Child language brokering: challenges in Spanish intercultural education

Globalisation has resulted in multicultural and multilingual societies where individuals, who often do not speak the official language, need to communicate with different services offered by public institutions in the host country. School plays a vital role as an education and training institution, and must guarantee that every student receives equal opportunities, and, in accordance with the principles of intercultural education, facilitate the integration of foreign students both into society and the educational context. However, linguistic and cultural barriers may sometimes prevent communication between foreign students, their families and the education centre. The purpose of this paper is to analyse survey responses and interview talk about communication between teachers and immigrant users who do not speak or barely know the host country language, especially the methods employed and the resources available to Spanish education centres to communicate with students and families who lack the necessary host language skills. A case study will be used as example of the situation in which both educators and families very frequently have to turn to child language brokering, using methodology based on qualitative analysis of surveys and interviews carried out in two primary schools in the Madrid area

La formación de profesorado AICLE. Un estudio de la Universidad de Alcalá

CLIL has gained prominence in the field of Second Language teaching in Spain due to the complex challenges the educational system has to face. In Madrid, amongst other training schemes, Secondary school teachers can attend English language courses at Madrid public universities in order to improve their level of English to pass the obligatory exam, which qualifies them to teach in the regional government’s CLIL project. Although CLIL has been placed at the centre of the intellectual debate, little attention has been given to the study of this linguistic training phase. This paper aims to contribute to fill this gap by examining the training programme at Alcalá University hoping to revise the perceptions of the agents involved in this type of courses for bilingual teachers.AICLE ha ganado importancia en el ámbito de la adquisición de segundas lenguas en España debido a los complejos desafíos a los que el sistema educativo tiene que enfrentarse. En la Comunidad de Madrid, entre los distintos programas de formación existentes, el profesorado de secundaria puede asistir a cursos de inglés en las universidades públicas madrileñas con el propósito de superar la prueba de acreditación para formar parte del proyecto “bilingüe”. Aunque AICLE se haya situado en el centro del debate intelectual, se ha prestado poca atención al estudio de esta fase de formación lingüística. En este sentido, este trabajo pretende contribuir a cubrir este vacío examinando el programa formativo en la Universidad de Alcalá mediante la revisión de las percepciones de los agentes implicados en la formación lingüística de los profesores bilingües

Ethics in theory and practice in Spanish healthcare community interpreting

Community interpreters carry out their daily work within different contextual situations and follow specific codes of ethics, whilst at the same time they are confronted with communicative conflicts in which ethical responsibilities may overlap with their professional duties. The aim of this article is to understand the significance of ethical issues in Spanish healthcare interpreting and to determine to what extent ‘unethical’ interpreting (according to codes of ethics) can become a barrier or a bridge to effective communication. The article explores the challenges, conflicts and dilemmas encountered by public service interpreters in healthcare in Madrid, and examines the beliefs held by these professionals regarding their knowledge of codes of ethics, as well as their implementation. The findings show that the participants’ perceptions of their beliefs and knowledge of codes of ethics were not as impartial as they thought, as they assumed functions which codes of ethics do not consider appropriate.Los intérpretes de servicios públicos desarrollan su profesión en distintas situaciones contextuales, siguiendo códigos éticos específicos, al mismo tiempo que se enfrentan a conflictos y dilemas comunicativos en los que las responsabilidades éticas pueden superponerse a sus tareas profesionales. El objetivo de este artículo es comprender la importancia de las cuestiones éticas en la interpretación sanitaria española y determinar hasta qué punto la interpretación ‘no ética’ puede convertirse en una barrera o un puente para hacer la comunicación efectiva. Exploramos los desafíos, conflictos y dilemas de un grupo de traductores e intérpretes de servicios públicos en el ámbito sanitario en Madrid y examinamos las creencias de estos profesionales en cuanto a su conocimiento de los códigos de ética y su implementación, para mostrar que las percepciones de los participantes sobre los códigos éticos no eran tan imparciales como creían, al asumir funciones que los códigos de ética no consideran apropiadas

