Whose Translating?

Maria shared an insightful article in which a teacher shares her experiences working in ELL students.  One thing in particular that struck a cord with me, was that she suggested it was better to use older siblings to translate when communicating with the parents.  The teacher in the case study actual said it was more effective than using translators provided by the school.  I have always been able to find a way to communicate with parents that did not involved children.  Presently you can even use computer programs to translate what you type to a different language.  I used to use the program, and then take it to the teacher on our staff who spoke Spanish, and she would just make the few corrections, instead of having to translate the whole thing.

One of my student's only involved parent was deaf.  Communicating with her is obviously different than with parents who speak different languages, as I could write notes home and she could write back.  However, whenever I had to meet with her I always set it up with an interpreter.  I can assure it was quite an annoying process to set up a meeting with a translator who works for a school system that spans D.C. and 2 counties in Maryland (who changed her email 3 times during the school year - who does that?).  During one of the meetings when explaining her son's behavior at school, she went into explaining things that were happening in her home with her new boyfriend at the time.  That would not have happened if her brother was serving as the translator. 

From personal experience, my husband's parents do not speak English.  He and his sister were both in Head Start and were ELL students before ELL was a trend.  Teachers often used him as a translator to discuss his sister with his parents.  It would take him less time to just do his sister's work than to explain to his parents and go back and forth with the teacher.  It also meant he had to sit in on less meetings with her teachers and his parents.  This scenerio left her lacking many skills which are learned in school.


These are just two personal examples, but I think we need to be cautious of using the easiest avalaible to translate as opposed what is truely going to benefit the student.  Obviously the resources are not always there, and we all have to make do with what resources we are able to access, but putting older siblings in charge of communicating with the parents of our at risk students does not seem like the best idea.

Lee, S., Butler, M. B., & Tippins, D. J. (2007). A case study of an early childhood teachers perspective on working with english language learners. Multicultural education,