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Laura GAVIOLI
Professore Ordinario
Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Culturali
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Pubblicazioni
2023
- Introduction
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Wadensjö, C.; Gavioli, L.
abstract
The paper provides an introduction to the Routledge Handbook od Public Service Interpreting and describes the key relevant issues in the debate about publc service interpreting: the conduit metaphor, mediation, empirical studies; public service interpreting impacting public services
2023
- La mediazione linguistica nei colloqui tra insegnanti e genitori stranieri
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Baraldi, Claudio; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
Abstract
Research shows that in order to accomplish interactional sense-making, interpreters need
to interpret the participants’ contributions as contextually situated. Rendering thus involves
explicating unclear contextual elements, reformulating contributions to convey their pragmatic meaning, and seeking clarification from participants. Our study is based on 16 interpreter-mediated parent-teacher conferences, which were collected in two Italian cities with
high migration flows. These end-of-term meetings involve teachers highlighting “what went
wrong.” In their renditions to the parents, the mediators work to mitigate the impact of the
teachers’ negative comments. Our findings suggest that while the mediators’ comments help
to make the negative feedback more acceptable and solution-oriented, a closer collaboration
between the teachers and the mediators could lead to more productive and inclusive talk.
2023
- Language mediation in schools. The case of parent-teacher meetings.
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Baraldi, C.; Gavioli, L.
abstract
This chapter focuses on interpreter-mediated interactions between teachers and migrant parents. The chapter includes a review of studies on interpreter-mediated interactions in schools, a description of the data and methodology adopted and the discussion of our data. The main corpus of data consists in audio-recorded interpreter-mediated interactions between teachers and foreign-speaking parents in Italian contexts, largely in primary schools. Interpreting is provided by professional intercultural mediators, who are employed to provide interpreting service in many Italian public areas. The teachers participating in the interactions all speak Italian while parents are of diverse provenances and they speak Chinese, Twi, Arabic, Urdu and Albanian. The main issues dealt with in our interpreter-mediated interactions concern the children’s performance, both at school and during education activities at home (mainly homework). Some reflections are drawn on the ways in which language mediation may affect school–family communication when the families are migrant.
2023
- On managing dyadic sequences in triadic clinician-patient-interpreter interaction
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, L.; Baraldi, C.
abstract
“Dyadic” monolingual sequences involving the mediator and one
participant alone seem crucial in medical interaction, but may hinder talk that is in fact triadic. For this reason, dyadic talk has raised debate in dialogue interpreting literature. In this contribution, we look at dyadic sequences in two data-sets, one with interpreting taking place on a regular basis, the other in which interpreting is rarely provided and the mediators less experienced. The data show that while dyadic sequences occur in both settings, their handling appears effective in the former and highly noneffective in the latter. Our analysis highlights reasons for (non-) effectiveness and allows for suggestions to both mediators and clinicians to improve their management of such a complex talk practice.
2023
- Public Service Interpreting in Healthcare
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, L.; Merlini, R.
abstract
Abstract
Health care is one of the traditional areas in which public service interpreting has most developed in the wake of increasing migration flows. Although this development has not necessarily been accompanied by adequate support to professionalization processes, over the last two decades growing interest in research has highlighted the complexities triggered by interpreting in doctor-patient interaction; these include dealing with medically relevant problems which may not be easily explained and understood by doctors and patients, and working in emotionally charged situations. Specifically, the chapter illustrates the tensions that arise in rendering medical issues while at the same time managing conversational dynamics and putting patients at ease. It does so by relying on two broad categories of studies: those which focus on the perceptions of people who work in and with medical interpreting (interpreters and healthcare providers); and those which analyse recorded authentic interpreter-mediated data from an interactional perspective.
2023
- The Routledge Handbook of Public Service Interpreting
[Curatela]
Gavioli, L.; Wadensjö, C.
abstract
The volume provides a comprehensive overview of research in public service or community interpreting. It offers reflections and suggestions for improving public service communication in plurilingual settings and provides tools for dealing with public service communication in a global society
2023
- Une expérience qui montre la difficulté à trouver sa place
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
2022
- Conversation analysis
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, L.
abstract
Since the late 1990s, translation and interpreting studies has looked at CA with increasing interest, especially in the area of dialogue interpreting (DI). DI is a form of interaction where speakers with little or no knowledge of each other’s language interact with the help of a bilingual interlocutor who translates for them. It may involve different types of bilingual experts, ranging from qualifi ed personnel to friends or relatives, and a variety of types of conversation: court proceedings, police interviews, asylum seeking sessions, healthcare interactions in different contexts, parent- teacher interactions at school, and in the media, like talk shows or interviews, and others (Mason 1999). CA focuses on the accomplishment of communicative practices as they emerge in the circumstances in which utterances are produced. It looks at how participants make their understanding of what is going on clear while responding to previously produced utterances, and examines the construction of sense- making in the interaction. As such, CA has provided a powerful instrument with to highlight the characteristics of interaction in DI. These chapters deals with the method of CA and its applications to DI.
2022
- Interactional constraints on interpreters’ action: the case of clinicians’ comments about cultural differences
[Articolo su rivista]
Gavioli, Laura; Baraldi, Claudio
abstract
For a while now, interpreter-mediated talk has been analysed as a form of interaction under
the lenses of approaches based on recorded and transcribed data. These studies converge
on the idea that making sense of the participants’ contributions puts constraints
on the interpreters’ activity, leading them to choices of action like explaining, clarifying,
making explicit what is implicit. This paper focuses on sequences involving clinicians,
migrant patients and intercultural mediators and deals with instances in which clinicians’
contributions heavily limit the interpreters’ choice of action. The cases in question
are sequences where clinicians comment on patients’ different behaviour or habits. Our
analysis looks at four types of mediators’ reaction that we found in the data, all showing
the challenges these comments create for the mediators’ choice of action. We conclude that
rendering is hardly an option and that while non-rendition may serve the purpose of protecting
the patients from possibly offensive talk, it also hinders their involvement in the
interaction, or their possibility of replying.
2022
- Intercultural mediation
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Baraldi, C.; Gavioli, L.
abstract
Following increasing migration fluxes and their impact on public service communication in Western countries, research on language and social interaction has drawn its attention to so-called “intercultural mediation”, that is, communication in bi- or plurilingual settings where mutual understanding is achieved via language interpreting work. It was noted (Wadensjö 1998; Davidson 2000) that communication mediated by a participating interpreter involves complex forms of interaction, allowing participants to mitigate language and cultural barriers. While highlighting that expression and treatment of emotions is a crucial achievement in interpreter-mediated interaction, studies on intercultural mediation,
with very few exceptions, have addressed the idea of emotions only indirectly. More precisely, the focus has been on forms of gatekeeping which may block or modify laypersons’
emotional expression. As a consequence, gatekeeping has been observed in its function of facilitating institutional achievements and protecting them at the expense of laypeople’s voice (including their emotions). Our contribution has a double aim: (a) to discuss those studies which have underlined the relevance of the expression of emotions in interpreter-mediated interactions, in different institutional settings; (b) to highlight the function
of mediation in eliciting expressions of emotion and reducing gatekeeping.
2022
- Qualitative and quantitative analysis of doctor-patient interactions during andrological consultations
[Articolo su rivista]
Santi, Daniele; Spaggiari, Giorgia; Romeo, Marilina; Ebert, Riccardo; Corradini, Federico; Baraldi, Claudio; Granata, Antonio R M; Rochira, Vincenzo; Simoni, Manuela; Gavioli, Laura; Niemants, Natacha S A
abstract
Although a trustworthy connection between doctor and patient is crucial in clinical practice, it could be hindered by different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Moreover, an effective doctor-patient interaction could be even more challenging in andrological fields, in which psychological and social components are predominant.
2021
- Effective Communication and Knowledge Distribution in Healthcare Interaction with Migrants
[Articolo su rivista]
Baraldi, C.; Gavioli, L.
abstract
ABSTRACT
Modern patient-centered approaches increasingly recognize the contribution of patients’ knowledge in
interactions with health-care personnel. Effective involvement is exceptionally difficult when patients are
migrants with limited command of specialized language. Interactional practices that promote effective
distribution of knowledge and access to it are needed: by doctors interacting directly with patients in
a shared language and by mediators providing interpreting services across different languages. In this
paper, we look at two types of sequence which seem to be effective in involving (migrant) patients. The
first concerns clinicians’ reactions to spontaneous patients’ initiatives, like claims to knowledge or
personal narratives. The second concerns interpreters’ explanations when they render the clinicians’
instructions to the patients. While both sequences are clearly designed to promote patients’ participation,
they need particular communicative competence on the part of staff, clinicians, and interpreters.
2021
- Reflections on Doctor Question – Patient Answer Sequences and on Lay Perceptions of Close Translation
[Articolo su rivista]
Gavioli, L.; Wadensjö, C.
abstract
ABSTRACT
The lay perception of those who work with interpreters in their professional conversations (and sometimes of
interpreters themselves) is that translation of what they and their patients/clients say should be as close as
possible. The very idea of close translation may seem simple, but the practice of rendering spontaneous talk-ininteraction
as close as possible is quite complex, and requires much more from the mediator than textually
close renditions. In this paper, we discuss what is involved in the accomplishment of close rendering in talk. We
focus on question-answer sequences with clinicians and patients, when details about the patients’ history and
their symptoms are collected. We show that meaning is achieved and rendered through processes thatmay go
rather beyond the single words and utterances and that involve the contribution of all the interlocutors. We
show three types of sequences taken from a collection of authentic data audio-recorded in health care services
in Italy and transcribed to allow for analysis. The sequences show three different forms of talk, found in the
data, where participants pursue close, precise rendition of medical details. The analysis highlights that the
Italian intercultural mediators (just like those trained and assigned as public service interpreters in other
countries), even in these cases which are peculiarly focused on precise details, do need to take responsibility
not only for translating the textual items but also for coordinating turns at talk. It is responsible turncoordination
which leads to rendering meaning closely.
2021
- When Clinicians and Patients Do Not Speak the Same Language: A Preface to
Interpreting in Health Care
[Articolo su rivista]
Baraldi, C.; Gavioli, L.
abstract
From the last decade of the twentieth century, increasing migration flows as well as people movements across borders for business, education, or tourism have changed the panorama of those who may be in need of medical assistance. For
quite a while, health care services have coped with the need to assist patients who have little or no knowledge of the language spoken by the medical staff. Thus, translating between clinicians’ and patients’ languages has developed as an interpreting practice in hospitals and doctors’ surgeries. This special issue deals with some of the problems encountered when communicating through the help of an interpreter, in healthcare.