LINGUISTIC AND PRAGMATIC BARRIERS IN IMMIGRANT HEALTH CARE IN SPAIN: THE NEED FOR INTERLINGUISTIC & INTERCULTURAL MEDIATORS

The purpose of this paper is to give a general account of the translation and interpretation problems health care personnel face everyday in relation with immigration, as they have not been provided with any means or knowledge to cope with these matters. Not only do they have a language problem, but important cultural differences may also appear and thus pragmatic barriers as much as linguistic ones must be overcome so that effective communication takes place. In order to account for the situation we shall consider the contrast (and similarities) between two very different social contexts in Spain: a mainly rural/fishing region in the North of Galicia and a big city such as Madrid.El objetivo de este trabajo es presentar un estado de la situación de los problemas de traducción e interpretación que afectan al personal sanitario a diario con los inmigrantes, ya que no tienen medios ni conocimientos para solucionar los problemas que puedan surgir. No sólo tienen problemas lingüísticos, sino que también pueden surgir importantes diferencias culturales que dan lugar a problemas tanto pragmáticos como lingüísticos y obstaculizan una comunicación eficiente. Para describir la situación consideraremos el contraste (y similitudes) que tiene lugar en dos contextos sociales muy diferentes en España: la zona mayoritariamente rural y pesquera del norte de Galicia y una ciudad grande como Madrid

Teacher beliefs in a CLIL education project

One of the most important and interesting questions which researchers studying teaching behaviour have sought to find out is why teachers teach the way they do. The answer to this question ineludibly takes us to the study of teacher beliefs. It is fundamental to conceptualise what teachers believe to be able to understand the way they teach. This paper is part of a research project at the university of Alcalá (Spain) which seeks to study the needs of teachers involved in a bilingual teaching project being carried out in a number of primary schools in Madrid since 2003, whose main object is to integrate the teaching of a foreign language in content subjects (CLIL). The analysis of questionnaires given to teachers working in the project, together with the background research carried out will undoubtedly help us improve our knowledge about teacher beliefs. It is important to mention that most of the teachers working in the aforementioned project have never experienced bilingual teaching or rather CLIL (content language integrated learning). The analysis of their answers to these questionnaires together with some background research will evidence some fears and anxieties about this new way of teaching and the difficulties to abandon certain old conceptions and accept some innovative ones.Sin duda una de las preguntas más significativas e interesantes para los que trabajan en el campo de la didáctica es porqué enseñan los profesores de una determinada manera. La respuesta a esta pregunta nos lleva ineludiblemente al estudio de la conceptualización de creencias didácticas por parte del profesorado. A su vez, el estudio sobre la conceptualización es fundamental para poder entender cómo enseñan los docentes. Este trabajo forma parte de un proyecto de investigación de la Universidad de Alcalá que pretende estudiar las necesidades del profesorado involucrado en un proyecto bilingüe que se está llevando a cabo en un gran número de colegios públicos de primaria en la Comunidad de Madrid desde 2003 y cuyo objetivo es integrar la enseñanza de una segunda lengua en las asignaturas curriculares (CLIL). El análisis de cuestionarios realizados por profesorado que trabaja en este proyecto así como el estudio de trabajos anteriores sobre el tema nos ayudará sin duda a mejorar nuestros conocimientos sobre las creencias de estos docentes. Es importante el hecho de que estos profesores jamás hayan impartido clase en enseñanza bilingüe. A través de los cuestionarios intentaremos averiguar qué opinan sobre su docencia, además de revelarnos sus miedos y necesidades sobre este nuevo tipo de enseñanza y las dificultades que plantea dejar atrás viejos prejuicios para aceptar nuevos e innovadores métodos

