Las estrategias comunicativas empleadas por alumnos principiantes que adoptan el rol de mediador en actividades de mediación oral

Abstract

Mediation, a barely known language-learning field in Spanish speaking countries, has become a main focus during the last decade in German school education. This document not only contains the most significant contributions so far on both mediation itself and mediation strategies, but also provides new insight on the topic through a field study on the use of strategies in oral mediation. The methodology consists of the filming and recording of German university students taking an A2-level course in Spanish during three mediation sessions and the following retrospective interview with the subjects on the mediator role. This mediation sessions contained an oral activity, “German-Spanish”, which entailed reading a text in German and transmitting the necessary information to the interlocutor in Spanish. All students being German, the activity constituted a mediation simulation. The most remarkable result of the field study is the identification of individual tendencies to often use the same strategies. These tendencies do not necessarily coincide between subjects, which reinforces the concepts of individualisation and different intelligence types, as well as different kinds of learning. The fact that there wasn’t a significant increase or change in the use of strategies can also be understood as highlighting the need for explicit instruction on strategies. That being at least partially needed at university level —at which learners are significantly more autonomous— it becomes even more necessary at school level. Key words: mediation, strategies, university students, beginners, simulation