2020
- Authentic Mediated Interactions for Training Healthcare Mediators
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Baraldi, C.; Gavioli, L.
abstract
2020
- COMPETENZA DEL MEDIATORE LINGUISTICO O VINCOLO DELL’INTERAZIONE? UNA RIFLESSIONE SUL TRADURRE NELLA CONVERSAZIONE TRA PERSONALE MEDICO E PAZIENTE
[Articolo su rivista]
Gavioli, L.
abstract
2020
- Patients’ Initiatives and the Achievement of Medical Compliance in Talk with Migrant Patients and with(out) Interpreting Aid
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Baraldi, C.; Gavioli, L.
abstract
This paper provides an analysis of migrant patients’ initiatives in medical interactions. The initiatives we look at are claims for knowledge about health and illness, extended narratives of personal experience, rejection of or resistance to medical prescriptions, reactions to medical disapproval of patients’ behaviour and practices. The data analysed include interactions with a language mediator providing interpreting service, and interactions without interpreting, where talk is managed by clinicians in Italian or in a lingua franca like English. In this paper, patients’ initiatives are examined as potentially novel elements in relation to the set of expectations entailed in the medical system of communication. Drawing on transcriptions of audio-recorded interactions, we look at how such “taking initiative” is negotiated in the interactional sequence, with particular reference to the achievement of patients’ compliance and patients’ empowerment. Our analysis leads to reflections concerning patients’ positioning and participants’ authority in accessing knowledge.
2019
- La mediazione linguistico-culturale nei servizi sanitari: Interazione ed efficacia comunicativa
[Monografia/Trattato scientifico]
Baraldi, C.; Gavioli, L.
abstract
Il volume riassume i risultati di quindici anni di ricerca sulla mediazione linguistico-culturale in servizi sanitari. Partendo da un’ampia letteratura internazionale, propone le interpretazioni più aggiornate sul significato di tale mediazione, in una prospettiva interdisciplinare che unisce linguistica e sociologia. Nel volume vengono illustrati, attraverso molti esempi di episodi reali, i modi di praticare la mediazione, attraverso la traduzione, in una dimensione interculturale e a sostegno della comunicazione tra operatori sanitari e pazienti migranti. Gli esempi sono stati registrati nei servizi sanitari di Modena e Reggio Emilia, che sono all’avanguardia nell’uso della mediazione; sono stati quindi accuratamente trascritti, spiegati e commentati nei vari capitoli, in modo da risultare comprensibili ai lettori. Il volume getta così una luce nuova, e ampiamente documentata, sul significato della mediazione linguistico-culturale nei servizi sanitari e sulle differenze tra una mediazione efficace e una inefficace. Obiettivo del volume è fornire indicazioni per politiche sanitarie basate sulla comprensione della qualità della mediazione e dei modi per osservarla e valutarla. Queste osservazioni indicano modi possibili di formare mediatori e operatori capaci di favorire in modo efficace la partecipazione attiva dei pazienti migranti alle pratiche di prevenzione e cura. Il volume si rivolge a mediatori; dirigenti e operatori sanitari; responsabili di politiche sanitarie; studiosi della comunicazione medica e della mediazione, sia linguistica, sia interculturale; studenti universitari impegnati in corsi di laurea, laurea magistrale e master dedicati alla mediazione linguistica e alle dinamiche degli incontri interculturali, e di area medica qualora includano insegnamenti sulla comunicazione.
2019
- Role
[Voce in Dizionario o Enciclopedia]
Gavioli, L.
abstract
While the professional training of (conference) interpreters has long focused on the latters’ capacity to manage their cognitive efforts in translating speech from one language to another somehow independently on the context in which interpreting takes place (Gile 1995), the variety of communicative situations in which interpreters are increasingly involved as a consequence of the expansion of contacts across different regions of the world, has raised the issue of whether cognitive ability to find textual equivalents quickly was actually enough to: a. explain and b. inform interpreted rendition choices convincingly enough. While on the one hand the “conduit” model (Roy 1993) is still alive and thriving in most interpreter training programs, on the other field-work in doctor-patient talk (Englund-Dimitrova 1997), asylum hearings (Keselman et al. 2010) or from and into sign language (Metzger 1999, Turner 2009) has shown cases in point about what it means to provide effective interpreting in situations of high inequality.
Rethinking interpreters’ role in a communicative perspective has thus become a central issue in interpreting literature (Pöchhacker and Shlesinger 2002: part 7). In dialogue interpreting, in particular, analysis of interpreter-mediated occurrences of interaction has shown that some activities which are fundamental characteristics of talk, like repair, could not be dealt with, with no involvement of interpreters as “participants” (Wadensjö 1998). An interpreters’ “more active” role has thus been acknowledged as fundamental to achieve reciprocal understanding (Davidson 2002), solve underdeterminacy of interlocutors’ assumptions (Mason 2006) and ultimately address the goals of the interaction effectively (Davitti 2013, Straniero Sergio 2012).
Today, while the debate on interpreters’ role is still burning and the need of clear orientations in interpreting conduct most wanted (Hale 2007, Tebble 2012, Angelelli 2007), there seems to be a consensus that since no rendition can be provided without understanding the communication process and interpreting it, interpreters ‘cannot not participate’ in talk (Pöchhacker 2012: 50). The concept of interpreters’ role can thus possibly be viewed along two main axes. The first is that of interpreters as participants. In this respect, one dimension of interpreters’ role consists in identifying forms of participation in communicative events ranging from coordinating implicitly and explicitly (Wadensjö 1998), to negotiating authority and responsibility (Gavioli 2015). The second is that of interpreters as transformative agents, going from explications of implicit (cultural?) assumptions (Mason 2006) to advocacy (Leanza 2005), to more overt forms of activism (Inghilleri 2005, 2010; Boéri 2008) or empowerment (Baraldi 2012).
My contribution provides an overview of the development of the notion of interpreter’s role and of the changes brought to it from theoretical perspectives that look at participation and agency as fundamental to communication processes.
2018
- Do authentic data mean authentic learning? On the use of authentic samples and (in)authentic activities in teaching and learning dialogue interpreting
[Articolo su rivista]
Gavioli, L.
abstract
For some time now, research on Dialogue Interpreting (DI) has relied on data collected in real life situations, recorded and transcribed in order to analyse their discoursal and interactional features. A number of studies (e.g. Wadensjo 1998; Davidson 2000, 2002; Mason 1999, 2006) have highlighted that interpreting in interactions does not necessarily occur turn by turn, may include sequences involving the interpreter and only one of the interlocutors, may take forms different from the turns it refers to, by e.g. expanding or reducing their content. These findings have recently been taken up in DI teaching and training, in which authentic data - recorded and transcribed - are being increasingly used with learners or trainees to highlight relevant interactional features or for the students to engage in similar situations. The debate on the use of authentic data in teaching and learning is however not new and raises a series of problems which need to be considered when engaging in DI teaching. In what follows, I summarize the debate on the relationship between authentic data and authentic learning (section 2), and then illustrate some issues deriving from analysis of authentic DI interaction which may be relevant in DI learning and training (section 3). Through the observation of a roleplay activity, I then show that translating these insights into learning tasks is not easy and needs ad hoc research (section 4). Section 5 offers some concluding thoughts.
2018
- La mediazione linguistico culturale in ambito sanitario
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, L.
abstract
While a distinction has been made between “public service interpreting” and “(intercultural)
mediation”, translation and mediation go hand in hand in dialogue interpreting, particularly
when delicate situations are involved, as is the case in healthcare. In this paper, I
provide an outline of the debate foregrounding the relationship between interpreting and
mediation and I discuss some examples of authentic interaction interpreted by mediators in
public healthcare services in Italy. The data show that, although not necessarily close repetitions
of turns in the other language, the forms of rendition adopted by the mediators are
in line with the goals of the interaction and facilitate understanding and rapport between
patients and healthcare providers. Renditions are oriented to achievements related to the
medical context of the examination (e.g. taking the patients’ history) and they cope with
local interactional problems.
2018
- Managing uncertainty in healthcare interpreter-mediated interaction: On rendering question-answer sequences
[Articolo su rivista]
Baraldi, C.; Gavioli, L.
abstract
This paper analyses healthcare interactions involving doctors, migrant patients and ‘intercultural mediators’
who provide interpreting services. Our study is based on a collection of 300 interactions involving two
language pairs, Arabic–Italian and English–Italian. The analytical framework includes conversation
analysis combined with insights from social systems theory. We look at question-answer sequences, where
(1) the doctors ask questions about patients’ problems or history, (2) the doctors’ questions are responded
to and (3) the doctor closes the sequence, moving on to another question. We analyse the ways in which
mediators help doctors design questions for patients and patients understand and eventually respond to
the doctors’ design. While the doctor’s question design aims at obtaining details which are relevant for the
patients’ care, it is argued that collecting such details involves complex interactional work. In particular,
doctors need help in displaying their attention to their patients’ problems and in guiding patients’ responses
into medically relevant directions. Likewise, patients need help in reacting appropriately. Mediators help
manage communicative uncertainty both by showing the doctor’s interest in what the patient says, and by
exploring and rendering the patient’s incomplete, extended and ambiguous answers to the doctor’s
questions.
2018
- TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING FOR LANGUAGE LEARNERS (TAIL) Lessons in honour ofGuy Aston, Anna Ciliberti, Daniela Zorzi
[Curatela]
Anderson, L.; Gavioli, L.; Zanettin, F.
abstract
Translation And Interpreting for Language Learners (TAIL) is a collection of papers that addresses a two-faceted pedagogic question: How can interpreter/translator training be enhanced by greater attention to what happens in the classroom, and how can general language learning be furthered by recognising interpreting/translating as abilities worthy of attention alongside the traditional “four skills”? The teaching/learning activities presented aim to provide suggestions about how students can be given opportunities to engage with problems that arise when interacting in and/or comparing different languages in cross-cultural communication.
2018
- Translation and interpreting for language learners: An introduction
[Articolo su rivista]
Anderson, L.; Gavioli, L.; Zanettin, F.
abstract
One of the tasks of applied linguistics is the formulation of pedagogic problems for which solutions may be obtained through the use of techniques derived from the linguistic disciplines: at the same time, the relationship between linguistics and pedagogy is a dialectic one, so that an applied linguistic approach to discourse may also provide insights of descriptive interest as well as ones of pedagogic relevance (Introduction to The PIXI Project, Aston, 1988a: 12-3).
2017
- Foreword [Teaching Dialogue Interpreting]
[Prefazione o Postfazione]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
Research on naturally-occurring interpreter-mediated interaction has highlighted
a range of aspects that may characterize the interpreter’s competence. How
best to construct instruments to develop such skills is the next step in interpreter
training research. This is the principal issue this volume examines.
