Best Practices in Working With Linguistically Diverse Families

Many schools face the challenge of forging partnerships with families from linguistically diverse backgrounds. Effective communication, funds of knowledge, culturally relevant teaching, and extending and accepting assistance are best practices that have been used successfully by school personnel when working with students who are identified as English-language learners. These things strengthen teacher communications with linguistically diverse families and in turn foster academic success among students who are English-language learners. This article focuses on these dispositional best practices and provides examples of how these practices are used in schools to promote academic and social success of linguistically diverse children and their families and the many teachers who support their education.