Schools have legal obligations to their English Language Learners (ELLs), their families, and legal guardians. Under civil rights laws, schools must ensure equal access to education, services, and programs. Translation and interpretation for schools go beyond conveying words. These language services are directly related to students’ academic performance. Parents who are better informed of their children’s academic performance, and well-being, have an opportunity to play an active role in their child’s education. Therefore, translation in schools is quite essential; here are a few reasons.
Ensuring Student Success
Learning involves different tools and strategies to help students understand concepts, ideas, and notions. When students cannot clearly understand the concept being taught, they will not be able to use it. For many students and families, English is not their native language. This language barrier presents some challenges for the entire school community. Therefore, it is crucial to rely on translation and interpretation services to close the language gap.
Student-teacher Relationship
Translation services for schools are crucial because they ensure students can communicate clearly with their teachers while expressing their needs and emotions. The interpreter’s role is to understand and comprehend the learning needs of all the parties involved and build communication bridges. Educators can feel frustrated when they cannot communicate with parents effectively. Teachers, likewise, get discouraged when they cannot get their message across to parents or when they cannot engage with their student’s families. Interpreters and translators focus on the communication piece, and their services allow parties to communicate with each other no matter the language.
Enhances Productive Educational Meetings
Imagine a parent/teacher conference in a school with international students or students from multiple non-English-speaking countries. Such meetings require the participation of an interpreter. Engaging the translation services for schools in such school-related conferences will ensure that all parties accurately comprehend the conveyed information. The interpreter’s work will be to explain the plans and strategies the school leaders bring forth. This, in turn, will ensure a smooth complete communication loop between all the parties.
The world has become fully globalized, and cross-cultural communications have become essential to its growth. Students and their families should not feel left behind or held back by the languages they speak. Translation services in schools are crucial. Language access is not only for students and families but for the whole school community and staff. Language access implies high-quality translation, interpretation, and American Sign Language (ASL) for the entire school community.
