After a year of learning from home due to the COVID pandemic, Maryland schools re-opened. This was exciting news for students who missed the social aspect of school and those who learn better face-to-face and interactively. However, for just these reasons, bilingual students returning to school may not engage with equal enthusiasm. Students who have language barriers may have already experienced some difficulty participating in school; some may not realize how this can impact cognitive development, emotion-control, and socialization.

To improve the situation for our bilingual students, we must provide face-to-face interpreters from well-qualified firms, such as ours, who possess sensitivity, sympathy, empathy, and cultural awareness. We at ACSI have the power to turn things around for these students through our ability to connect to the students with more than simply translating documents, etc. for him/her; we connect emotionally and understand how to deliver emotional content when necessary. We come prepared with multicultural knowledge, so when additional clarification arises, our interpreters know how to proceed accordingly, which can only stand to create and build a bilingual student’s confidence.

What our services also facilitate is the very necessary, positive and trusted teacher-student relationship. Trained educational interpreters can play a critical role in securing the best possible connection between a bilingual or limited-English proficient (LEP) student and his/her teacher or tutor. This type of interpretation specialty will eventually break down any tension or lack of trust that may exist because the interpreter has the ability to decipher complex information for the student.

Once a bilingual or LEP student understands and feels comfortable with information his/her teacher is presenting, he/she will gain confidence, which will lead to his/her ability to not only ask questions but to participate in the classroom with other students. The year of at-home learning may have set these students back a bit, but providing them with qualified translation and interpretation services can definitely send them back on their way to academic success.