La mediazione linguistica nei colloqui tra insegnanti e genitori stranieri

Abstract Research shows that in order to accomplish interactional sense-making, interpreters need to interpret the participants’ contributions as contextually situated. Rendering thus involves explicating unclear contextual elements, reformulating contributions to convey their pragmatic meaning, and seeking clarification from participants. Our study is based on 16 interpreter-mediated parent-teacher conferences, which were collected in two Italian cities with high migration flows. These end-of-term meetings involve teachers highlighting “what went wrong.” In their renditions to the parents, the mediators work to mitigate the impact of the teachers’ negative comments. Our findings suggest that while the mediators’ comments help to make the negative feedback more acceptable and solution-oriented, a closer collaboration between the teachers and the mediators could lead to more productive and inclusive talk.