2017
- Intercultural mediation and "(non)professional" interpreting in Italian healthcare institutions
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Baraldi, Claudio; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
This chapter illustrates an analysis of interpreting activities performed by intercultural mediators in Italian healthcare services. It proposes a reflection on the type of professionalism that seems to be required in healthcare institutions where the issue of dealing with cultural differences between the patients and the operators is considered of fundamental importance. The analysis shows that mediators address cultural differences along the lines of one of two orientations. The first treats cultural differences as a plurality of options, thus enhancing patients’ active participation and choice. The second is based on cultural essentialism and treats differences in terms of dos and don’ts, preventing interlocutors’ active participation. We suggest that in order to accomplish with the task of dealing with cultural differences ‘professionally’ in healthcare interaction, mediators and interpreters alike maybe made aware of the advantages and risks involved in taking each of these two orientations.
2016
- Exploring Corpora for ESP Learning
[Monografia/Trattato scientifico]
Gavioli, L.
abstract
Si tratta della stampa del mio volume Exploring Corpora for ESP Learning pubblicato nel 2005, per il mercato cinese. Contiene una lunga premessa in cinese che facilita la lettura del volume.
2016
- Interazione e mediazione linguistica in un centro di assistenza per migranti
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
In questo contributo analizzo interazioni conversazionali, audio-registrate e trascritte in cui un o una migrante da un paese dell’Africa centrale e che usa la lingua inglese, interagisce con un operatore di un centro di assistenza italiano preposto a dare informazioni su come ottenere i documenti per vivere in Italia regolarmente: rilascio o rinnovo del permesso di soggiorno, procedure relative al ricongiungimento familiare o ai contratti di lavoro. Alle interazioni partecipa una mediatrice, anch’essa proveniente dall’Africa centrale, che traduce tra le lingue inglese e italiana e aiuta gli interlocutori a comprendersi.
Il mio lavoro si riallaccia agli studi di Daniela Zorzi in molti modi, tra cui ne preciso due. Il primo riguarda l’analisi della comunicazione nelle istituzioni pubbliche, ambito di cui Daniela si è occupata a partire dagli anni novanta (Zorzi 1995, Gavioli e Zorzi 1995a e b). Nel suo saggio del 1995, in particolare, Daniela analizza le lettere di utenti al Movimento di Difesa del Cittadino, un ente intermediario che lavora con lo scopo di favorire la comunicazione tra gli uni e l’altra. Daniela osserva che, nella maggior parte dei casi, le lettere lamentano non tanto un disservizio (ad esempio un errore), quanto un’assenza di contatto e di presa in carico di un problema posto dall’utente, al quale, i cittadini lamentano, “non è mai stata fornita una risposta”. Larga parte del lavoro del Movimento, dunque, nota Daniela, non consiste nella denuncia di mal-amministrazione, ma nel ripristinare il contatto e aiutare gli utenti a ottenere risposte e informazioni (Zorzi 1995: 442-3).
Il secondo e più importante collegamento tra questo e il lavoro di Daniela è lo studio dell’interazione a cui partecipa un mediatore-interprete. A Daniela, devo l’idea di avere usato i metodi dell’analisi dell’interazione per indagare la mediazione dialogica (cf. in particolare Zorzi 2004, 2006). Daniela ha tracciato un quadro ampio, sottolineando da un lato la necessità di approfondire la ricerca sulle caratteristiche dell’interazione mediata (Zorzi 2008a, 2009, 2012), dall’altro quella di riflettere sugli aspetti legati alla formazione, a partire da queste caratteristiche (Zorzi 2007, 2008b, 2011). Il primo tipo di ricerca, quello di carattere più descrittivo, si è sviluppato in un momento di passaggio degli studi sull’interpretazione da prospettive cognitive a prospettive socio-comunicative e si è ben inserito in un’area ormai nota a livello internazionale (Wadensjö 1998, Davidson 2002, Mason 2006), con cui ci sono stati numerosi contatti (cf. Baraldi e Gavioli 2012). Sul piano della formazione dell’interprete-mediatore, invece, il lavoro di Daniela è allo stato attuale il più avanzato e nessuno studio internazionale ha, a mia conoscenza, approfondito il problema, dal punto di vista dell’apprendimento, arrivando al grado di sperimentazione su cui lavorava Daniela.
Questo lavoro si colloca dunque in questo contesto: da un lato osserva il funzionamento di un centro di assistenza che funge da intermediario tra utenti stranieri e amministrazioni; dall’altro descrive la funzione dell’interpretazione linguistica come mediazione nel contesto di assistenza del centro.
2016
- On professional and non-professional interpreting in healthcare services: the case of intercultural mediators
[Articolo su rivista]
Baraldi, Claudio; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
A debate that has revolved around the organisation of Italian healthcare interpreting services concerns the choice adopted by most institutions to employ intercultural mediators rather than professional interpreters. Intercultural mediators do not necessarily have a professional training in interpreting, they are, however, preferred to professional interpreters in that they are considered more competent in mediating the possibly different perspectives of healthcare providers and migrant patients. This preference provides food for thought for reflections on professionalism in interpreter-mediated interaction in healthcare. Drawing form a 10-year research on mediator-interpreted interactions in healthcare and a set of data comprising around 250 consultations, our contribution sets out
as an attempt to clarify what is involved in this mediating work. Our analysis shows that mediators’ agency is relevant both in providing renditions of participants’ utterances and in promoting their active participation in the interaction. We describe the different ways in which mediators’ agency is displayed in interactions and the interactional constraints on mediators’ choices of action. Suggestions derived from our analysis may have an impact on the improvement of both mediators’ and interpreters’ professionalism with particular reference to facilitating communication with migrant patients, an aspect that has been recognized as highly problematic in the literature.
2015
- Conversation Analysis
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
The paper describes a theoretical-methodological approach called "Conversation Analysis", its basic principles and the opportunities to apply this method to the study of dialogue interpreting. It concludes that looking at dialogue interpreting form an interactional perspective, as suggested by Conversation Analysis, may lead to considerations about which choices are relevant and suitable to translation of the spoken language
2015
- Doctor's acknowledgments of patients' answers: rendition patterns in interpreter-mediated, history-taking sequences
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
In our increasingly multicultural society, contacts among speakers of different languages and with different cultural backgrounds are increasingly frequent. Institutions need to serve a diverse public who may not speak the same
language as the providers or may not be accustomed to the procedures of the service. Many public institutions in Europe are consequently implementing interpreting and translation services, which allow them to communicate with speakers from around the world. In this paper, I take an interactional approach to study sequences of dialogue interpreting in healthcare settings. In particular, the sequences were selected in such a way as to be “highly informative”, that is to say where the actual exchange of “facts” is the main goal. These sequences are those where
doctors ask patients about their medical history i.e. symptoms, life habits, relevant diseases in their families and the like. This choice is based on two reasons: a. facts are likely to be rendered accurately and precisely, with little possibility of modification; b. to use the Brown and Yule definition (1983), these sequences are mainly transactional”, with expectedly little involvement of emotion or rapport. Because of these characteristics, these sequences may provide examples where information transfer is quite straightforward and understanding details is the main issue. They are thus likely to show instances where rendition is particularly close (and potentially unproblematic). My data show that while doctor’s history-taking questions are systematically rendered for the patients, unproblematically and immediately after the doctors’ turns, patients’ responses are instead often followed by more elaborate interpreting sequences leading to patients’ answers and doctors’ acknowledgments of such answers. The paper is organised as follows. Section 2 provides an overview of the recent debate in dialogue interpreting and section 3 illustrates the reaction to the debate from an interactional perspective. Section 4 deals with the function of history-taking sessions in (monolingual) medical interaction. The data used in this study are described in section 5 and the actual analysis of interpreter-mediated interaction in history-taking sequences comes in section 6. Some concluding remarks close the paper.
2015
- Interpreting as coordination in doctor-patient interaction: talk organization and (inter)cultural presuppositions
[Articolo su rivista]
Baraldi, Claudio; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
Studies of dialogue interpreting have shown that interpreters are active participants in
the interaction and that their contributions are oriented to and oriented by both the local
interactional context and the wider institutional system. Wadensjö, in particular, has
discussed the work of the interpreters in the interaction on the basis of a distinction
between two main interpreter activities: translating and coordinating (1998: 108-10).
In this paper, we discuss the notion of coordination and we look at types of talk
organization involving interpreters in healthcare services. Our thesis is that different
contributions of the interpreter to a possibly translatable turn (non-rendition, rendition
and which type of rendition) have different consequences in the interaction. They envisage
different organizations of turn-taking and make reference to different participant
expectations. We observe that coordination of turn-taking organization and of
participants’ expectations has implications for either promoting intercultural dialogue
and/or constructing cultural filters.
2015
- L'entretien clinique en présence d'un interprète: la traduction comme activité de coordination
[Articolo su rivista]
Niemants, NATACHA SARAH ALEXANDRA; Baraldi, Claudio; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
Notre étude porte sur les services de Médiation Linguistique et Culturelle (MLC) qui sont offerts par les systèmes de santé de plusieurs régions italiennes. Dans cet article, nous allons présenter une analyse empirique menée dans quelques établissements de soins, afin de clarifier ce qui se passe pendant la MLC. Les données sélectionnées pour l’analyse ont été collectées dans le cadre des recherches de l’AIM (Analyse de l’Interaction et de la Médiation), un centre interdisciplinaire qui relie dix universités et inclut des linguistes, des psychologues et des sociologues.
Les recherches sur la MLC dans le domaine de la santé ont débuté en 2004 dans les provinces de Modène et Reggio Emilia, et ont été ensuite étendues à d’autres zones géographiques . Ces études se basent sur des conversations entre des soignants, des patients étrangers et des personnes tierces préposées à la médiation (il s’agit le plus souvent de médiatrices culturelles, mais parfois même d’interprètes professionnelles). L’analyse de ces entretiens, audio-enregistrés et transcrits, se concentre sur des événements micro-textuels permettant de comprendre quelles séquences d’actions sont produites par les participants, de même que leurs particularités et leurs conséquences. Les langues impliquées sont, outre l’italien, l’anglais (avec des patients provenant du Ghana, du Nigéria, des Philippines), l’arabe (avec des patients originaires du Maghreb ainsi que de Jordanie), le chinois (avec des patients parlant le mandarin) et le français (avec des patients soignés en Italie provenant de plusieurs pays du Maghreb et d’Afrique centrale, ainsi que des patients italophones soignés en Belgique francophone). Les médiatrices-interprètes impliquées sont des femmes, âgées de trente à quarante ans, principalement issues des communautés minoritaires. La plupart des entretiens se déroulent dans les services d’obstétrique et de gynécologie, ou dans les services de médecine générale et du travail. La banque de données contient à ce jour plus de 300 interactions, mais les observations faites dans cet article se basent sur une partie de ce corpus : 100 interactions anglais-italien, 80 interactions arabe-italien et 25 interactions français-italien.
