Beyond the Classroom: How Can Parents Support Learning at Home for ELLs?
Decades of research have confirmed that parental involvement has a positive correlation to learning outcomes.
The number of English language learners (ELLs or ELs) in our schools continues to grow—and along with it, the importance of engaging their families in their education.
Some teachers may wonder, how can parents support learning at home for ELLs if they don’t understand English?
While it’s true that parents of ELs have many unique challenges, it’s important to remember that regardless of their language or educational background, all parents play a crucial role in their child’s academic success.
Families of ELLs can contribute to their child’s learning in many valuable ways. In this blog, we’ll discuss the challenges that ELL parents face as well as strategies to foster parent engagement. We’ll also cover practical ways to support ELL students learning at home for both teachers and parents.
What are the Challenges for ELL Families?
When it comes to supporting ELL students at home, it’s helpful to look at the barriers that their families may be experiencing.
A policy brief by M. Beatriz Arias, Ph.D., and Milagros Morillo-Campbell, Ph.D. analyzed the factors related to effective parental involvement for ELLs. According to their research, the most common barriers to involvement include:
- Logistical issues, such as transportation, work schedules, and childcare
- School-based barriers, such as an unwelcoming school environment
- Limited education in their native language
- Limited English skills
- Different cultural expectations and/or understanding of their role in their child’s education
Arias and Morillo-Campbell write, “ELL parents are frequently perceived as lacking resources to provide and support home educational experiences for their children. This deficit perspective suggests that fault and responsibility lie with the ELL population rather than the school and that the role of the school is to change the ways families interact with schools. Many educators assume that lack of parental participation is evidence of lack of parental interest.”
Despite these challenges, ELL families have a deep interest and commitment to their children’s education.
The authors also identified the strategies that schools and teachers can use to address these barriers and empower ELL parents to take an active role in their child’s education—both in school and at home:
- Provide a home-school coordinator
- Initiate home visits by teachers
- Send out bilingual newsletters
- Schedule monthly meetings at a local community center
- Acknowledge parents’ cultural values
- Incorporate community into the curriculum
- Invite extended family members to school activities
- Modify meetings to accommodate parents’ work schedules
- Provide child care to facilitate parental attendance at school functions
- Arrange transportation to facilitate student involvement in school activities
How Can Teachers Build Partnerships with ELL Families?
Creating a welcoming environment is the first and most important step in engaging ELL parents as collaborators. For parents to support learning at home for their children, they need to know they are welcome and valued as important partners in education.
The following tips can help you create a strong, collaborative relationship to reinforce learning at home.
Communicate expectations clearly
As we previously mentioned, parents of newcomer ELs may have a different understanding of what home-school partnerships look like due to cultural differences. By explicitly communicating parental responsibilities, teachers can minimize misunderstandings and promote a collaborative relationship with ELL parents.
Provide language support for parents
Under state and federal law, schools must provide information to families in a language that they can understand. Though translation apps are helpful tools, you may need to take further steps to provide parents with adequate language support.
In addition to translating documents into their preferred language, these strategies can make information more accessible to families of ESL learners:
- Be aware of any educational jargon, acronyms, or other terms that may be unfamiliar to non-native speakers and edit accordingly
- Include visuals or icons for potentially unfamiliar vocabulary (i.e. immunizations, etc.)
- Use graphic organizers to make information more comprehensible and less text-heavy
Encourage two-way communication
When parents have limited English skills, they may feel like they cannot express questions and concerns to the teacher.
While it’s important for parents to listen and receive information, it’s equally important for them to have opportunities to speak and be heard.
Reciprocal communication is key to effective parent partnerships, but it can be a challenge with language barriers.
Thanks to technology, there are many free apps available that offer ELL support by providing two-way translation in hundreds of languages. Some apps offer text conversion, camera translation, and automatic language detection, which can allow parents to assist their children with their homework in a different language.
Not only do these tools facilitate two-way communication between teachers and families, but they can also empower ELL parents to take an active role in their children’s academics regardless of the language that they speak.
Some of our favorites include:
Talking Points
Talking Points takes the messages that a teacher creates in English and translates them into the home language of the parents. It features more than 100 languages. In reverse, it will translate the parents’ replies back into English for the teacher. Sent and received messages are managed just like they are in your email inbox.Voice Translator
Voice Translator provides translation for over 100 languages. The app offers real-time, voice, and camera translation, language detection for text-to-text mode, text conversion for languages with a non-Latin alphabet, and more.Microsoft Translator for Education
Microsoft Translator for Education boasts real-time translation with live captioning. This tool is helpful for one-on-one parent meetings as well as orientations and parent assemblies.
How Can Parents Support Learning at Home for ELLs?
Parents of English learners play a pivotal role in supporting their children’s learning at home.
While the task may seem daunting at first, there are several effective strategies that teachers can offer families of ELs that are not dependent on parents’ English skills.
Keep reading to explore strategies to share with families of your ELLs.
1. Use native language
Research has shown that students who have strong first-language skills can develop their second-language skills more easily, due to language transfer.
One of the best ways that parents of ELLs can support their learning at home is to use their native language. Encourage families of ELLs to use their native language to:
- Read stories with their child
- Sing songs
- Cook together
- Tell stories
- Engage in conversations (talk about the school day, the world around them, etc.)
2. Foster a language-rich environment
One of the most effective ways to support language development for newcomer ELLs is to immerse them in a language-rich environment.
This involves exposing them to a variety of texts, conversations, and activities that promote language acquisition. Many local libraries have a variety of multilingual resources, as well as free programs for all ages.
Provide your ELL families with information on your local library, including how to get a library card for themselves or their children. By incorporating books, videos, and games in the child’s native language, parents can provide a bridge to English and help maintain a strong connection to their cultural identity.
For tips on how to support ESL students in reading, Colorin Colorado has created free handouts with 8 literacy tips for parents that are available in 16 languages.
3. Encourage good homework habits
Parents don’t need to be fluent in English to show their children that they value their academic success. One of the ways that parents of ESL learners can do this is by creating good homework habits.
You can share simple tips for parents, such as
- Make homework part of a daily routine
- Create a designated space for schoolwork to be done
- Put away screens until homework is finished
- Foster a growth mindset by emphasizing progress over perfection
Supporting ELL students’ learning at home requires a multifaceted approach that considers their unique challenges and strengths. By actively engaging in their child’s schoolwork and fostering a positive attitude towards learning, families of ELs can significantly contribute to their children’s academic success.
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