Text mediation and collaborative meaning-making: Language support for an EAL academic author

Abstract

Writing for international publication in English poses considerable discursive challenges for EAL (English as an additional language) academics. In non-Anglophone settings, where assistance is limited, many turn to local English teachers at their university for ad hoc language support. However, the impact of these part-time text mediators on specialized texts is uncertain and doubts persist about their capacity to understand and shape meaning beyond language. This case study investigates how a language mediator helped a Chinese hematologist to convey his intended meaning when revising a submission for a medical journal. We show how mediator-author collaboration draws on their respective expertise to shape academic texts. While the mediator’s independent revisions mainly fixed language issues, her interaction with the author effectively addressed deeper structural and rhetorical challenges. Transcripts of conferencing sessions revealed how the mediator’s rhetorical and linguistic strategies complemented the author’s disciplinary knowledge to co-construct meaning and the articulation of complex ideas. By comparing the mediator’s solo efforts with the outcomes of collaborative interaction, we demonstrate how their partnership transformed the manuscript into a publishable text. These findings have important practical implications.