2015
- La traduzione dialogica come mediazione dell'identità: un'analisi delle istituzioni sanitarie
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Baraldi, Claudio; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
Il saggio mostra che, nell’interazione mediata all’interno dei servizi sanitari, le azioni delle mediatrici possono rendere rilevanti le differenze tra i presupposti culturali dei partecipanti. Esplicitando gli indicatori di tali presupposti, le mediatrici ricontestualizzano l’interazione, secondo due orientamenti distinti. Il primo è definito come promozione di adattamento interculturale, il secondo come promozione di essenzialismo culturale. La promozione di adattamento interculturale presenta i presupposti culturali come riferimenti possibili che medici e pazienti possono prendere in considerazione per comprendere il punto di vista dell’interlocutore e per chiarire il proprio. La promozione dell’essenzialismo culturale attribuisce normativamente le identità culturali. Pur spiegando spesso aspetti dell’interazione che sono segnalati da un partecipante come non immediatamente riconoscibili (ad esempio curiosi o sorprendenti), la promozione dell’essenzialismo non ammette possibilità di scelta e di partecipazione attiva nel (ri)trattarli. Pertanto la promozione dell’essenzialismo culturale ostacola, anziché promuovere, la partecipazione attiva di medici e, soprattutto, pazienti, alimentando la costruzione sociale di stereotipi e pregiudizi. Il fattore cruciale diventa quindi che la mediatrice gestisca la propria iniziativa in modo competente, indirizzandola alla promozione dell’adattamento interculturale e alle azioni che possono favorirlo. In particolare, è importante osservare che l’adattamento interculturale si basa su una grande attenzione per la traduzione (interpretazione e resa) che modifica ciò che è stato detto in precedenza, in modo da renderlo non soltanto linguisticamente comprensibile, ma anche culturalmente accettabile. Per converso, l’essenzialismo culturale non si fonda su un interesse per la traduzione, che sostituisce di fatto con spiegazioni basate su aspettative normative.
Si può in definitiva distinguere tra una ricontestualizzazione che assegna un’importanza primaria alle identità culturali, come insieme di categorie date per scontate, e una che invece usa il riferimento ai presupposti culturali per promuovere le scelte personali informate, che quindi è ‘centrata sulla cultura’ soltanto perché è primariamente centrata sulla persona. In questo secondo caso, la ricontestualizzazione si riferisce ai presupposti culturali, ma li ‘offre’ anziché attribuirli, consentendo così un empowerment dei pazienti migranti come persone.
2015
- Mediation
[Voce in Dizionario o Enciclopedia]
Baraldi, Claudio; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
The entry deals with the controversial issue of mediation in dialogue intepreting
2015
- Negotiating territories of knowledge: on interpreting talk in guided tours
[Articolo su rivista]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
The problem of interpreting what is “behind the turns”, not explicitly said by participants in their utterances, has presented a dilemma in studies of dialogue interpreting, leading to controversies about how far interpreters should engage in dealing with implicit issues they know about, but which are not made clear by the interlocutors. In this paper, I analyse data where a guide and an interpreter present a group of tourists with locations where the history and tradition of local products are exhibited. In my data interpreters expand the guides’ presentation in their rendition, adding quite a lot of information they know about, but which has not been explicitly mentioned by the guide. I suggest that the notion of epistemics, developed in conversation analysis, may help explain the dynamics regulating the distribution of responsibilities of guides and interpreters in dealing with relevant contents and I conclude that rights and obligations to explicate what is behind the guides’ talk can largely be seen as a product of the interaction.
2015
- On the distribution of responsibilities in treating critical issues in interpreter-mediated medical consultations: the case of “le spieghi(amo)”
[Articolo su rivista]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
Abstract:
This article examines sequences of interaction involving Italian doctors, English-speaking patients and language mediators serving as interpreters in bilingual talk. In interpreter-mediated interaction, language mediators participate with the main purpose to translate talk; there is thus normally no need for the current speaker to ask the mediator to translate. In the data presented here, however, doctors recurrently ask mediators to relay what they are saying to the patients. They do so by introducing turns to translate with items like “le spieghi” (“explain to her”) or “le diciamo” (“let’s tell her”). Such turn structures seem to have the dual function of: a. signaling that the issue dealt with in the doctor’s turn may be critical, delicate or unusual in some way; b. projecting an involvement of the language mediator to do “something more” than simply translate, e.g. explain or deal with the criticalities signaled by the doctor, “re-designing” them for the patients. The organization of these sequences highlights dynamics which orient the distribution of the rights to knowledge between doctors and mediators and consequently their responsibilities for performing certain actions in interpreter-mediated talk.
2015
- Turn-taking
[Voce in Dizionario o Enciclopedia]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
The entry describes the system of interactional turn-taking in interpreter-mediated talk
2014
- Are close renditions the golden standard? Some thoughts on translating accurately in healthcare interpreter-mediated interaction
[Articolo su rivista]
Baraldi, Claudio; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
“Close renditions”, i.e. renditions that are very close, if not identical, in form and meaning, to the original utterances, are often considered fundamental in dialogue interpreting. It has been suggested that interpreters should address exhaustively and accurately all pieces of information, including those conveyed with minimal responses. This perspective seems to reflect the “golden standard” that normatively guides interpreters’ training. Drawing from a long period research, here we look at the work of “intercultural mediators” providing interpreting service in healthcare. Our analysis shows that closeness in the meaning and function of single utterances does not necessarily coincide with closeness in their function in the interaction. In order for renditions to be “close”, in their interactional function, to those in the other language, interpreting mediators need to achieve “accurate” coordination work. So “accuracy” in coordination should be looked at as a fundamental activity in dialogue interpreting to achieve translational closeness. Expanded dyadic sequences addressing what is going on and pursued in the interaction, for instance, are often necessary to achieve “close” rendition, but their accurate management can be a very complex accomplishment. We suggest that learning accurate coordination may be a major achievement in healthcare interpreter training.
2014
- Negotiating renditions in and through talk: some notes on the contribution of Conversation Analysis to the study of interpreter-mediated interaction
[Articolo su rivista]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
Abstract: Conversation Analysis has shown that the system of turn-taking results in the construction of meaningful actions in conversation. Turns are not independent units; they both project new contributions and display reactions to previous ones. Contributions to talk are thus the result of complex mechanisms of negotiation and make sense in reference to each other. Davidson (2002) shows that the common difficulty in conversing through an interpreter consists in establishing reciprocity of understanding between the primary interlocutors and suggests that models need to be developed that take into account the necessity of constructing reciprocal understanding. On the basis of an analysis of audio-recorded and transcribed interpreter-mediated interactions in healthcare, this paper shows that interpreters’ contributions are not free from the conversational system of turn-taking. Rather, the meaning of interpreters’ actions (renditions or non-renditions) is achieved locally, in the turn-taking system and in reference to the goals that are interactionally established in and through the sequences.
2013
- Exploring texts through the concordancer: Guiding the learner
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, L.
abstract
2013
- La mediazione nell'interazione centrata sul paziente: il caso delle domande del medico.
[Articolo su rivista]
Baraldi, Claudio; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
This paper analyses interactions in Italian healthcare services, involving Italian speaking doctors, migrant patients with little or no knowledge of Italian and a bilingual mediator. The mediator participates in the interaction with the double function of assuring linguistic understanding and dealing with cultural differences, which may emerge in talk between doctors and migrant patients. In this study, we look at doctors’ question-patients’ answer sequences and their interactional renditions. In our data, a doctor’s question is often rendered by mediators with a series of questions expanding that initial question. The analysis shows that provision of a series of questions, rather than a single rendition, allows the mediators to re-design the doctor’s question in a patient-mediator dyadic interaction. In (provisionally monolingual) dyadic talk, patients are encouraged to deal with their diseases and tell about their worries and concerns. Mediators’ expansions of doctors’ questions seem thus functional to the achievement of patients’ narratives, which can afterwards be rendered to the doctors. Our study suggests that such expanded renditions may achieve patient-centred communication in triadic bilingual interactions.
2013
- La négociation de la « traduisibilité » : Quelques pratiques d’interprétation dans les entretiens cliniques
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, Laura; Niemants, NATACHA SARAH ALEXANDRA
abstract
Cet article porte sur un type de communication qui, pour sa complexité linguistique, anthropologique et sociale, attire l’attention de spécialistes de plusieurs disciplines. Il s’agit d’un type de communication orale, plutôt qu’écrite, mais le processus d’interprétation qui le sous-tend amène à réfléchir sur des aspects qui concernent la « communication » au sens le plus large, et qui peuvent donc être tout aussi importants pour des expériences et des modèles pragmatiques d’écriture.
Ce type de communication se produit dans des services qui en Belgique, en France, en Italie et en Espagne sont normalement connus sous le nom de « Médiation Linguistique et Culturelle » (MLC). Les services de MLC naissent à la suite de la migration de masse qui a caractérisé l’histoire récente en réponse à une demande croissante d’assistance et d’accès aux institutions publiques de la part des migrants (Luatti 2011, Baraldi et al. 2008, Valero-Garcés et Martin 2008).
La MLC se déroule comme une interaction entre trois participants: un opérateur et un utilisateur d’un service qui ne parlent pas la même langue et qui ont généralement une histoire culturelle différente, et un médiateur qui parle deux langues et qui a une certaine familiarité avec les deux cultures. Une des façons, peut-être la principale, de mettre en œuvre la médiation est donc la traduction, au sens large du terme, entre ces deux langues et ces deux « cultures ».
Nous nous référons ici à un concept opérationnel de « culture », dans la mesure où notre approche n’offre pas d’outils permettant une définition de départ. De notre point de vue, la culture est le résultat de l’interaction, qui fait ressortir la portée culturelle des histoires personnelles des participants (en tant qu’autochtones, migrants, alphabétisés et à quel « alphabet », ayant des expériences passées dans certaines institutions et certains pays) et leurs histoires sont, dans ce sens, anthropologiquement significatives. De plus, dans des situations telles que celles que nous analysons, la culture n’est pas seulement le résultat de l’interaction, mais elle est ancrée dans le contexte institutionnel, c’est-à-dire dans les orientations fondamentales de l’institution et dans les rôles prévus pour l’opérateur et l’utilisateur du service. En d’autres termes, la culture correspond ici à un ensemble d’attentes, relatives au contexte anthropologique et social, qui émergent à travers l’interaction.
Dans cet essai, nous abordons un type d’interaction entre patients migrants, médecins (ou auxiliaires médicaux) et médiateurs, où le patient pose un problème et le médecin donne une solution (diagnostic, traitement ou autre). Dans ces interactions, les patients et les médecins parlent (pour la plupart) deux langues différentes et leur compréhension mutuelle est facilitée par un médiateur. Comme cela est généralement le cas en Italie, en Belgique et en France, nos médiateurs sont des professionnels ayant des profils culturels variés. Le plus souvent, ils sont issus des communautés immigrées et utilisés dans la communication entre les opérateurs et les migrants avec le double objectif d’assurer la compréhension linguistique et le traitement des différences culturelles. L’une et l’autre se produisent à travers des formes de traduction qui se basent sur des activités de « négociation » interactionnelle, par laquelle les participants établissent une compréhension mutuelle de ce qu’ils sont en train de faire, et font ressortir des connaissances, des perspectives et des relations.
