Abstract:

The weight of the CEFR as a European standard for language education has grown these last years, and it has been adopted as a reference instrument for initiatives such as the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), the Europass and the European Indicator of Language Competence. However, being our societies more diverse than ever, there were no validated and calibrated descriptors for mediation, being mentioned only interpreting and translation as mediation activities.

A provisional edition of the CEFR Companion Volume with New Descriptors was published in 2017 as an extension of the original CEFR of 2001, aiming at updating and extending the descriptors to new areas of the CEFR for which no descriptors were provided before. The main focus was on mediation, taking a Vygotskian perspective which conceives knowledge as constructed primarily through semiotic mediation using language. The Russian scholar Lev Vygostky (1978) suggested that the origin of human mental activity (the genesis of consciousness) develops in two ways that are interwined: the first one is the natural way, which facilitates elementary mental functions (attention, sensation, perception and memory ); the second, the social way, which enables the development of higher mental functions (logic, abstract thinking, creativity, language). Vygotsky also sustained that the acquisition of higher mental functions is mediated by agents which can be cultural and social artifacts (physical like a telephone, a computer, a boo, or symbolic such as numbers, music, language) or other human beings. Knowledge, thus, is constructed primarily through semiotic mediation using language, "the most powerful symbolic psychological tool” through two mediating mechanisms: metacognitive, i.e. semiotic tools of self-regulation, and cognitive, i.e. learning, which, according to Vygotsky, includes two stages: shared understanding in social context through dialogic mediation and individual internalization of the shared knowledge. In consequence, the educational goal is the transition from this dialogic mediation to the mediating system practiced by adults, i.e. using texts and other information sources.

Given the relevance of this area in Education, and particularly in Language Education, this presentation tries to provide an insight into mediation with the general aim of better comprehending this area and the new concepts of mediation involved: cognitive mediation (facilitating access to knowledge and concepts, for individuals who may be unable to access them on their own) and relational mediation (creating and managing a positive, collaborative environment) which constitute the foundation for successful pedagogy.

Keywords:

Mediation, cognitive mediation, relational mediation.