Exploring the role of culture in Ukrainian refugee language acquisition

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine in 2022, the United States has seen an influx of Ukrainian refugees through the Uniting for Ukraine (U4U) programme. As a result, American public schools have seen increased enrollment of Ukrainian students and have had to find ways to accommodate their and their families’ needs. As research has shown, among these are the needs to help overcome the language barrier, help Ukrainians navigate American culture, and provide a sense of stability for this vulnerable population. This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews to examine how school staff communicate with parents of Ukrainian refugee students at an elementary school in the Midwestern United States. The goal was to identify challenges in communication, existing constructive practices, and potential solutions to the challenges encountered. The findings showed that the school had made a considerable effort to accommodate Ukrainian students through culturally inclusive practices, but that there was still an overall sense of disconnection due to incongruence between American and Ukrainian culture. The findings also present several ways to mitigate this sense of disconnection and overcome various challenges associated with school-related communication, and have important pedagogical implications for the field of refugee language acquisition.