Editorial: Language Mediation as Meaning-Making, Access, and Institutional Practice
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Published:
Jun 30, 2026
Keywords:
Situated Mediation, Interpretative Language Practices, Cross-Cultural Meaning Construction, Linguistic Accessibility, Educational Mediation, Technological Mediation in Translation, Language Policy and Institutional Change
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Abstract
This editorial examines language mediation as a situated practice through which meaning, access, participation, and institutional relations are negotiated. It synthesises recent literature across four interrelated areas: intercultural mediation, multilingual mediation, mediation as a resource for learning and meaning-making, and mediation as access, power, and institutional practice. The discussion argues that mediation involves interpretative, relational, ethical, pedagogical, technological, and political work rather than neutral transfer between languages or contexts. It considers how translators, interpreters, teachers, learners, institutions, and technologies participate in the reformulation and circulation of meaning, while also shaping what becomes intelligible, legitimate, and accessible. The editorial then relates this conceptual discussion to the articles in issue 25.1 of Traduction et Langues, which is organised around translation studies and intercultural mediation; language teaching, pedagogy, and educational practices; language, discourse, and cultural representations; and language policy and institutional transformations. The issue’s contributions examine topics including Vietnamese endearment terms, Qur’anic reciprocal ellipsis, audiovisual translation, multilingual dubbing, AI-assisted translation of greeting formulae and diplomatic texts, educational reform, classroom meaning clarification, culturally responsive literacy, teacher development, English-medium instruction listening strategies, Business German, gender representation in literary discourse, written text on cinema screens, and Algeria’s shift from French to English in higher education. These studies show that mediation operates across translation, pedagogy, discourse, technology, and policy as a process through which language practices are adapted to particular audiences, purposes, histories, and institutional conditions. The editorial positions mediation as both enabling and ambivalent: it can widen participation, foster intercultural understanding, and support access to knowledge, but it can also obscure loss, reproduce asymmetry, reinforce institutional priorities, or constrain whose meanings are recognised.
Article Details
How to Cite
Xerri , D. (2026). Editorial: Language Mediation as Meaning-Making, Access, and Institutional Practice. Traduction Et Langues, 25(01), 11–28. Retrieved from https://revue.univ-oran2.dz/revuetranslang/index.php/translang/article/view/1092
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References
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Bagga-Gupta, S. (2010). Creating and (re)negotiating boundaries: Representations as mediation in visually oriented multilingual Swedish school settings. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 23(3), 251–276. https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2010.515997
Baldwin, Y. (2024). Incorporating cross-linguistic mediation in the Italian language classroom [Master's thesis, University of Malta]. OAR@UM. https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/131936
Baraldi, C. (2017). Language mediation as communication system. Communication Theory, 27(4), 367–387. https://doi.org/10.1111/comt.12118
Buell, S., Langdon, P. E., Pounds, G., & Bunning, K. (2020). An open randomized controlled trial of the effects of linguistic simplification and mediation on the comprehension of “easy read” text by people with intellectual disabilities. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 33(2), 219–231. https://doi.org/10.1111/jar.12666
Carpio, C., Barrios, V., Montes, G., Aguilar, F., García-Gallardo, D., & Pacheco, V. (2021). Linguistic mediation of perceptual adjustment in university students. Revista Argentina de Ciencias del Comportamiento, 13(3), 59–69. https://www.redalyc.org/journal/3334/333472232008/
Chen, S. (2025). A framework of multilingual conversion errors: A crosslinguistic mediation model in teaching Chinese as a second language. SAGE Open, 15(4), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251385737
Choi, W., Tong, X., & Deacon, H. (2019). From Cantonese lexical tone awareness to second language English vocabulary: Cross-language mediation by segmental phonological awareness. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 62(6), 1875–1889. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_JSLHR-L-17-0323
Constantinou, M. (2020). EU lay communication in translation: Mediation, affectivity and EU citizenship: A contrastive multilingual critical discourse analytic approach to translation. Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice, 28(2), 202–223. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2019.1663890
Corsi, A., & Fons Esteve, M. (2023). Early reading stages and affective mediation in multilingual and intercultural contexts. Tejuelo, 38, 43–70. https://doi.org/10.17398/1988-8430.38.43
Dyers, C., & Antia, B. E. (2019). Multilingual and multimodal mediation in one university module: The people and processes involved. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 37(1), 62–76. https://doi.org/10.2989/16073614.2019.1609365
Fernández Álvarez, M., & García Hernández, S. (2024). Teachers’ perceptions of linguistic mediation in the curriculum for advanced English in Madrid secondary schools. Language Teaching Research, 28(2), 389–412. https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688211005602
Gerwers, F., Gauci, P., Melo-Pfeifer, S., & Stathopoulou, M. (2022). Teachers’ beliefs about cross-linguistic mediation tasks: An empirical study within the framework of the METLA project. LEND: Lingua e Nuova Didattica, (5), 159–173.