La comunicación intercultural en el sistema público de salud mental en España

The access to public information is a democratic right that is not just for people who can communicate effectively within their dominant culture but for all citizens, thus it must be available and accessible to all. However, linguistic and cultural difficulties regarding the access and use of public services, as well as communication facilitation at all levels are problems which have not yet been tackled by authorities in Spain. The services currently used to tend to communication-related needs between the non-Spanish speaking population and healthcare professionals are not completely effective in Spanish hospitals, and most medical professionals will explain that, in their consultations with migrants who do not speak Spanish, they ask them to bring along a family member or friend who speaks Spanish. Concerning mental health—an area in which communication is of the utmost importance and treatment very frequently involves therapy and, thus, communication between the health provider and the patient—, language and cultural barriers often create further obstacles for an adequate treatment. This paper will present the results of a narrative inquiry of a sample of mental health clinicians on their perceptions and experiences when working with non-Spanish speaking patients.The access to public information is a democratic right that is not just for people who can communicate effectively within their dominant culture but for all citizens, thus it must be available and accessible to all. However, linguistic and cultural difficulties regarding the access and use of public services, as well as communication facilitation at all levels are problems which have not yet been tackled by authorities in Spain. The services currently used to tend to communication-related needs between the non-Spanish speaking population and healthcare professionals are not completely effective in Spanish hospitals, and most medical professionals will explain that, in their consultations with migrants who do not speak Spanish, they ask them to bring along a family member or friend who speaks Spanish. Concerning mental health—an area in which communication is of the utmost importance and treatment very frequently involves therapy and, thus, communication between the health provider and the patient—, language and cultural barriers often create further obstacles for an adequate treatment. This paper will present the results of a narrative inquiry of a sample of mental health clinicians on their perceptions and experiences when working with non-Spanish speaking patients

L’utilisation de la rhétorique atténuante dans l’interprétation téléphonique

Numerosos investigadores de comunicación (Barrow et al., 1989; Frey et al., 2000, entre otros) han afirmado que la competencia comunicativa promueve el entendimiento y la explicación de la naturaleza interactiva de la comunicación. Existen comportamientos lingüísticos que resultan más eficaces que otros a la hora de transmitir un mensaje. Un ejemplo claro de ello podría ser el uso frecuente de los atenuantes retóricos en el len-guaje. Los atenuantes retóricos son marcadores de eufemismos que se utilizan tanto en lenguaje oral como escrito (intencionada-mente o no) para mitigar y re-ducir el impacto de un mensaje. Ayudan pues a los hablantes y autores a comunicarse con más precisión. Este estudio analizará el uso de estos marcadores en interpretaciones de asistencia en carretera, realizadas mediante conversaciones telefónicas, con el propósito de averiguar si su uso influye en la precisión lingüística y la función comunicativa.Researchers studying communication (Barrow et al., 1989; Frey et al., 2000, among others) have proposed that communication competence enhances understanding and explanation of the interactive nature of communication. Of course, some linguistic behaviours are more effective than others when trying to convey meaning in an utterance and an example of this could be the frequent use of hedges in medical language. Hedges are markers of euphemisms which are used in both spoken and written language either intentionally or unintentionally to mitigate and lessen the impact of an utterance. They thus allow speakers and writers to communicate more accurately. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the use of hedges in telephone interpreting road assistance conversations to study whether it influences linguistic accuracy and communicative function.De nombreux chercheurs en communication (Barrow et al., 1989; Frey et al., 2000, entre autres) ont affirmé que la compétence communicative favorise la compréhension et l’explication de la nature interactive de la communication. Il existe bien sûr des comportements linguistiques plus efficaces que d’autres pour transmettre un message, et l’utilisation fréquente d’atténuateurs rhétoriques dans le langage en est un exemple clair. Les atténuateurs rhétoriques sont des marqueurs d’euphémisme qui sont utilisés dans le langage parlé et écrit, intentionnellement ou non, pour atténuer et réduire l’impact d’un message. Ils aident ainsi les orateurs et les auteurs à communiquer avec plus de précision. Cette étude analysera l’utilisation de ces marqueurs lors de conversations téléphoniques dans le cadre de l’interprétation de l’assistance routière afin de déterminer si leur utilisation influence la précision linguistique et la fonction communicative.Comunidad de MadridMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovació

