Ever since its inclusion in the test papers of the KPG exams, [1] the notion of 'mediation' has attracted the attention of many ELT practitioners –especially foreign language teachers preparing students for these exams. This month’s article is concerned with how mediation is understood in the context of the KPG exams in all languages, focusing on written mediation performance. Oral mediation is an equally interesting issue and, therefore, deserves to be discussed separately, perhaps in the next issue of this publication.

Testing and assessing candidates’ mediation performance, with tasks that entail relaying information from one language to another is one of the innovations of the KPG examination battery. Dendrinos (2006) has aptly defined the notion of mediation and her definition articulates the rationale which forms the basis for mediation activities in all the KPG languages. [2] She views mediation as social practice the purpose of which is to work against communication breakdowns, to fill information gaps and/or to interpret meanings for others who may not have understood what has been said or written.

In the same paper, [3] Dendrinos also explains how mediation distinctly differs from translation and interpretation. In a nutshell, the latter require unconditional respect of the content of the source text, and the aim of the translator or the interpreter is to render every single message of the original text. Equally important is the requisite that the target text be in the same textual form as the source text. On the contrary, mediation has no such constraints. The aim of the mediator, unlike the translator or the interpreter, is to select from the source text information relevant to the task at hand and to render it appropriately for the context of situation.

As users of languages, we all find ourselves in situations when we act as mediators [διαμεσολαβητές] between two or more speakers or writers, who need us so we can explain to them or simply render information in a way that they understand. Think, for example, of how many times you’ve been in a position at work/school or a gathering, at home or abroad, where you’ve had to explain a word, a phrase or a whole extract of a text written in English to a Greek speaker who doesn’t understand the language all that well. Or, think about those instances when people with limited Greek have asked you to provide in English the main points of say a magazine article, a poster, a leaflet, a film or a book review. Finally, imagine yourself at the immigration office in a Greek city, trying to help some people, with little Greek and low English literacy, understand what they’re supposed to write in a form they must fill in.

Drawing from real life situations, mediation activities in the writing test papers, in all KPG languages from B1 level onwards, require that candidates selectively extract information, ideas and meanings from a source text in Greek and use them selectively to produce their own text, in the target language. The text type and the communicative purpose of the target text may be different from that of the source text. For example, the source text of a B2 level written mediation activity could be a webpage in Greek whose communicative purpose is to inform the public about a new volunteer organization. The mediation task could require that the candidate write the text for a promotion leaflet explaining, on the basis of the webpage, why this is a worthwhile organization. On the other hand, the source and the target text type might be similar or the same.  For example, the source text of a C1 level activity could be an article in Greek about the recently celebrated ipad, explaining what it is and what it does. The mediation task could be a news article about the hundreds of people that waited in line to get this product the first day it went on the market and, on the basis of the Greek text, explain why.

At each exam level, written mediation task type and performance requirements differ in the English test papers, as indicated below: [4]

When carrying out mediation activities, candidates of all exam levels are expected to take into account the various contextual features, i.e., what the purpose of the text is, who the addressor and addressee are, and in what discourse environment the text to be produced is to appear, etc. Their content and linguistic choices, thus, should be guided by these contextual factors, which demand their language awareness, their linguistic and intercultural competence, as well as the literacies they have developed in both languages.

In addition to all the above, candidates should be using a variety of mediation strategies, for which they should be trained, ideally. Mediation strategies are those techniques employed by mediators when relaying information from a source to a target text. [5] Specifically, depending on the task, prospective candidates should be trained to

o  select only information that is pertinent to the communicative purpose of the mediation task and reformulate it accordingly,

o  combine information from different parts of the source text or re-group relevant (source) information into the target text

o  add or exclude information where necessary

o  reorganize the source text

o  paraphrase source information and transfer it accurately and appropriately

o  creatively blend source with additional information

o  avoid word-for-word translation of whole utterances

o  provide the gist of the source text

At the Research Centre for English Language Teaching Testing and Assessment of the University of Athens (RCeL), we have also been conducting research associated with the teachability of the aforementioned strategies and this has revealed that mediation strategies are indeed ‘teachable’ and that systematic training for mediation performance leads to positive results. Based on this evidence, we suggest that mediation strategies could be incorporated in short KPG exam prep courses, which we ourselves have tried with University of Athens students. We also suggest that ELT professionals concerned with the development of their learners’ mediation skills could concentrate on designing tasks aimed at having them practice taking the role of mediator, which is so markedly different from that of the translator or professional interpreter.   

Our suggestions may prove useful in any situation and not merely for the purpose of the KPG exams, since performing as mediators across languages is a valuable social activity in our daily lives. Of course, it is of specific use to those preparing for the KPG exams, despite that even those candidates who have never prepared for mediation may perform as successfully as in other exam activities. In other words, even though special training and exam preparation always helps a test-taker perform better –not only where mediation is concerned– it does not mean that without such preparation candidates will fail or necessarily do worse than in other parts of the exam. This is what our quantitative analysis of exam results shows. Furthermore, this is also supported by the initial findings resulting from the qualitative analysis carried out by Stathopoulou, who is analyzing KPG candidates’ scripts to locate successful mediation strategies. [6]

 

References

Dendrinos, B. 2006. "Mediation in Communication, Language Teaching and Testing." Journal of Applied Linguistics 22: 9-35.

Dendrinos, B. (in press). "Testing and teaching mediation." Directions in English Language Teaching and Testing. Vol. 1. RCeL Publications, University of Athens .

Stathopoulou, M. 2009. Written mediation in the KPG exams: Source text regulation resulting in hybrid formations. Unpublished dissertation submitted for the MA degree in the Applied Linguistics Postgraduate Programme, Faculty of English Studies.

Stathopoulou M. (in press). “Exploring the test-taking strategies used for the KPG writing tasks.” Directions in English Language Teaching and Testing. Vol. 1: RCeL Publications, University of Athens .

Stathopoulou, M. & Nikaki, D. 2009. “Investigating the use of test-taking strategies by KPG candidates: The Test-Taking Strategies Research Project (TSRP).” Paper presented at the 19th International Symposium on Theoretical and Applied Linguistics. AristotleUniversity of Thessaloniki .

Stathopoulou, M. & Nikaki, D. 2008.  «Στρατηγικές για επιτυχή αντιμετώπιση των θεμάτων του ΚΠΓ: μια στρατηγο-κεντρική προσέγγιση για την προετοιμασία υποψηφίων». Ανακοίνωση στο Συνέδριο Σύστημα Αξιολόγησης και Πιστοποίησης Γλωσσομάθειας (ΣΑΠιΓ). Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης.

Bessie Dendrinos & Maria Stathopoulou