Horváth, I. (2019). Linguistic mediation in the digital age. Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica, 11(3), 5–15. https://doi.org/10.2478/ausp-2019-0022
Kleve, B., & Penne, S. (2016). Learning subjects in school: Being outsiders or insiders in the disciplinary discourses of mathematics and language 1. International Journal of Educational Research, 78, 41–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2016.05.014
Li, Y.-C., & Cassany, D. (2026). From ‘fuck’ to ‘possess’: Intercultural mediation and identity construction in Chinese fan translations of Spanish-language songs. Language and Intercultural Communication, 26(2), 314–330. https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2025.2470300
Liang, M.-Y. (2021). Multilingual and multimodal mediation in online intercultural conversations: A translingual perspective. Language Awareness, 30(3), 276–296. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658416.2021.1941069
Liddicoat, A. J. (2016a). Intercultural mediation, intercultural communication and translation. Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice, 24(3), 354–364. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2014.980279
Liddicoat, A. J. (2016b). Translation as intercultural mediation: Setting the scene. Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice, 24(3), 347–353. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2015.1125934
Llevot-Calvet, N., & Garreta-Bochaca, J. (2025). Intercultural mediation in school: The Spanish education system and growing cultural diversity. Educational Studies, 51(4), 679–699. https://doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2024.2329894
Lucero, A. (2015). Who’s holding el marcador? Peer linguistic mediation gone awry in a dual language classroom. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 14(4), 219–236. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2015.1070571
Mahyub-Rayaa, B., & Baya-Essayahi, M.-L. (2021). Linguistic-cultural mediation in asylum and refugee settings and its emotional impact on Arabic–Spanish interpreters. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education, 11(4), 1280–1291. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe11040093
Marín García, Á. (2024). Language mediation training and the foreign-language effect in moral decision-making. Translation, Cognition & Behavior, 7(1), 140–158. https://doi.org/10.1075/tcb.00093.gar
Morozova, A. L., Buzina, Y. N., Pushkareva, I. A., & Morozova, D. M. (2021). Language mediation development in teaching a foreign language. European Journal of Contemporary Education, 10(3), 684–696. https://doi.org/10.13187/ejced.2021.3.684
Napier, J. (2024). Re-conceptualising communicative expertise in professional practice through the lens of sign language intercultural mediation. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 18(1), 135–157. https://doi.org/10.1558/jalpp.23532
Nfor, S. (2025). Intra-linguistic mediation within the context of Model United Nations. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 19(3), 234–247. https://doi.org/10.1080/17501229.2023.2298401
Ramey, S. (2023). Making translation communicative: Mediation in the communicative language classroom. Hispania, 106(2), 225–237. https://doi.org/10.1353/hpn.2023.a899430
Reiter, R., & Walter, L. (2023). Language mediation in psychotherapeutic healthcare for refugees in Germany: Shunting responsibility between levels and actors. International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, 19(1), 28–41. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMHSC-05-2022-0053
Scrimgeour, A. (2016). Between lexicography and intercultural mediation: Linguistic and cultural challenges in developing the first Chinese–English dictionary. Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice, 24(3), 444–457. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2015.1069859
Sejdiu, S. (2026). When multilingual presence is not pedagogical translanguaging: Institutional mediation in a multilingual university in Kosovo. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2026.2658845
Snoeck, H., Vandenbroucke, M., & Defrancq, B. (2026). Language mediation as a window into language ideological beliefs: An examination of interpreter selection practices in municipal sham relationship investigations in Belgium (Flanders). Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2026.2638936