Transediting Brexit

Desde el referéndum de junio del 2016 en el que el Reino Unido votó salir de la Unión Europea ha habido una gran controversia. Todas las partes implicadas han generado diversos discursos que representan las distintas perspectivas políticas que, a su vez, se han visto reflejadas en la cobertura de los medios de comunicación. En este trabajo se analizará un corpus paralelo de artículos periodísticos sobre el proceso del Brexit de dos diarios de tendencia liberal y de centroizquierda, el español El País y la agencia de noticias británica Reuters así como sus versiones transeditadas al inglés y español entre 2018 y 2019 utilizando CADS (Corpus Assisted Discourse Studies), con el fin de investigar cómo se representa el Brexit en la prensa española y británica y qué perspectiva se adopta en cada medio a través del análisis de artículos originales y sus versiones en el otro idioma. Por lo tanto, el análisis recurrirá a las herramientas tradicionales del CADS (estadísticas, palabras clave y concordancias) para centrarse en cuestiones políticas comunes para España y el Reino Unido, como el Acuerdo de Retirada del Reino Unido de la UE, Gibraltar (un tema importante de contención en las relaciones entre ambos países) y cómo la primera ministra del Reino Unido, Theresa May, y su homólogo español, Pedro Sánchez, expresan sus actitudes y revelan sus posiciones ideológicas sobre la salida del Reino Unido de la UE.Since the UK voted to exit the European Union, there has been great controversy from all sides and thus many discourses from different political perspectives which, in turn, are reflected in the media coverage. In this paper, a parallel corpus of different newspaper articles on Brexit from two daily liberal, left-of-centre tendencies, the Spanish “El País” and the British “Reuters” news agency and their published translation into English and Spanish between 2018 and 2019 will be analyzed using cross-linguistic CADS (Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies). In order to study how Brexit is represented in both the Spanish and British press and which perspective is adopted through the analysis of these media and their transedited versions in both languages. Therefore, the analysis will resort to traditional tools from CADS (statistics, keywords and concordances) in order to focus on common political issues for Spain and the UK such as how the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement deals with Gibraltar (a major issue of contention in the relations between the two countries) and how the United Kingdom’s PM, Theresa May, and her Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sánchez, express their attitudes and reveal their ideological positions about the UK’s exit from the EU

La Europa del Brexit: un estudio del Discurso Asistido por Corpus sobre las identidades en la prensa

Drawing on what is known as a corpus-assisted discourse study (CADS) approach (Baker et al., 2008), this article will research the construction of different identities by means of the language used in two newspaper articles on Brexit from the Spanish El País and the British The Guardian, to examine how these identities are constructed through media discourse at the time following the Brexit referendum (2016-2018). Media discourse surrounding Brexit is examined under the consideration of media power. A comparable corpus made up of original newspaper articles about Brexit was used to carry out the analysis, identifying statistically significant keywords compared with a reference corpus with the aim of providing an example of how the British and Spanish press construct identity. Keywords: corpus-assisted discourse analysis, media discourse, identities, Brexit, keyness.Partiendo de la perspectiva de los estudios del discurso asistido por corpus (Baker et al., 2008), este artículo investigará la construcción de diferentes identidades mediante el lenguaje utilizado sobre el Brexit en el diario español El País y el británico The Guardian para así examinar cómo se construyen dichas identidades a través del discurso mediático en el momento posterior al referéndum del Brexit (2016-2018). El discurso mediático en torno al Brexit se examina bajo el prisma del poder mediático. Para llevar a cabo el análisis se ha utilizado un corpus comparable formado por artículos periodísticos originales sobre el Brexit, identificando palabras clave estadísticamente significativas en comparación con un corpus de referencia con el objetivo de proporcionar un ejemplo de cómo la prensa británica y española construyen la identidad alrededor de un mismo tema.Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI