Exploring interlinguistic and Intercultural Mediation in Healthcare settings

Abstract The paper investigates the role of Intercultural Mediation in health care settings as a form of dialogue interpreting and its role in giving voice to cultural minorities with a focus on the construction of affective support (Baraldi & Gavioli 2007, Zorzi & Gavioli 2009) and on the pragmatic emotive competence of the mediator. Mediators are ratified participants (Goffman 1981) or a “new breed of linguists” (Amato 2011), co-constructing solidarity (Brown and Levinson 1987) through an emotive support “that is functional for the achievement of the dialogic action” (Baraldi & Gavioli 2007). The data consist of recorded conversations collected in 2010 at the Istituti Ospedalieri of Cremona (Italy) in naturally occurring bilingual encounters involving a female indian mediator, a female patient and doctor (Pignataro 2012). Observations will be presented regarding the emotive communication and the role played by the mediator in contribuiting in co-constructing meanings. Keywords: intercultural mediation, dialogue interpreting, affective support,