Stathopoulou, M., Liontou, M., Gauci, P., & Melo-Pfeifer, S. (2024). Assessing cross-linguistic mediation: Insights from the METLA project. In K. Vogt & B. E. Antia (Eds.), Multilingual assessment: Finding the nexus? (pp. 235–258). Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/b21992
Tulbure, C. (2025). Intercultural mediation and the state’s surveillance of motherhood: Contradictions disclosing coloniality of relationships, racialisation, and emotional control. European Journal of Social Work術, 28(1), 96–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2024.2382982
Wang, H. (2022). Discursive mediation in translation: Living history and its Chinese translations. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4097-2
Wong, C. H., Annamalah, S., Ahmed, S., Sentosa, I., Aravindan, K. L., & Dass, R. (2026). Examining cultural and linguistic mediation: The role of in-house interpreters in mitigating communication friction in Sino-Malaysian corporations. Cogent Social Sciences, 12(1), Article 2632988. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2026.2632988
Zhang, M. (2023). An exploration of linguistic mediation activities in repair sequences: The case of a plurilingual youth participant in an after-school digital storytelling project. Bellaterra Journal of Teaching & Learning Language & Literature, 16(4), Article e1306. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/jtl3.1306
Andrei, C. (2026). “Betrayal” and faithfulness in translation as intercultural mediation: Ethical dilemmas and strategies in South-Eastern literary discourse. Humanities, 15(1), Article 9. https://doi.org/10.3390/h15010009
Bagga-Gupta, S. (2010). Creating and (re)negotiating boundaries: Representations as mediation in visually oriented multilingual Swedish school settings. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 23(3), 251–276. https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2010.515997
Baldwin, Y. (2024). Incorporating cross-linguistic mediation in the Italian language classroom [Master's thesis, University of Malta]. OAR@UM. https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/131936
Baraldi, C. (2017). Language mediation as communication system. Communication Theory, 27(4), 367–387. https://doi.org/10.1111/comt.12118
Buell, S., Langdon, P. E., Pounds, G., & Bunning, K. (2020). An open randomized controlled trial of the effects of linguistic simplification and mediation on the comprehension of “easy read” text by people with intellectual disabilities. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 33(2), 219–231. https://doi.org/10.1111/jar.12666
Carpio, C., Barrios, V., Montes, G., Aguilar, F., García-Gallardo, D., & Pacheco, V. (2021). Linguistic mediation of perceptual adjustment in university students. Revista Argentina de Ciencias del Comportamiento, 13(3), 59–69. https://www.redalyc.org/journal/3334/333472232008/
Chen, S. (2025). A framework of multilingual conversion errors: A crosslinguistic mediation model in teaching Chinese as a second language. SAGE Open, 15(4), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251385737
Choi, W., Tong, X., & Deacon, H. (2019). From Cantonese lexical tone awareness to second language English vocabulary: Cross-language mediation by segmental phonological awareness. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 62(6), 1875–1889. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_JSLHR-L-17-0323
Constantinou, M. (2020). EU lay communication in translation: Mediation, affectivity and EU citizenship: A contrastive multilingual critical discourse analytic approach to translation. Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice, 28(2), 202–223. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2019.1663890
Corsi, A., & Fons Esteve, M. (2023). Early reading stages and affective mediation in multilingual and intercultural contexts. Tejuelo, 38, 43–70. https://doi.org/10.17398/1988-8430.38.43
Dyers, C., & Antia, B. E. (2019). Multilingual and multimodal mediation in one university module: The people and processes involved. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 37(1), 62–76. https://doi.org/10.2989/16073614.2019.1609365
Fernández Álvarez, M., & García Hernández, S. (2024). Teachers’ perceptions of linguistic mediation in the curriculum for advanced English in Madrid secondary schools. Language Teaching Research, 28(2), 389–412. https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688211005602
Gerwers, F., Gauci, P., Melo-Pfeifer, S., & Stathopoulou, M. (2022). Teachers’ beliefs about cross-linguistic mediation tasks: An empirical study within the framework of the METLA project. LEND: Lingua e Nuova Didattica, (5), 159–173.
