ABSTRACT
Language brokers, unlike professional interpreters and translators, are usually involved in negotiation for one or more of the parties for which they mediate; “they mediate communication rather than merely transmitting it”. Language brokering research has shown that language brokering is a widespread phenomenon, particularly in bi/multilingual communities. Language brokers start mediating at an early age, usually during elementary school, and first-generation immigrant brokers do so within one to five years of their arrival to the host country. All language brokers generally start mediating due to three main reasons: the pressing communicative needs of monolingual speakers, the shortage of qualified translators and interpreters, and their bi/multilingual abilities; however, the emotional impact of this practice is not the same for all of them. Language brokering research has also explored the potential cognitive effects of brokering. Explicitly recognizing students’ language brokering experience, however, has a number of benefits.
