Category: Blog

Mark: Tell us about your experience as a multilingual educator and language access advocate.

Dr. Nascimento: I’ve been doing this for a long time. I love it because I’m an English learner. I came to the United States without knowing the language. I come from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Mark: How did language barriers impact your experience moving to the United States?

Dr. Nascimento: I came at age 22, and learning English when you are older is pretty rough. I was going to college, but I couldn’t go [in the U.S.] because I couldn’t speak the language, so instead, I went to ESL courses. The first impact of coming in with an education and not being able to continue at school was very frustrating. But, I was able to learn enough English to go back to school, and since 1987, I’ve never left. To this day, I still make an effort to learn it.

Mark: How did you feel that you were received as somebody who had challenges speaking English?

Dr. Nascimento: That first impact, how diverse America is, it was fascinating. The mix of learners within the ESL courses was mostly Spanish speakers, fellow Portuguese speakers, and also people from everywhere. I went to Lake View Learning Center in Chicago. I’m not sure if it’s still around. There was a teacher there, Mrs. Rivera, I never forgot her name. She helped me to keep on and get to university.

Mark: Teachers who are supporting multilingual families, just know that there’s incredible warmth, respect, and admiration for the work that you do.

Dr. Nascimento: One of these days, I’m gonna go back in there and say thank you for what you do, because a lot of times people don’t think that they have that kind of impact.

Mark: There are 7,000 multilingual learners within Rockford Public Schools, which is the third largest school district in Illinois and certainly among the most diverse.

Dr. Nascimento: Working in a large school district with 29,000 students and 7,000 multilingual learners, to know I have helped a bit in their journeys—10, 20, 30 years down the road—is such a humbling experience.  

• AI and machine learning are set to revolutionize the language services industry, but human translators will remain crucial for high-context scenarios. 
• Multilingual digital communication is becoming essential for global business success with almost 50% of internet content generated in non-English languages. 
• The global speech recognition market is expected to reach $53.67 billion by 2030, making voice technologies key to breaking language barriers. 
• Cultural intelligence and authenticity will become a differentiator for global brands.

Facilitating multilingual communication is no easy task for a school district. So why do we work so hard to communicate with families in their native languages? 

• To better understand one another… ok  

• Compliance with state and federal law… sure 

• To be respectful of one’s culture… of course  

• Creating more inclusive schools… definitely

All of this is important, but most schools don’t fully grasp the transformative impact that language services can have in a K-12 setting. If schools focused on the impact of language services instead of just the output, I believe that language services would be viewed not just as a support function, but as essential tools for driving parent engagement and improving student outcomes.  

I work with school leaders across the country, who are responsible for supporting multilingual learners. When I ask them why they want to bring in more resources to support multilingual communication I get the type of responses I listed above. These are all great reasons to promote language access in K-12 schools but the best reason for implementing an effective language access plan is because it drives student growth. 

A language access strategy supports better safety outcomes when the public interacts with police officers and other emergency service providers. Linguistic and cultural barriers can contribute to unnecessary escalation, leading to avoidable injuries or even fatalities. Proactively incorporating language services minimizes these risks, ensuring clearer communication in otherwise tense scenarios. 

For law enforcement agents, the stakes of effective communication are equally high. Police officers frequently encounter LEP individuals in high-pressure situations where precision and clarity are critical. Officers often rely on “command Spanish,” a series of basic arrest or situational commands that help officers establish control. Command Spanish should never replace the role of a trained interpreter who can ensure all parties may communicate and understand each other. Ad-hoc interpreters, such as family members, can also lead to misunderstandings and should not be the only resource, especially in arrest cases. 

Ensuring access to language services is not only a tool for agency effectiveness. It is also a legal requirement. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, public safety agencies receiving federal funding must facilitate meaningful access to individuals who do not speak English proficiently. Similarly, under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), accommodations must be provided to blind, Deaf, hard of hearing individuals, and others with communication barriers due to disability. Failing to meet these standards can result in significant legal or financial repercussions for law enforcement agencies.

Mark: Tell us about your background as an educator.

Tim: I retired as a principal two years ago. I’ve since been contracted in a district in “up-north Michigan,” a small, rural district with a diverse population. During my 30 years in bilingual programs, we didn’t have a sustained, committed interpreter service. That’s looked down on as an extravagance, even though you and I know how essential it is to serve our multilingual students and families.

Mark: Say more about the impact that language services can have on multilingual families and what that means for participation, social-emotional learning, student growth, grade level proficiency, and other important metrics. How do you see those conversations taking place in schools?

Tim: It has evolved so much over the last 30 years. There is a dearth of quality support and resources for ML families and students on both coasts. One of the biggest battles in northern Michigan for people in my current position are the principals, the board members, and the superintendent, who don’t often see the urgency because they may only have a small minority of ML families and students. But you and I know, no matter what size your multilingual population is, the urgency exists.

Earlier in the spring, I worked with an EL family that had recently arrived. After getting through the linguistic barrier, you could see how ready this child was for kindergarten. His parents and caregivers provided him with the resources to prepare for school. The only thing he lacked was English fluency. His mom and dad didn’t have English fluency either. The teachers did not understand how they were going to teach this child.

Mark: I would give him two years until he’s flying circles around the other kids in the classroom.

Tim: Or until the end of the semester. Skills and concepts go from one code to the next. Once we broke through that language barrier, this kid was flying forward. This child and his parents were especially comforted that the district cared for their child’s success by providing someone who could support them linguistically and academically. We wouldn’t have known this if we didn’t have someone who could provide a bridge to their language and culture. 

As communities become more linguistically diverse, government agencies and public organizations must rethink their approach to communication. According to the American Community Survey, more than 21 percent of U.S. households now speak a language other than English at home, with Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, and Vietnamese among the most commonly spoken languages. Despite this demographic shift, many essential communications—such as public service announcements, emergency alerts, and voting materials—are often disseminated only in English. 

Failing to address this language gap can have significant consequences. It can alienate large portions of the population, discourage civic participation, and reduce trust in local governance. Multilingual support for community engagement and public services offers a practical solution to these challenges. Local governments and organizations can foster a more inclusive and engaged civic environment by meeting residents where they are, linguistically and culturally.

Corporate language training helps participants gain a working language proficiency in a relatively compressed period. As a customizable service, language training addresses highly focused, industry-specific language needs, such as manufacturing, finance, healthcare, education, and others. 

Borrowing from the military, studying language, regional expertise, and culture (LREC) maximizes personnel abilities to engage effectively with complex overseas assignments. That said, language training for companies is rather different, and examples (from a United States-oriented perspective) include: 

• Plant supervisors learning the language(s) of their frontline staff  

• Educators learning the language(s) their students speak at home 

• Nurses and physicians learning their patients’ most commonly spoken languages

Commercial language training reflects real world trends, driven by industry growth, workforce changes, and immigration patterns. For example, a large contracting firm may train its site managers to become effective in construction Spanish. A startup incubator may put aspiring CTOs through Hindi language training to connect with software developer talent in India. Financial traders transferring to Hong Kong may enroll in accelerated Cantonese training with a special focus on professional culture and topics.  

No matter the use case, endeavoring to learn a new language can be daunting. Corporate language trainers are attuned to professionals’ needs, many of whom have not been in a classroom for years. Trainers create a supportive environment and a focused curriculum, which reduce learner anxieties and increase learner outcomes.