Abstract:

The aim of my presentation is to present a research conducted at University ca’ Foscari of Venice on the figure of intercultural and interlinguistic mediators.

The heterogeneity in the training of mediators and the importance of this figure laid the foundations to study fundamental competencies of mediators and how they should be trained to get a professional high profile qualification. In fact, in national and international studies dealing with intercultural mediation, the reflection upon the communicative competence of the mediators still has not been deepened systematically. For this reason, in our research we defined a model of intercultural communication that should be used to analyse intercultural mediation and communication, a model of reference upon mediation, a classification of actions, skills and techniques that should be employed by mediators in every communicative event. To qualify the figure of mediator and to make it more homogeneous at a national level, we proposed also a model of certification of skills and competencies. This certification, divided in two parts, the oral one and the written one, was tested between 100 mediators working in Italy in different fields.

Our lecture will be divided into three sections. In the first part I will briefly present the theoretical background related to our research and I will present a model of Intercultural communicative competence. The specificity of the researches carried at Ca’ Foscari upon intercultural communication (Balboni, 2007) and the creation of a model of observation of intercultural communication and skills (Balboni, Caon, still not printed) can supply a remarkable contribute to scientific linguistic research. The intercultural communicative abilities and competences in intercultural mediators (such as suspension of judgment, empathy, etc.) inside a model of intercultural communication can represent an innovative aspect in the field of interlinguistic and intercultural mediation.

In the second part I will briefly present our model of reference upon mediation and the classification of actions, skills and techniques.

Finally, in the third part I will present the first results of the pilot study conducted on the testing of the certification for mediators.

Keywords:

Intercultural communication, interlinguistic and intercultural mediation, training for mediators, a model of intercultural communication.