Dans cet article, nous nous concentrons sur quelques-unes de ces formes de traduction et sur l’activité interactionnelle qui les construit.
2012
- Assessing Linguistic and Cultural Mediation In Healthcare Services
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Baraldi, Claudio; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
This paper deals with the assessment of interpreter-mediated interactions in healthcare settings, that is interactions between migrants and healthcare providers, speaking different languages and talking to each other with the help of a third party, who acts as a linguistic interpreter and a cultural mediator.In this paper, we are interested in assessing practices of mediation/interpreting. There are different possible types of evaluative research on “good” practices: analysis of customer satisfaction, self-reports, analysis of interactions, analysis of contexts. Here we look at interaction, on the basis of four assumptions: (1) practices are achieved in social interactions, (2) reports do not inform directly on practices, rather they are their “social representations”, (3) context can be observed only through practices, in interactions that reproduce it, (4) level of satisfaction does not necessarily correspond to quality of practices. Therefore, first-hand observation of practices achieved in interactions may throw light on those interactional mechanisms that make them effective. Analyses of customer satisfaction and reports may though provide useful enrichments and suggestionsMediation/interpreting in the interaction is achieved through a series of coordinated actions and is effective when action and understanding are coordinated in a way as to produce information for the participants. Information and knowledge as achieved through sequences of actions are then visible (observable and analysable) in turn-taking.Interpreting can thus be observed as an interactional activity and, as such, it is an activity of mediating.. Interpreting projects different opportunities for interlocutors’ active participation in the interaction, as it assures common understanding and facilitates direct communication between the parties. Interpreting is the result of coordinated actions of the mediator’s and the other participants’ (doctor and patient) and a look at the achievement of this coordination may be indicative of the practices adopted to construct it.Mediation/interpreting has the function to facilitate successful doctor-patient intercultural communication. It presupposes the cultural forms of the healthcare system, i.e. expectations concerning the meaning and importance of patients’ illness and therapy, roles of doctors and patients, expectations of medical expertise and patients’ adaptation. Different forms of medicine (e.g. doctor-centred vs. patient-centred) too, rely on different presuppositions and affect mediation. Mediation/interpreting can, in its turn, introduce novel presuppositions which may affect forms of mediation, facilitating (or inhibiting) doctor-patient communication. Novel presuppositions may characterize cultural diversity and be indicators of intercultural communication achievements. So the mediation/interpreting function of facilitating (or inhibiting) either reproduction of specific cultural forms or cross-cultural adaptation between different forms can also be observed through interactional dynamics.. On these basis, we can assess: (1) interpreting as mediation; (2) the function of mediation/interpreting as facilitation/inhibition in the healthcare system, (3) the function of mediation/interpreting as facilitation/inhibition of intercultural communication.Interpreting and facilitation (of doctor-patient intercultural communication) are clearly intertwined. Their analytical distinction is useful because it permits the evaluative analysis of differentiated components of mediation/interpreting. The paper identifies the most important variables for assessing the success of mediation as interpreting, its facilitation of doctor-patient communication and cross-cultural adaptation. This enhances the opportunities both to observe different aspects of mediation/interpreting and to assess its different aspects separately. The combination of these aspects permits an
2012
- Coordinating Participation in Dialogue Interpreting
[Curatela]
Baraldi, Claudio; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
Dialogue interpreting, which takes place in institutional settings such as legal proceedings, healthcare contexts, work meetings or media talk, has attracted increasing attention in translation, language and communication studies. Drawing on transcribed sequences of authentic talk, this volume raises questions about aspects of interpreting that have been taken for granted, challenging preconceived notions about differences between professional and non-professional interpreting and pointing in new directions for future research. Collecting contributions from major scholars in the field of dialogue interpreting and interaction studies, the volume offers new insights into the relationship between interpreting and mediating. It addresses a wide readership, including students and scholars in translation and interpreting studies, mediation and negotiation studies, linguistics, sociology, communication studies, conversation analysis, discourse analysis.
2012
- Introduction: Understanding coordination in interpreter-mediated interaction
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Baraldi, Claudio; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
This introduction is an extended reflection on the three key concepts that underlie the contributions collected here: coordination, mediation and participation. In Section 1, we revisit the notion of coordination (1.1) and look at the ways in which it is dealt with in the chapters in this volume (1.2). In Section 2,
we discuss the notion of mediation as an activity, both on a professional level (2.1) and on an interactional level (2.2). In Section 3, we look at how the concept of participation relates to those of coordination and mediation and at the ways in which the various chapters in this volume address the issue. An overview of
the organization of the book is provided in Section 4; a note on the transcription methods adopted to present the data concludes this introduction.
2012
- La Mediazione Interlinguistica e Interculturale nei Servizi Sanitari
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Baraldi, Claudio; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
Questo saggio affronta i temi della multiculturalità e dell’immigrazione analizzando la mediazione nei servizi sanitari. A partire da ricerche realizzate negli ultimi anni nei servizi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, il saggio riassume i significati delle forme della mediazione nell’interazione che coinvolge operatori sanitari e pazienti migranti. In particolare, il saggio si occupa dell’attività traduttiva nella mediazione, come fondamento tanto della comunicazione tra medico e paziente migrante, quanto della promozione delle opportunità di cittadinanza attiva dei pazienti migranti.
2012
- La mediazione sanitaria e la visibilità del paziente (migrante)
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Baraldi, Claudio; Farini, Federico; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
Il saggio riguarda la mediazione interlinguistica e i suoi effetti sulla comunicazione tra pazienti migranti e operatori sanitari, in particolare per quanto riguarda la visibilità del paziente migrante nei servizi sanitari. Il saggio identifica due diversi modi di trattare tale visibilità, con riferimento al trattamento delle esitazioni dei pazienti nella conversazione con il personale sanitario, dimostrando che la mediazione può sia incoraggiare la partecipazione dei pazienti migranti, sia sanzionarla come inappropriata.
2012
- Minimal responses in interpreter-mediated medical talk
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
This chapter looks at minimal responses produced by mediators in healthcare interaction, focusing on items like ‘yes’, ‘no’, echoes, other-completions, and partial repetitions. While such items have traditionally been considered indicators of recipient alignment, they play an essential role in regulating turn taking and
pursuing particular interactional goals. The data show that, similarly to what is observed in other types of conversations, mediators’ minimal responses reveal participants’ orientations in the achievement of goal-oriented activities. They also perform translation-coordinating functions such as displaying understanding and acceptance of translation, suspending or shifting into it.
2011
- Interpreter-mediated interaction in healthcare and legal settings: talk organization, context and the achievement of intercultural communication
[Articolo su rivista]
Gavioli, Laura; Baraldi, Claudio
abstract
Studies of dialogue interpreting have shown that interpreters are active participants in interpreter-mediated interaction and that their contributions are not simply a gloss of the interlocutors’ turns. Wadensjö (1998), in particular, has underlined the coordinating and mediating functions of dialogue interpreters. In this paper we analyse the activity of interpreters in the interaction by looking at different ways of organizing sequences of turn-taking and their effects on intercultural mediation. We analysed a sample of 65 encounters in healthcare and legal settings in Italy, involving (Italian) institutional representatives, (English speaking) patients/defendants from West African regions and an interpreter. We note that different types of interpreter-mediator contributions are promoted or prevented in different ways in the medical and in the legal sets of data, respectively, in line with different contextual expectations, and with different results for the involvement of participants, particularly the “laymen”.
2010
- Interpreter-mediated interaction as a way to promote multilingualism
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Baraldi, Claudio; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
While the importance of effective interpreting service and its value in making public services accessible to migrants has been acknowledged in the literature, little attention has been given to the opportunities it provides to speakers of different languages to engage in multilingual talk. In this paper, we analyse interpreter-mediated interactions recorded in public healthcare settings and show that the interpreters’ coordinating work can enhance an interest of the interlocutors in each other perspective and in each other language, which eventually leads to attempts to talk to each other through language switching and mixing. We suggest that besides solving the local problem of rendering communication between speakers of different languages possible, interpreter-mediated interaction creates opportunities of language learning and perspective-taking.
2009
- Corpus analysis and the achievement of learner autonomy in interaction
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
This chapter is about students working with corpora as hands-on analysts and focuses particularly on point c) above. It develops an approach introduced by Tim Johns in the early 90s, known as Data-Driven Learning (DDL, further developed in Jordan 1993; Bernardini 2000a, 2000b, 2002; and Sripicharn 2004, among others) and discusses some of its consequences for the achievement of learner autonomy in language learning. My discussion is based on: 1) observation of students working with corpora of electronic texts; 2) some thoughts about issues related to the development of students’ learning autonomy in interacting with the data, their peers and their teacher; and 3) reflections on the match between students’ corpus work and their achievement of ‘responsible participation’, an important issue in the development of language learning autonomy. The chapter is organised as follows: Section 2, following this introduction, summarises some features of the Data-Driven Learning approach; Section 3 shows that some principles found in the Data-Driven Learning approach are also found in discussions about the development of language learning autonomy and learners’ responsibility for their own learning; Section 4 presents two reports by students working on features of text and discourse with self-built corpora, and the students’ ‘discoveries’; Section 5 concludes and discusses the significance of these ‘discoveries’ for learner autonomy and the development of autonomous language learning.
2009
- La gestione dell’affettività in conversazioni mediate da interprete
[Capitolo/Saggio]
D., Zorzi; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
Questo contributo intende descrivere la costruzione congiunta dell’affettività in incontri mediati da interprete e i problemi che emergono nella gestione dell’affettività quando è coinvolta un’attività di traduzione. Saranno presi in considerazione due diversi contesti istituzionali già in parte esplorati: l’ambito medico (Baraldi & Gavioli 2007; Gavioli & Zorzi, 2008) e l’ambito giuridico (Zorzi, 2009). In particolare si osserveranno sia le manifestazioni affettive dei parlanti primari, sia come l’interprete gestisce (traduce, inserisce o sopprime) la dimensione relazionale dell’interazione fra rappresentanti dell’istituzione e interlocutori stranieri. Ci poniamo quindi il duplice obiettivo di vedere: a) in che modo le manifestazioni emotive vengono trattate nell’interazione mediata da interprete, b) come la gestione conversazionale delle manifestazioni emotive e della loro traduzione si riflette nell’interazione istituzionale.
