Volume: 22  Number: 1  Page: 17–33  doi:10.2167/le731.0

Research article

ESL Parents and Teachers: Towards Dialogue?

Yan Guoa and Bernard Mohanb aFaculty of Education, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada and bDepartment of Language and Literacy Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

Conflict and miscommunication between English as a Second Language (ESL) parents and teachers has had a major impact on educational policy, but few empirical studies examine it as discourse. This study examines communication between ESL parents and high school ESL teachers in a ‘Parents’ Night' (PN) event organised to increase understanding of the ESL programme. It examines an intercultural communication view and a ‘dialogue across differences’ view, using a more comprehensive systemic functional linguistics view to describe the discourse of the event and locate it in its contexts. It explores explanations for a conflict that occurred, draws implications about the role of each view and considers prospects for the future development of ESL parent–teacher communication.

Keywords: ESL education, ESL parent–teacher intercultural communication, parents' night, systemic functional linguistics, dialogue across differences, practical reasoning

Copyright © 2008 Y. Guo & B. Mohan

Access this article