Communication in child language brokering

Abstract

Child Language Brokering (CLB) refers to the mediation and translation activities performed by bi/multilingual children and adolescents for their peers, family members, and/or other people belonging to their linguistic community who may not be proficient enough to communicate in the societal language. Since child language brokers engage in interpreted communicative events and implement communicative strategies, one interesting but also controversial area of CLB is the communicative role children play and the expectations of other parties about that role. In this paper we examine frequent communication strategies implemented by a child language broker and study if/how they meet the other parties’ expectations. Specifically, two child language brokering strategies are examined: replacement of a monolingual interlocutor and summarizing of the monolingual interlocutors’ statements. We also discuss child language brokers’ roles and their alignment with adults’ expectations, an innovative focus that merits deeper discussion.