2009
- La mediazione Linguistico-Culturale: una prospettiva interazionista
[Curatela]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
La pratica traduttiva che in Italia viene chiamata mediazione linguistico-culturale ha incontrato un interesse crescente nell’ambito dell’attuale società plurilinguistica e multiculturale, in cui individui di lingue e culture diverse hanno sempre più occasioni di comunicare tra loro. Nasce dall’esigenza, in primo luogo linguistica, di due interlocutori di comprendersi e viene utilizzata nelle trattative d’affari, nella gestione del personale delle imprese, nella cooperazione internazionale, nelle negoziazioni politiche, nei tribunali, negli ospedali e in diverse forme di trattamento dei problemi dell’immigrazione. Nonostante il mediatore sia in fondo colui che traduce, la sua presenza come terzo partecipante che interviene nella conversazione, dà luogo a dinamiche comunicative che vanno oltre la traduzione dei turni di parlato e che investono aspetti relativi ai contenuti e ai significati che vengono condivisi, alla relazione tra i partecipanti, ai ruoli di operatori e utenti dei servizi, alle “persone” e ai loro bisogni, ai contesti situazionali (ospedaliero, aziendale, ecc.) e alle aspettative culturali reciproche che possono evidenziarsi quando utenti e operatori di diverse provenienze entrano in contatto. Questo volume descrive alcune di queste dinamiche e spiega in quali modi si può attuare la comprensione tra gli interlocutori nell’interazione mediata. Osservando il problema da diverse prospettive socio-linguistiche intende proporre una riflessione sulla complessità di questo tipo di interazione e sul delicato compito del mediatore.
2009
- La mediazione linguistico-culturale come interazione: introduzione al volume
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
La pratica traduttiva che in Italia viene chiamata mediazione linguistico-culturale ha incontrato un interesse crescente nel quadro dell’attuale società plurilinguistica e multiculturale, in cui individui di lingue e culture diverse hanno sempre maggiori occasioni di interagire in ambiti di lavoro o all’interno dei servizi istituzionali. Nasce dall’esigenza, in primo luogo linguistica, di due interlocutori di comprendersi e viene utilizzata nelle trattative d’affari, nella gestione del personale delle imprese, nella cooperazione internazionale, nelle negoziazioni politiche, nei tribunali, negli ospedali e in diverse forme di trattamento dei problemi dell’immigrazione. Nonostante il mediatore sia in fondo colui che “traduce”, la sua presenza come “terzo” partecipante che interviene nella conversazione, dà luogo a dinamiche comunicative che vanno oltre la traduzione dei “turni” di parlato e che investono aspetti relativi ai contenuti che vengono condivisi e ai loro significati, alla relazione fra i partecipanti, ai ruoli di operatori e utenti dei servizi, alle “persone” e ai loro bisogni, ai contesti situazionali (ospedaliero, aziendale, ecc.) e alle aspettative culturali reciproche che possono evidenziarsi quando utenti e operatori di diverse provenienze entrano in contatto. Questo volume intende descrivere e spiegare alcune di queste dinamiche e i modi in cui la comprensione fra gli interlocutori viene resa possibile nell’interazione mediata offrendo così un contributo a un campo di studi che ha suscitato interesse negli ultimi 15 anni a livello internazionale e che si sta via, via delineando anche in Italia. Non può e non intende essere esaustivo nelle tematiche che affronta e negli approcci teorici a cui si ispira; vuole altresì proporre una riflessione sul fenomeno della mediazione linguistico-culturale come interazione, comprendendo anche un’ottica formativa che tenga adeguatamente conto dei diversi aspetti che rendono il compito del mediatore linguistico-culturale così complesso e delicato.
2009
- Review of Alan Partington "The linguistics of laughter: a corpus-assisted study of laughter talk"
[Recensione in Rivista]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
2009
- Tradurre nell'interazione orale
[Capitolo/Saggio]
L., Cirillo; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
Questo contributo discute alcuni aspetti di un particolare tipo di traduzione orale, la traduzione cosiddetta dialogica, quella cioè in cui due partecipanti di diverse lingue parlano per tramite di un traduttore che li aiuta nella comunicazione. Quella che proponiamo è una prospettiva di tipo interazionista che si basa, cioè, su come i significati vengono costruiti dai contributi dei partecipanti insieme. Nel costruire il proprio contributo nell’interazione, l’interprete dialogico svolge un’operazione molto complessa che consiste nel coordinare i contributi degli altri partecipanti in modo da dare loro adeguato spazio per esprimere le proprie posizioni, punti di vista, bisogni o stati emotivi e da renderli comprensibili nell’interazione con gli altri. Questa relazione si divide in tre parti: nella prima parte introduciamo alcuni aspetti della traduzione dialogica che la differenziano da altri tipi di traduzione scritta o orale; nella seconda parte discutiamo alcuni concetti che stanno alla base del nostro approccio teorico e metodologico; nella terza parte, che è anche la più cospicua, analizziamo alcune interazioni mediate da interprete. Nella conclusione mettiamo a fuoco alcune caratteristiche della traduzione dialogica che emergono dalla nostra analisi.
2008
- Cultural presuppositions and re-contextualization of medical systems in interpreter-mediated interactions
[Articolo su rivista]
Baraldi, Claudio; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
It can be assumed that interpreter-mediated interaction in institutional settings is, at least partly, influenced by the institutional culture of the context in which it takes place (medical, juridical or otherwise). Institutional interactions do not simply reproduce cultural orientations, they produce a joint construction of cultural meanings. In particular, the reproduction of mainstream cultural meanings may highly depend on the contributions (and the acceptance of the contributions) of institutional roles and interactive negotiations can produce new cultural orientations.In this paper we analyse interpreter-mediated interactions as a particular type of institutional, intercultural communication. The question we pose is whether and to what extent medical culture influences intercultural communication mediated by an interpreter. In Western medical culture, doctors have two main types of tasks; on the one hand they acquire information, give instructions, offer advices and therapies. On the other, a widespread introduction of a client-oriented approach inside medical organisations may create opportunities for patients’ self-expression. The first type of tasks creates expectations of a cognitive nature, the second of an affective nature. Such expectations may take different forms in mediated interaction. In our data, we noted that the relevance that is given to cognitive expectations seems to influence interpreters’ translation choices. Our conclusion is that either in the case of cognitive and affective projected expectations, medical culture affects the interpreters’ translating choices in order to privilege the interaction between the institutional roles, including the interpreter, and the relevance of translation in giving voice to the patients was not sufficiently considered, also inside a client-oriented, affective-based cultural approach. These results invite to explore the relevance of managing translation effectively to improve intercultural communication in interpreter-mediated institutional contexts.
2008
- Il ruolo dell’interprete-mediatore nella comunicazione istituzionale medico-paziente: un’analisi dei contributi non traduttivi.
[Relazione in Atti di Convegno]
A., Amato; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
This paper presents the analysis of two sets of interpreter-mediated medical encounters. The first set contains videotaped multi-party encounters that took place at a private rehabilitation centre for brain injured children where American doctors treat Italian, German and French children. The other set is composed of triadic medical interactions at a public hospital where public service interpreters/mediators were at work.The aim of this study is to highlight the production of discoursive initiatives by the interpreters and mediators temporarily acting as primary participants in the medical interaction where they are at work. The category of non-renditions as defined by Wadensjö (1998) is discussed and used to gain an insight about what conversational initiatives are undertaken by the interpreters. The main findings of this analysis are briefly discussed and illustrated by examples
2008
- La mediazione interlinguistica come dialogo tra culture?
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Baraldi, Claudio; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
Il saggio si occupa di mediazione interculturale, mettendo a fuoco l’attività di traduzione che la accompagna e che la rende anche interlinguistica. Il saggio dimostra che la traduzione è in se stessa mediazione. Gli autori analizzano le interazioni che mettono in pratica la mediazione, analizzandone le strutture fondamentali ed i presupposti culturali. In particolare, analizzano: 1) i modi in cui la traduzione viene realizzata nell’interazione; 2) le loro conseguenze sulle forme di interazione; 3) il contributo del personale sanitario e dei pazienti; 4) le aspettative che riguardano la mediazione; 5) il significato delle traduzioni in termini di comunicazione interculturale e coordinamento tra culture. In base a questa analisi, il saggio evidenzia come la mediazione interlinguistica interculturale possa creare o non creare le condizioni di un dialogo interculturale.
2008
- La partecipazione del paziente nell’interazione mediata con il medico: note linguistiche sulla dimensione informativa e sulla dimensione interpersonale
[Relazione in Atti di Convegno]
Gavioli, Laura; D., Zorzi
abstract
Questa relazione si basa sull’analisi di una raccolta di interazioni registrate e trascritte di incontri fra un medico e un cittadino straniero che non parlano la stessa lingua e si avvalgono, per la comunicazione, dell’aiuto di un interprete. La letteratura sull’argomento mostra che nell’interazione interprete-mediata in ambito medico si assiste ad una perdita di informazioni riguardanti l’espressione affettiva del paziente, le sue preoccupazioni, come vive la malattia e che tale perdita comporta conseguenze problematiche per la diagnosi e la terapia. L’osservazione dei dati dimostra che tali espressioni affettive vengono espresse nell’interazione mediata attraverso scambi fra il mediatore e il paziente e che il problema nell’interazione consiste innanzitutto nel dare spazio a tali espressioni e quindi nell’includere il terzo partecipante (il medico in questo caso) in tale interazione affettiva. Vengono mostrati esempi in cui la gestione dell’interazione porta a favorire o inibire tali espressioni di affettività e a condividerne (o non condividerne) il significato nella comunicazione.
2007
- Creare corpora per e con gli studenti: un’esperienza di apprendimento di un linguaggio specialistico
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Comastri, Federica; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
While it is acknowledged that a specialised corpus rather than a large general corpus may be more suitable in describing specialised language, the category “specialised” is varied and covers a multiplicity of corpora types. In an ESP teaching/learning environment the requirements for corpus construction include determining students’ needs and verifying the relevance of the selected texts for ad hoc teaching/learning activities. In this paper, we present problems related to the designing and building of a specialised corpus for teaching/learning purposes in the field of English for business management. Our paper contributes to a research perspective that explores the benefits and limits of involving students in corpus research and of using corpora as learning instruments. We observe that involving students in corpus analysis, as corpus users, may contribute to raise their awareness of their own language needs and of how a corpus may be improved and re-organized to meet such needs. In the teaching/learning experience we illustrate here, students contribution in re-designing and enlarging the specialised corpus was fundamental and, besides being a worthwhile language activity in se, helped students to get familiar with some key issues and concepts characterising the ESP discourse they were dealing with.
