ESL Parents and Teachers: Towards Dialogue?

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.