Mediation in teaching, learning and assessment (METLA) : a teaching guide for language educators

Abstract

We mediate when there is a need to make information accessible to others (friends, colleagues, family members, tourists, etc.) who have difficulty understanding oral or written language in a particular situation. We may have to explain part of what was said or written or to relay one or more messages, ideas, pieces of information in language that the person we are mediating for understands. It may be a different language (when we mediate cross-linguistically), or a different variety of the same language (when we mediate intra-linguistically). In both cases, the role of mediator is important because s/he intervenes to facilitate communication. The mediator acts as an intermediary who passes on source text information to someone else in (an)/other language(s) or within the same language in order to bridge communication gaps. In this Teaching Guide, we are concerned with cross-linguistic mediation, not because it is more important or more common than intra-linguistic mediation, but because language teachers are less familiar with this sort of activity. In language education, the term mediation first appeared (but was not fully developed) in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR, Council of Europe, 2001), with its meaning being further expanded in the CEFR Companion Volume (CEFR-CV) (Council of Europe, 2020), which this Guide draws upon.