Every school district across the country has their own unique terminology. On the West Coast, school districts in California may say “teachers” whereas on the East Coast the term “educators” may be more commonly used. To further illustrate, one quick Google search for the word “student” comes up with several synonyms such as “learner”, “pupil” and “scholar”. This same language diversity holds true for education translations. Language translations are further complicated by regional nuances such as the differences between Cuban Spanish and Mexican Spanish.

In order to bridge this multilingual gap and ensure that your education translations are hitting the mark with your ELL audience, I would recommend developing multilingual glossaries prior to translation. A glossary is a comprehensive list of commonly used terms, phrases and proper names specific to your school district. The terms are translated accordingly with your specific target ELL audience in mind. The creation of a multilingual glossary provides a baseline for all of your future translation projects.

By determining what the commonly used terms are and their corresponding translations are up front, your school district will minimize the risk of an unfavorable community review or inaccurate translation down the road.

Here you go with a few popular K12 English glossaries to get you started:

Illinois State Board of Education Acronym Glossary

North Central Regional Education Laboratory – Education Glossary

Keep Learning!
Maggie
K12Translate