When it comes to language barriers, different actors are at play. It is important to acknowledge that communication is a joint task, and your choices, as the teacher, may facilitate understanding, or impede it.
Language barrier can manifest itself as a misunderstanding. You may also notice that students’ written assignments are off topic, or machine translated. Students may ask questions to clarify the meaning. However, not everyone will be proactive. Sometimes, the challenges may be overwhelming, causing students to fall behind with the coursework.
This said, the presence of language barrier is not always obvious. Students who struggle with communication will avoid uncomfortable situations. For example, they will not speak during discussions. Or they will avoid working with peers who do not share their language.
The school’s language policy can enhance challenges if students are not allowed to use resources in a language that they understand well. Promoting certain languages at the cost of others does not promote sustainable language learning.
Since language barrier evokes strong emotions, recognizing how group activities make students feel helps identify problems with communication. The group dynamics and the roles that students have can also reveal similar insights. The teacher also needs to reflect on how classroom communication makes them feel.