2007
- Dialogue Interpreting as Intercultural Mediation. An Analysis in healthcare multilingual settings
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Baraldi, Claudio; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
The complexity of the interpreter’s cultural task as a dialogue coordinator has been acknowledged in recent studies on dialogue interpreting. Interpreters may facilitate or inhibit expressions of personal interest and perceptions by participants, active listening and appreciation of the participants’ contributions. Interpreters can thus help in promoting distribution of active participation, addressing participants’ interests and needs. In this paper, we look at data recorded in hospitals in Italy involving African and Arabian patients, Italian doctors and bilingual interpreters. We note that doctors’ expressions of personal interest or appreciations of participants’ experience may either be directly responded by the interpreter, or “translated” for the patients. This leads to different functions of dialogic actions in the intercultural interaction: while support and appreciation are expressed by interlocutors towards each others’ actions and experiences, a failure to translate such support and appreciation leads to construction of distance between doctor and patient.
2007
- Interpreter intervention in the management of mediated business talk
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, Laura; N., Maxwell
abstract
This contribution deals with a particular type of talk, interactions in business settings involving two speakers (or groups of speakers) of different languages and an interpreter mediating between them. This type of talk is generally referred to as “interpreter-mediated interaction” (Wadensjö 1998: 6) or “dialogue interpreting” (Mason 1999a). This paper provides an analysis of dialogue interpreting in two business settings, in-house business negotiations and business exhibitions. It is part of a wider project dealing with dialogue interpreting in institutional settings, also involving medical and legal interaction (see Gavioli / Baraldi 2005). The focus of inquiry in this chapter is on the interpreter role in the interactional organisation of the mediated exchange, and in particular on the types of intervention that interpreters produce. The analysis considers procedures used by the interpreter to produce recognisable translations of principal participant talk, and then focuses on interpreter productions of non-translation interventions. We have two purposes here: the first is to show how interpreter contributions, translational and non-translational, are organised within the business talk activity; the second is to discuss and think about some of the possible implications of our analysis for interpreter training in the business environment.
2007
- L’analisi dei corpora come strumento per il dialogo e per l’autonomia
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
Questo saggio si occupa del lavoro svolto da studenti che utilizzano una risorsa informatica, i corpora elettronici, per l’apprendimento della lingua straniera. Vengono descritte attività di studenti che osservano concordanze tratte da corpora elettronici e discusse alcune conseguenze di queste attività per quel che riguarda l’autonomia degli studenti nel gestire il proprio apprendimento linguistico attraverso forme di partecipazione e di dialogo in classe. Il saggio si compone di quattro parti: 1) un’introduzione all’apprendimento linguistico basato sull’uso di corpora elettronici, cioè al cosiddetto Data Driven Learning (Johns 1991, Johns 1994); 2) un’analisi del significato dell’autonomia nell’apprendimento della lingua straniera e una discussione degli intrecci fra sviluppo dell’autonomia e uso dei corpora; 3) l’analisi di due casi di lavoro degli studenti su piccoli corpora linguistici; 4) alcune conclusioni sull’uso dei corpora per la promozione della partecipazione degli studenti all’interazione in classe e lo sviluppo dell’autonomia nell’apprendimento linguistico.
2007
- The relevance of interactions in functionally differentiated society: the contribution of conversation analysis to the theory of social systems
[Articolo su rivista]
Baraldi, Claudio; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
While social systems create and enhance cultural presuppositions and expectations which are reflected in interactions, interaction can, in its turn, affect cultural presuppositions by promoting contributions which can sometimes redefine what is expected. Conversation analysis has elaborated a method to study interaction which seems to be particularly interesting in complementing a theory of society and in explaining reciprocal influences between interaction and social systems. Our paper explores connections between the Social System Theory and Conversation Analysis. Our thesis is that the integration of SST and CA can help in explaining the interrelatedness between different types of social systems. In our contribution, we analyse complementary aspects of SST and CA in explaining interaction as a social system and we focus on ways in which the structures of interaction are embedded in functional subsystems of society. We suggest that the possibility of interaction to introduce novel contributions by participants makes it possible for interaction to produce social changes.
2006
- Fenomeni di mediazione interlinguistica e interculturale. Atti del V Congresso di Studi dell’Associazione Italiana di Linguistica Applicata
[Curatela]
Banfi, E.; Gavioli, Laura; Guardiano, Cristina; Vedovelli, M.
abstract
Il volume raccoglie gli Atti del Quinto Congresso dell’Associazione Italiana di Linguistica Applicata (AitLA) svoltosi a Bari il 17 e il 18 febbraio 2005, grazie alla gentile accoglienza della Facoltà di Lingue e Letterature Straniere e del Dipartimento di Studi Anglo-Germanici e dell’Europa Orientale, e all’ospitalità della Facoltà di Giurisprudenza presso la quale si sono tenuti i lavori.Tema del congresso è stata la discussione intorno a problemi e fenomeni di mediazione interlinguistica e interculturale. Come ormai tradizionalmente avviene negli incontri scientifici dell’AitLA, anche a Bari si sono riuniti studiosi con diversi ambiti di interesse e che hanno proposto varie prospettive di analisi. Il congresso barese, tuttavia, discostandosi leggermente dai precedenti, ha visto una presentazione di contributi più omogenea e, conseguentemente, la discussione si è soprattutto concentrata sul tema principale del congresso, in una prospettiva ovviamente – ma non esclusivamente – linguistico-applicata.I contributi presentati in sede congressuale vertevano su problemi di mediazione in vari ambiti: mediazione nel quadro di interazioni bilingui con la partecipazione di un interprete, fenomeni di commutazione di codice, problemi di traducibilità, questioni legate al plurilinguismo, all’assorbimento di minoranze linguistiche e alla comunicazione fra culture diverse su uno stesso territorio.
2006
- Presentazione [Atti del 5° Congresso internazionale dell'Associazione italiana di linguistica applicata]
[Prefazione o Postfazione]
Guardiano, Cristina; E., Banfi; Gavioli, Laura; M., Vedovelli
abstract
Presentazione dei contenuti dei contributi presenti nel volume
2006
- Tradurre parlando: alcuni esempi di traduzione dialogica
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
La traduzione orale e, in particolare, la traduzione all’interno di una conversazione sta diventando un fenomeno sempre più diffuso soprattutto nelle interazioni di tipo istituzionale, ecome tale sta assumendo un crescente interesse negli studi traduttologici, in quelli linguistici e sull’interazione, e nella formazione degli “esperti linguistici” in generale.In questo contributo, viene tracciato un breve resoconto di come questo interesse si è sviluppato in tempi recenti e ci si sofferma su alcuni aspetti della traduzione e del ruolo del traduttore checaratterizzano da un lato la traduzione orale e dall’altro la costruzione dell’interazione che vede coinvolti parlanti di lingue diverse con l’“aiuto” di un partecipante che le parla e comprendeentrambe. In particolare analizzerò tre aspetti che mi sembrano caratterizzare l’interazione mediata dall’interprete: l’aspetto della traduzione vera e propria dei turni e delle sequenze, il ruolo dicoordinamento e di organizzazione dell’interazione che viene spesso assunto dall’interprete e il ruolo di “filtro” delle informazioni e di quanto espresso dai partecipanti che si attua inevitabilmente e in vari modi attraverso il contributo dell’interprete come traduttore e coordinatore dell’interazionein due lingue.Questo studio si basa su due prospettive di analisi che ritengo fondamentali nello studio della traduzione dialogica: a. la traduzione viene vista all’interno del “parlato” e come costitutivadell’interazione; b. l’analisi si basa su “esempi”, cioè dati conversazionali raccolti al fine di poter osservare il contributo dei partecipanti a un’interazione mediata da un interprete: in altre parole si tratta di una ricerca a sfondo empirico. Queste due prospettive di analisi mettono in luce alcuni aspetti di cui può essere importante tener conto nella formazione dei traduttori e di chi si occupa della comunicazione in ambiti in cui sono coinvolti parlanti di più lingue e di diverse culture.
2005
- Exploring Corpora for ESP Learning
[Monografia/Trattato scientifico]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
This book investigates the effects of corpus work on the processof foreign language learning in ESP settings. It suggests thatobserving learners at work with corpus data can stimulatediscussion and re-thinking of the pedagogical implications of boththeoretical and empirical aspects of corpus linguistics. The ideaspresented here are developed from the Data-Driven Learningapproach introduced by Tim Johns in the early nineties. Theexperience of watching students perform corpus analysis providesthe basis for two main observations in the book: a) corpus workprovides students with a useful source of information aboutESP language features, b) the process of “search-and-discovery”implied in the method of corpus analysis may facilitate languagelearning and promote autonomy in learning language use. Thediscussion is carried out on the basis of a series of corpus-basedinvestigations by students and provide suggestions for developingnew tasks and tools for language learners.
2004
- Academic discourse, genre and small corpora
[Curatela]
Bondi, Marina; Gavioli, Laura; Silver, Marc Seth
abstract
Academic discourse studies have recently shown increasing interest for features of writer/reader interaction, metadiscourse and evaluation. The volume explores the potential contribution of corpus linguistics to the study of academic spoken and written genres, with a view to both their lexico-grammar and their typical textual structures.
2004
- Evaluating Task Assignment Contributions: A Description of Participant Practices
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, Laura; Maxwell, N. J.
abstract
In this study, we look at evaluation as an activity carried out jointly by participants in interaction. The perspective we take is that of conversation analysis, that is to say we analyse the recurrent and systematic features of sequences of talk in which evaluation is negotiated and produced by participants. The method we use is data-based in that we analyse audio and video recordings of naturally occurring talk with the help of detailed transcriptions, but not corpus-based in that we do not use concordancing tools. The study provides an initial characterization of two types of evaluative conversational sequence and offers the possibility of an improved understanding of evaluative expressions and lexical items. In this sense we suggest that the type of analysis we present here may possibly be seen as complementary to the more established corpus-based approach to the analysis of lexical or phraseological items.A further point of interest in this paper is that the data analysed are conversations in which Italian students of English work through a learning task assigned to them in class. So the language we look at is not native English but learner English spoken by Italian university students. Hyland (2002b) claims that evaluation is a feature of academic discourse that may affect students’ comprehension and that EFL teaching may underestimate its importance. By looking at how Italian EFL students produce evaluation in spoken interaction in English it may be possible, therefore, both to test this claim and to suggest ways for developing learning activities to improve student's awareness of the function and meaning of evaluation in discourse.
2004
- Introduction [Academic discourse, genre and small corpora]
[Breve Introduzione]
Bondi, Marina; Gavioli, Laura; Silver, Marc Seth
abstract
The volume collects papers which focus on a number of features of academic discourse using tools offered by Corpus Linguistics. Academic discourse can be studied to see the ways in which the experts of a discipline construct their own activity in terms of a "conversation" within and around the scientific community. The tools of corpus analysis, especially with reference to small, specialized corpora, have greatly contributed to the study of language variation across genres and across disciplines both from a descriptive as well as from a didactic point of view.
