in the podcast: an event only for parents to talk, bond and exchange experiences. In combination with many people in the staff being descendants from migrant families made home-school communication quite organic and community driven:
Parents would be in close communication with other parents and the teachers, keeping everyone informed and preventing misunderstandings (such as in the podcast) through interactions with other members of the school community. As for issues regarding only one student and confidential matters, this approach obviously has limits.
For the parents’ event (“parents cafe”) to work it needs to be accepted and nurtured by the school community, which might be hard to do. So it’s definitely not a guaranteed mechanism, as is the composition of the staff.
Thanks, Tim, for mentioning the Elterncafe initiative, which really sounds amazing! One of our colleagues here in the Education Faculty at University of Hamburg has just finished their PhD research about Elterncafes and we’ll read one of their articles later in the semester:
Medvedev, A., & Grotlüschen, A. (2025). Superdiverse and multilingual, but still languageless: How unconscious and unintended raciolinguistic attitudes in school-based parent cafés can co-promote exclusion. European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.3384/rela.2000-7426.5895
This is an older article that also provides a good introduction:
Medvedev, A. (2013). Germany’s School-Based Parent Cafés: A new Hype or a Sustainable Way to Update Home-School Policies? International Journal about Parents in Education, 7(2). https://doi.org/10.54195/ijpe.18215
This study highlights the importance of integrating multilingual families more effectively. For a successful integration it is necessary to create conditions that make it both possible and easier to overcome language barriers.
Based on my practical experience, I believe this approach could also be extended to individuals who are able to speak the institutational language of school and might understand the context, but aren’t able to read and write. In these cases there are still significant barriers in educational settings that make participation more difficult. Schools could therefore not only provide multilingual glossaries, but also ensure that newsletters and other forms of written communication are easier to access – for example by using formats that can be read aloud by digital tools or by offering versions in simplified language.
As the study shows, multilingual families are interested in accessible ways to engage with the spoken language of their country of residence. However, such support should not carry any stigma and this can become an issue if families are required to ask the schools for help to understand the written communication. It is therefore preferable to provide inclusive tools and formats that enable families to participate more independently.
Thanks, Inger, for raising some important points related to literacy and also shame! Couldn’t agree more that inclusive communication should be a matter of course.
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.
I agree that the timing sound like a real barrier too. Parental engagement is important for students’ academic development but how to ensure this if some form of engagement is to take place during work hours… My other example for this is parental volunteering in Australian schools, which again has a positive correlation with student academic performance, but again, it requires availability during school hours – as well as both linguistic and cultural confidence, especially if it involves classroom-based volunteering.
This situation took place at a German elementary school (in a village), where the primary language was/is German. The term “parent-teacher conference” would, in this context, be translated as Elternabend. I experienced this a few years ago, shortly after many families had arrived from Ukraine.
The parents and their children had very limited German skills. As a result, the children weren´t able to translate the letter sent by the school for their parents, who could´t read it. Some parents used Google Translate to understand the message, while others did´t, which led to a number of them not attending the Elternabend.
At that time, this was still a new situation for the school, so no one thought about sending the invitation in another language. Also, tools like Google Translate were not as accurate back then. Using it, I had some confusing and funny moments trying to communicate with the students. The school didn´t get a translator to help, so things improved later when AI became a thing. They now use it to communicate with parents and new students who do not have a German background.
There were no direct consequences for not attending. However, parents missed important information about their children and teachers also missed the chance to learn more about their new students.
Thanks, Ann, for this detailed example! AI can be mixed blessing, of course, in bridging language barriers, as Forscherin01 mentions below when “special education needs” gets translated as “extra support for gifted children” …
This recent article here on Language-on-the-Move also illustrates some of the challenges:
Yudytska, J. (2026). Digital mutual aid among migrants, in the shadow of ChatGPT. Language on the Move. https://languageonthemove.com/digital-mutual-aid-among-migrants-in-the-shadow-of-chatgpt/