Horváth, I. (2019). Linguistic mediation in the digital age. Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica, 11(3), 5–15. https://doi.org/10.2478/ausp-2019-0022
Kleve, B., & Penne, S. (2016). Learning subjects in school: Being outsiders or insiders in the disciplinary discourses of mathematics and language 1. International Journal of Educational Research, 78, 41–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2016.05.014
Li, Y.-C., & Cassany, D. (2026). From ‘fuck’ to ‘possess’: Intercultural mediation and identity construction in Chinese fan translations of Spanish-language songs. Language and Intercultural Communication, 26(2), 314–330. https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2025.2470300
Liang, M.-Y. (2021). Multilingual and multimodal mediation in online intercultural conversations: A translingual perspective. Language Awareness, 30(3), 276–296. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658416.2021.1941069
Liddicoat, A. J. (2016a). Intercultural mediation, intercultural communication and translation. Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice, 24(3), 354–364. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2014.980279
Liddicoat, A. J. (2016b). Translation as intercultural mediation: Setting the scene. Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice, 24(3), 347–353. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2015.1125934
Llevot-Calvet, N., & Garreta-Bochaca, J. (2025). Intercultural mediation in school: The Spanish education system and growing cultural diversity. Educational Studies, 51(4), 679–699. https://doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2024.2329894
Lucero, A. (2015). Who’s holding el marcador? Peer linguistic mediation gone awry in a dual language classroom. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 14(4), 219–236. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2015.1070571
Mahyub-Rayaa, B., & Baya-Essayahi, M.-L. (2021). Linguistic-cultural mediation in asylum and refugee settings and its emotional impact on Arabic–Spanish interpreters. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education, 11(4), 1280–1291. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe11040093
Marín García, Á. (2024). Language mediation training and the foreign-language effect in moral decision-making. Translation, Cognition & Behavior, 7(1), 140–158. https://doi.org/10.1075/tcb.00093.gar
Morozova, A. L., Buzina, Y. N., Pushkareva, I. A., & Morozova, D. M. (2021). Language mediation development in teaching a foreign language. European Journal of Contemporary Education, 10(3), 684–696. https://doi.org/10.13187/ejced.2021.3.684
Napier, J. (2024). Re-conceptualising communicative expertise in professional practice through the lens of sign language intercultural mediation. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 18(1), 135–157. https://doi.org/10.1558/jalpp.23532
Nfor, S. (2025). Intra-linguistic mediation within the context of Model United Nations. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 19(3), 234–247. https://doi.org/10.1080/17501229.2023.2298401
Ramey, S. (2023). Making translation communicative: Mediation in the communicative language classroom. Hispania, 106(2), 225–237. https://doi.org/10.1353/hpn.2023.a899430
Reiter, R., & Walter, L. (2023). Language mediation in psychotherapeutic healthcare for refugees in Germany: Shunting responsibility between levels and actors. International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, 19(1), 28–41. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMHSC-05-2022-0053
Scrimgeour, A. (2016). Between lexicography and intercultural mediation: Linguistic and cultural challenges in developing the first Chinese–English dictionary. Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice, 24(3), 444–457. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2015.1069859
Sejdiu, S. (2026). When multilingual presence is not pedagogical translanguaging: Institutional mediation in a multilingual university in Kosovo. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2026.2658845
Snoeck, H., Vandenbroucke, M., & Defrancq, B. (2026). Language mediation as a window into language ideological beliefs: An examination of interpreter selection practices in municipal sham relationship investigations in Belgium (Flanders). Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2026.2638936
Stathopoulou, M., Liontou, M., Gauci, P., & Melo-Pfeifer, S. (2024). Assessing cross-linguistic mediation: Insights from the METLA project. In K. Vogt & B. E. Antia (Eds.), Multilingual assessment: Finding the nexus? (pp. 235–258). Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/b21992
Tulbure, C. (2025). Intercultural mediation and the state’s surveillance of motherhood: Contradictions disclosing coloniality of relationships, racialisation, and emotional control. European Journal of Social Work術, 28(1), 96–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2024.2382982
Wang, H. (2022). Discursive mediation in translation: Living history and its Chinese translations. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-4097-2
Wong, C. H., Annamalah, S., Ahmed, S., Sentosa, I., Aravindan, K. L., & Dass, R. (2026). Examining cultural and linguistic mediation: The role of in-house interpreters in mitigating communication friction in Sino-Malaysian corporations. Cogent Social Sciences, 12(1), Article 2632988. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2026.2632988
Zhang, M. (2023). An exploration of linguistic mediation activities in repair sequences: The case of a plurilingual youth participant in an after-school digital storytelling project. Bellaterra Journal of Teaching & Learning Language & Literature, 16(4), Article e1306. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/jtl3.1306