2004
- L'interprete come mediatore: riflessioni sul ruolo dell'interprete in una trattativa di affari
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Fogazzaro, E.; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
Il contributo individua alcune dinamiche dell'interazione che si riflettono sulle scelte traduttive dell'interprete analizzando un caaso di interpretazione dialogica in ambito aziendale
2003
- Review of Corpus Studies in Language Education (edited by Melinda Tan)
[Recensione in Rivista]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
2002
- Some thoughts on the problem of rtepresenting ESP through small corpora
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
Studies on representativeness have shown that the size and teh content of a corpus are strictly interdependent factors and that while a small corpus cannot guarantee adequate representation of general language, it is equally true that "specialist" language, charcaterizing a register or a genre, may not be adequately represented in large corpora. However, while issues related to the representativeness of large corpora have been widely discussed in the literature, no such discussion has been carried out for small corpora and these have implicitly been considered as "non-representative". In this paper I pose the problem of small corpus representativeness and of criteria used particularly in the design of small corpora of specialist language used in ESP teaching and learning environments.
2001
- Enriching reality: Language corpora in language pedagogy
[Articolo su rivista]
Gavioli, L.; Aston, G.
abstract
In recent years there has been considerable discussion of how far ELT syllabuses and materials should be 'corpus-driven' in order to better reflect linguistic reality. In this paper we argue that this debate has tended to overlook the potential of corpora as tools in the hands of learners, for whom they can provide a wide range of opportunities to observe and participate in real discourse for themselves. © 2001 Oxford University Press.
2001
- Enriching reality: a contribution to the debate on language corpora in language pedagogy
[Articolo su rivista]
Gavioli, Laura; Aston, G.
abstract
In recent years there has been considerable discussion of how fare ELT syllabuses and materials should be "corpus-driven" in order to better reflect linguistic reality. In this paper we argue that this debate has tended to overlook the potential of corpora as tools in the hands of learners, for whom they can provide a wide range of opportunities to observe and participate in real discourse for themselves.
2001
- The learner as researcher: introducing corpus concordancing in the classroom
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
In this paper I illustrate a number of activities designed to familiarize learners with corpus analysis and to develop their ability to perform it productively. At the same time I argue that a key finction of such activities must be to make learners aware of the assumptions on which sata-driven reserach is based and to realize its implications for their own language learning.
2000
- Concordancing and ESP: Scientific English
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
In this paper I suggest that analysis of specialised corpora of texts from particular scientific areas using concordancing tools may provide useful information for the ESP teacher, principally when selecting and grading items to be included in the syllabus or when desigining materials for an ESP course. The scientific area I consider here is medicine and, to exemplify possible uses of corpus concordancing, I consider a corpus of medical research papers about hepatitis of about 30,000 words. The methodology used can equally be applied to any othe similar corpus of "special language" texts. In these pages I first explain whct concordancing tools are; i then focus on the type of information they provide and, finally, on how this information can be exploited in both syllabus and materials design. Some examples of concordance based activities are provided.
2000
- I corpora bilingui nell'apprendimento della traduzione. Riflessioni su un'esperienza pedagogica
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, Laura; F., Zanettin
abstract
Over the last five years we have been using small comparable corpora, i.e. collections of texts in two languages of similar types and on similar topics for the training of translation students. These corpora have been taken from a variety of sources, such as newspapers on CD-ROM, printend periodicals (either re-typed or digitized through OCR software), and the Internet. In this paper we describe some uses we have made of comparable corpora for translation and pre-translation activities and discuss students' analyses, looking at some of the limits and advantages of such corpora as a pedagogic resource, in particular in comparison with parallel corpora of translated texts.
1999
- Alcuni meccanismi di base dell'analisi della conversazione
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
L'analisi della conversazione studia quello che Schegloff e Sacks (1973) hanno chiamato "everyday talk", il parlato quotidiano che si verifica ogni giorno in situazioni informali, fra amici o estranei, o in situazioni "istituzionali", ad esempio fra medico e paziente o fra cliente e commesso. Si parte dall'osservazione che il parlato quotidiano avviene in forma "ordinata", che, cioè, si parla uno alla volta, con relativamente poche pause e sovrapposizioni. Tale ordine presuppone una organizzazione basata su "meccanismi" che vengono messi in atto di volta in volta dai parlanti nel corso della conversazione. Questa idea ha avuto ampio seguito e la stessa metodologia è stata utilizzata per descrivere la sistematicità di diversi meccanismi conversazionali. I meccanismi che verranno illustrati in questo capitolo sono quelli fondamentali dell'analisi della conversazione cioè quelli su cui si basano pressochè tutte le descrizioni che utilizzano questo metodo. Si tratta innanzitutto dei meccanismi attraverso cui i parlanti gestiscono la presa del turno e si mettono d'accordo su "a chi tocca" parlare (sez. 1), si passerà quindi a vedere cosa succede quando il sistema di alternanza dei turni viene sospeso o alterato (sez. 2). Nella sezione 3 si parlerà invece dei rapporti fra ciò che viene detto in un turno e ciò che viene detto in quello seguente e si vedranno meccanismi analoghi a quelli, accennati sopra, dei saluti o delle presentazioni. Si farà notare che ogni turno ha strette implicazioni rispetto a quelli successivi (sez. 4) e determina la costruzione dell'evento conversazionale finale come evento sociale (sez. 5).
1999
- Corpora and the concordancer in learning ESP: an experiment in a course for interpreters and transaltors
[Relazione in Atti di Convegno]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
While Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) obviously plays a central role for students who are preparing to become professional interpreters and translators, it consitutes a major teaching/learning problem. In this paper I discuss a pedagogic experiment where concordance analysis of electronic text corpora was used in a course of medical English for students of interpreting and translation at the University of Bologna. Students were engaged in activities of corpus creation and analysis, followong the approach described in Johns (1991, 1994). Concordances were used to observe typical langauge organizations and also to try and grasp specific medical concepts and procedures.
1998
- Il Centauro Anglo-Americano: Atti del XVII Convegno dell'Associazione Italiana di Anglistica. Vol II: British/American variation in language, theory and methodology
[Curatela]
TAYLOR TORSELLO, C.; Haarman, L.; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
This volume is based on the linguistic section of the 17th annual AIA conference.
1997
- Bookshop service encounters in English and Italian: notes on the achievement of information and advice
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
The chapter presents an analysis of talk produced in bookshop service encounters in England and Italy and shows features which contribute to make it rather a different event in the two cultures.
1996
- Corpus di testi e concordanze: un nuovo strumento nella didattica delle lingue straniere
[Articolo su rivista]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
Corpus and concordance analysis is rapidly spreading in language pedagogy. As well as materials based on concordance analysis, concordancers for classroom use have been produced, and a number of experiments have shown that they can be exploited directly by students for their own linguistic research. In this paper, I discuss the approaches adopted in introducing corpus and concordance analysis to the langauge classroom. I argue that the concordancer complements traditional resources, such as grammars and dictionaries, insofar as it highlights the conventional associations among words and between words and the context they occur in.
1995
- Turn-initial vs. turn-final laughter: two techniques for initiating remedy in English/Italian bookshop service encounters
[Articolo su rivista]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
This article analyses patterns of laughter in bookshop service encounters in England and Italy with the function of initiating remedy. Laughter sometimes occur in the turn of a dispreferred response by the assistent (i.e the book required is not available, it cannot be supplied, etc.), both in English and Italian. However, the preferred organization of laughter in such turns is different: In the English corpus, laughter is recurrently turn-initial, anticipating an account by the assistent in the same turn, whereas in the Italian corpus it is recurrently turn-final, leaving to the customer the possibility of elicitating an account and/or an alternative solution. the different mechanisms adopted in such remedial sequences in English and Italian can provide clues to culture-specific regularities in the organization of talk in the two langauges.
1994
- Il doppiaggio: trasposizioni linguistiche e culturali
[Curatela]
Baccolini, R.; BOLLETTIERI BOSINELLI, R. M.; Gavioli, Laura
abstract
Parlare di doppiaggio è un po' come andare "alla ricerca del testo perduto" di quel testo fantasma che aleggia dietro il film doppiato, che avvertiamo, a volte con fastidio, ma spesso anche con ammirazione. Questo volume è un contributo a un'area della scienza della tarduzione che parte dall'ipotesi che proprio il film, nel confronto fra la versione originale e quella doppiata, possa costituire una griglia di lettura di sistemi linguistici e culturali diversi. nella prima sezione, due studiosi di cinema (G. Fink e F. la Polla) e due professionisti (O. Lionello e G. Galassi) discutono il doppiaggio sia come percorso traduttivo che come processo tecnico e metodologico. Nella seconda parte, R. Baccolini e L. gavioli presentano i primi risultati di una ricerca coordanata da R.M. Bollettieri, con l'intervento di un gruppo di studenti tarduttori/interpreti. La terza parte raccoglie i contributi di M. Pavesi, C. Taylor, M. Paolinelli e un'intervista di A. Licari a G. Galassi. Il volume è completato da un ampio repertorio bibliografico curato da R. Baccolini che traccia una prima mappa ragionata di studi sul tema.
1990
- Il testo parlato: spunti di analisi e di osservazione
[Articolo su rivista]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
Il contributo affronta un'analisi del testo parlato e fornisce: a. spunti di analisi e di osservazione del testo parlto sfruttando mezzi derivati dall'Analisi della Conversazione, b. proposte di attività di apprendimento atte a sviluppare nel discente capacità strategiche di osservazione dello scambio interazionale e di riflessione sulla lingua parlata
1990
- The PIXI Corpora
[Concordanza]
Gavioli, Laura; G., Mansfield
abstract
Our everyday encounters as members of the public with clerck and assistants in shops and offices are generally experienced as routine, unproblematic events. All competent speakers can cite the standard patterns of dialogue which they believe such encounters typically follow. Nevertheless public service encounters in real life often present considerable linguistic complexity, revealing culture-specific patterns of organization and interactive negotiation which are not captured by intuitive accounts. With the aim of identifying such patterns and establishing relevant generalizations for second language pedagogy, the PIXI project has analysed corpora of naturally-occurring encounters in bookshops in England and Italy. This volume brings together the data collected in the project, for which over 300 encounters were audio-recorded and transcribed using a modified version of Jefferson's norms. The corpora are also available in a computer-readable form from the Oxford Text Archive.
1989
- Discourse forces in conversational stories: entertainment vs. solidarity
[Articolo su rivista]
Gavioli, Laura
abstract
The papers shows how the turn-taking system (Sacks et al. 1974) maybe modified in conversational storytelling and particularly how the affective intent of a story-teller towards her/his public, that is the story's discourse force (Brewer & Lichtenstein 1982) maybe negotiated among speakers in relation to different story structures and patterns of turn taking. The analysis is carried out on the basis of naturally occurring conversational stories either taped by myself or taken from the literature, told in native-native or in native-non-native interactions.