Supporting multilingual families during exams

As exam season is coming up soon, this is the perfect opportunity for schools to rethink their current practices in supporting EAL children and families during this time. For multilingual families, exams can have the added stress of getting to know unfamiliar exam procedures, whilst facing their own language or cultural barriers. Below are some practical tips and strategies to help you offer high quality support to your EAL families during this demanding period.

Encourage the use of home languages while revising

For some learners their home language is their superpower, a solid foundation on which English language learning will build and evolve. Always remember to emphasise on the importance of families using their home languages to discuss exam topics, as this can reinforce learner understanding of curriculum concepts massively, particularly if their home language is their strong language. For example, a parent could discuss the steps of a science experiment in their first language before the student reads about it in English. For learners whose strongest language is English, using their home language could still help maintain their bilingualism, which is equally beneficial.

Create simple, multilingual exam guides

Provide visual or bilingual exam guides with key dates, lists of key exam vocabulary or simple, step-by-step instructions and tips. This will help increase your multilingual families’ familiarity with the exam format and ensure that exam expectations are clear to both multilingual learners and their families. Through the buttons at the top and bottom of this article, you can download a template of an Exam Guide for Multilingual Families where you can enter key dates, useful resources per subject, and tips in multiple languages.

Introduce family support networks

Introduce the idea of an exam support network either in person (drop-in sessions in school) or online (e.g. WhatsApp group). In these physical or virtual groups, families can find invaluable support or ask questions ideally in their home languages during exam periods, which can alleviate the stress of exams.

Share exam success tips with parents

To help support their children's revision, multilingual families could:

• Create a quiet and comfortable study space at home.
• Encourage structured study sessions with breaks.
• Encourage the explanation of concepts in their home language and then in English.
• Help children set realistic goals and celebrate small achievements.
• Engage in physical exercise or relaxation techniques.

By increasing understanding and establishing good communication and wellbeing, we can help multilingual families feel more confident about their child’s participation in exams and approach this period with a growth mindset.