Mediation is an appropriate task type to implement plurilingual and pluricultural approaches in the EFL classroom. This talk presents insights from an empirical study on mediation with secondary school students (Years Ten to Thirteen) in Germany (N = 92). On this empirical basis conclusions are drawn for task development.
Mediation ('Sprachmittlung') as the 'Fifth Competence' has been increasingly perceived as a relevant task type in the EFL classroom (cf. Common European Framework of Reference, Companion Volume with New Descriptors 2018) with its pedagogical potential concerning the enhancement of (inter)cultural competence and language awareness being emphasised (Caspari & Schinschke, 2010; Hallet, 2008; Kolb, 2016; Rössler & Reimann, 2013). Since mediation tasks require learners to act as social agents who help construct new meaning under consideration of the (inter)cultural context and the situation of the addressees transversal skills are fostered. Mediation therefore questions the concept of the monolingual classroom and offers a panoply of options to introduce plurilingual and pluricultural approaches in foreign language teaching and learning. It is hypothesized that successful mediation requires a high degree of language awareness and cultural awareness (cf. Byram (2015) the 'language-culture-nexus'). This talk presents insights from an empirical study on mediation with higher track secondary school students (Years Ten to Thirteen) in Germany (N = 92), conducted in spring/ summer 2019. The study investigates statistical correlations between language competence, intercultural competence, language awareness (cf. DESI 2008) and variables measuring individual differences (e.g., The Big Five) with the performance in mediation tasks as the dependent variable. The test includes tasks displaying critical incidents, the mediation of culturally specific concepts and meditation tasks measuring language awareness. Via multiple regression models it is investigated to what extent the performance in the respective mediation tasks can be predicted by other variables. On the basis of the empirical results, conclusions are drawn inasmuch as mediation tasks can be implemented in the EFL classroom to enhance plurilingual and pluricultural competence.
