MEDIATION



B2.1 WRITTEN MEDIATION

Mediation is a technique used to express relevant aspects of a text in another language.

In written exams you are most often asked to mediate a Spanish text into English. Do not translate literally!! You have to process the text.

The task is given in a specific situation, e.g. you help a tourist to understand information in Spanish, you write an article for an American newspaper using a Spanish source, and so on.

|Step 1: |Read the task carefully to find out what information your addressee needs. |

|Step 2: |Read the text given to get its meaning and intention. |

|Step 3: |Highlight or underline keywords. Don’t panic if the text is long and /or complex – Concentrate on the |

| |points relevant to the addressee and leave out the rest. |

|Step 4: |Take notes in English to process the relevant passages from the Spanish text. |

| | |

| |Use your own words. Sometimes it is useful to simplify or paraphrase important words or phrases. |

|Step 5: |Structure your notes according to the task – if necessary, rearrange the structure of the original text. |

|Step 6: |If there are passages in the text which need explanation to be clarified, add further information. |

| | |

| |Don’t forget to explain concepts that are typical of one culture but not of the other. |

|Step 7: |Write your text summarising your notes. Adapt your language (style, register) to the task and addressee. |

| | |

| |In an article for a newspaper, you use relatively formal language; in an email to a friend, you write more |

| |informally. |

B2.1 WRITTEN MEDIATION

RENDERING INFORMATION FROM L1 TO L2

What is it?

Mediation texts in which you render information from Spanish to English are usually informal or semi-formal e-mails where you give information about your own country to an English-speaking person.

FORMAT:

| |

|SALUTATION TAG |

|Dear friend, |

| |

|OPENING PARAGRAPH |

|How are you? I’ve been looking into what you asked me in your previous e-mail and I think the following info may be helpful for |

|you. |

| |

|CENTRAL PARAGRAPHS |

|A summary of the information at hand. |

|You don’t have to translate everything. Pick and choose 3 main ideas you consider to be relevant to help the person you are |

|writing to. and write down one paragraph per idea. |

|Clarify any relevant aspects of Spanish culture which could be useful to a foreigner. |

| |

|CLOSING PARAGRAPH |

|Well, that’s all I can think of. |

|I hope this info be helpful for you. |

|Please write back and let me know what you did in the end. |

|Looking forward to hearing from you. |

| |

|CLOSURE TAG |

|Best wishes, |

| |

|FIRST NAME |

B2.1 WRITTEN MEDIATION

| |

|DON’TS: |

|don’t use bullet points [pic], use paragraphs. |

|don’t use brackets ( ), use connectors. |

|don’t use colons : , use connectors. |

|don’t use formal words and expressions when writing an email to a friend (e.g. don’t use ‘furthermore’, use ‘besides’) |

|don’t split words at the end of a line, write full words. |

REMEMBER:

| |

|advice (noun) |

|advise (verb) |

| |

|an advice / some advices / a piece of advice |

|A tip / some tips |

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