1st Edition
Mediation as Negotiation of Meanings, Plurilingualism and Language Education
Bringing together the voices of a diverse group of scholars and language professionals, this edited collection, concerned with the cultivation of plurilingualism in multilingual educational settings, builds on the theory and practice of linguistic and cultural mediation both as curricular content and social practice.
The chapters view mediation as an important aspect of communication which involves dynamic, purposeful interactivity, implicating social agents in the negotiation and construction of socially situated meanings across different languages and within the same language. Theoretically informed chapters present views on mediation as well as contributors’ research and project outcomes in educational interventions. They also describe how mediation has been incorporated in educational practices and how it materialises in social contexts. Ultimately, this book makes the case for why mediation constitutes a key competence to be developed for active global and local citizenry in today’s societies where there is an increased rate of knowledge acquisition and exchange.
Presenting research from classrooms and other multilingual environments, this book offers concrete suggestions for the development of language users/learners’ ability to mediate within and across languages. It will appeal to scholars, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of language and education, education policy and politics, bilingualism and plurilingualism more generally. Curriculum designers may also find the volume of use.
PREFACE The editor
CHAPTER 1: Introduction and critical review the key concepts in this volume:
Mediation and plurilingualism, Bessie Dendrinos
CHAPTER 2: Mediation for plurilingual competence: Synergies and implications,
Enrica Piccardo
CHAPTER 3: Developing an action-oriented perspective on mediation: The new
CEFRCV descriptors, Brian North
CHAPTER 4: Developing mediation skills at university language centres: How
meaningful tasks and scenarios make language learning relevant to the learner, Johann
Fischer
CHAPTER 5: Mediation as a test format in German high-stakes school-leaving
exams, Elisabeth Kolb
CHAPTER 6: Conceptualisation and operationalisation of linguistic mediation as a
testing construct: A case study, Bessie Dendrinos and Evdokia Karavas
CHAPTER 7: Mediation-in-interaction in computer-enhanced non-formal contexts for
learning English, Dolors Masats, Emilee Moore and Almudena Herrera
CHAPTER 8: Cross-linguistic mediation and linguistic hybridity, Maria
Stathopoulou
CHAPTER 9: Translation and mediation: From theoretical models to self-awareness and pedagogy, Loredana Polezzi
CHAPTER 10: Mediated interactions between teachers and immigrant parents, Claudio
Baraldi
CHAPTER 11: Bi-/multilingual youths’ mediation practices in daily life. Lessons to be
learned, Elvira Hadzič
CHAPTER 12: Mediation as a means of negotiating difference in a multilingual
community: An educational intervention project, Thalia Dragona
Biography
Bessie Dendrinos is Professor Emerita at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and President of the European Civil Society Platform for Multilingualism (ECSPM).
