School Language Brokering: il contributo dei giovani mediatori all’integrazione dei loro compagni

I bambini e adolescenti figli di immigrati ricoprono spesso il ruolo di mediatori linguistici e culturali per le loro famiglie o per altri membri della propria comunità etnico-linguistica. Questo fenomeno prende il nome di Child Language Brokering e si verifica in una grande varietà di contesti, tra i quali la scuola. A causa della scarsa disponibilità di servizi linguistici professionali a disposizione degli istituti scolastici, i bambini si ritrovano molto spesso a mediare a favore dei propri genitori, insegnanti e coetanei. La presente tesi si occuperà di fornire un inquadramento teorico del fenomeno, focalizzandosi in seguito sul CLB in ambito scolastico (anche detto School Language Brokering), per poi analizzare le linee guida che sono state elaborate nel Regno Unito per gestire al meglio le pratiche di mediazione a opera di minori nelle scuole. Infine, si metterà in risalto il prezioso contributo dei broker all’integrazione dei loro coetanei stranieri, sottolineando gli aspetti positivi e negativi che scaturiscono dalle pratiche di brokering.

Il child language brokering a Ravenna e provincia: la parola agli studenti e ai professori

The main aim of this study is to provide a description of the phenomenon defined as Child Language Brokering (CLB), a common practice among language minority communities but which has received less attention in the academic literature. As the children of immigrants often learn the host language much more quickly than their parents, they contribute to family life by acting as language and cultural mediators between a family members and different language speakers. Many immigrant families prefer a language broker from within their own family to an external mediator or interpreter, even though there is a well-found resistance to the use of these young interpreters by professionals. In this study I report some findings from surveys of teachers in schools in Ravenna where there has been some use of students as CLBs and of students who have acted or are still acting as mediators for their families in different contexts, not only while at school. This dissertation is divided into five chapters. Chapter one aims at providing an overview of recent migration to Italy and of the differences between first-generation immigrants and second-generation immigrants. The chapter also discusses the available professional interpreting facilities provided by the municipality of Ravenna. Chapter two presents an overview of the literature on child language brokering. Chapter three provides a description of the methodology used in order to analyze the data collected. Chapter four contains a detailed analysis of the questionnaires administered to the students and the interviews submitted to the teachers in four schools in Ravenna. Chapter five focuses on the studies carried out by the researchers of the Thomas Coram Research Unit and University College London and draws a general comparison between their findings from on-line surveys of teachers in schools and my own findings on teachers’ points of view. The results of this study demonstrate that CLB is a common practice among immigrant children living in Ravenna and, although almost all students reported positive appreciation, further work is still needed to assess the impact of this phenomenon.