Comments on: Children as language brokers

By: Romeo Paul Rozario

Romeo Paul Rozario — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 05:21:56 +0000

This article is well worth reading because it precisely conveys the importance of child language brokers. As linguistic and cultural mediators between the adults in their family and the larger community, they can play a crucial role in situations when it may be difficult to find qualified translators and interpreters. Though it can cause anxiety and stress, acting as linguistic and cultural mediators can help them develop cognitively, academically, and morally. We should support them by nurturing their linguistic abilities and skills as well as by easing their pathways.

By: Lapset kieli- ja kulttuuritulkkeina – Kohdataan kotona -hankkeen blogi

Lapset kieli- ja kulttuuritulkkeina – Kohdataan kotona -hankkeen blogi — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 06:52:31 +0000

[…] Piller, Ingrid (2015): Children as language brokers https://languageonthemove.com/children-as-language-brokers/ […]

By: VinN

VinN — Sun, 26 Nov 2017 09:26:00 +0000

After I read this post I search and read some website related to CLB. I think this idea is an innovation.
As I have posted on Grey’s blog post, my experience of encountering a language broker happened when I first arrived Australia. I think for me and most people, the language broker, or more likely a culture broker is a friend who dwelled in a culture for a long time. We usually think adults are more experience and educated. However, in this project, children’s advantage in learning language is explored.

By: Ha Pham

Ha Pham — Mon, 04 Sep 2017 10:54:00 +0000

Wow! Children are really quick at learning new languages, much faster than their parents. Obviously, being language brokers at the early age does no harm to them in any way. By contrast, this practices help them develop themselves comprehensively: linguistically, cognitively, and academically. Moreover, they can help their parents communicate with others in complex migrant contexts.

By: Language on the Move

Language on the Move — Sun, 04 Dec 2016 05:58:00 +0000

In reply to Paj Zaub Elizabeth Frohn. Thanks for your comment! The provision of professional interpreters is immensely important and a key social justice issue to ensure equitable access for people with limited proficiency in the dominant language. Unfortunately, interpreters and translators are not always available to everyone who might need them and in every context where they might be needed. If children find themselves in a situation where they have to serve as linguistic and cultural mediators between their families and the wider society, it's important that we support them as best we can.

By: Paj Zaub Elizabeth Frohn

Paj Zaub Elizabeth Frohn — Fri, 02 Dec 2016 21:02:00 +0000

I am a professional interpreter at a trauma level 1 hospital, and I find this article seriously disturbing. Children are often scared and disturbed by what is going on in medical encounters. Also, per the recent ruling under ACA section 1557, using children to interpret is ILLEGAL in the medical setting unless there is the imminent threat of death and they are used until a qualified interpreter arrives. There is also the concern that this can lead to parentification, which is a form of mental and emotional abuse, where parents lean on the children as if the children is their little parent. Usually parents don’t realize it’s a form of abuse. It might make them “stronger” but what about letting them just be a KID.

By: Cultural brokering | Language on the Move

Cultural brokering | Language on the Move — Tue, 24 Nov 2015 21:37:12 +0000

[…] cases, people are pushed into the role of cultural mediators out of necessity, as is the case with child cultural and linguistic mediators. Others take on the roles of cultural brokers as an act of public service. In […]

By: Sally Mizoshiri

Sally Mizoshiri — Sun, 18 Oct 2015 08:45:08 +0000

This is a brilliant article – indeed something which we discuss often as teachers at school. Often my students interpret for their parents, perform adminstrative tasks such as write their English own permission notes and letters signed with their parent’s signature in their own language, assist with document translation and negotiate on behalf of their parents. I think it is an issue – as it can cause anxiety and stress on students but it is also training them in many ways as you have mentioned. I think this is a valuable research area and will share it with my colleagues….

By: Elizabeth Gunn

Elizabeth Gunn — Sat, 17 Oct 2015 02:03:35 +0000

This story invoked for me the parallel case of children’s proficiency with digital technologies. I remember as a child helping my parents with programming the video recorder, installing the answering machine and little things like that, but now I feel much more reliant on children and young adults to help me navigate, interpret and translate new, ever-multiplying digital worlds. Perhaps these recent social and technological changes create the need for renegotiation of statuses in relationships between children and adults. Or perhaps it has always been thus; these relationships have always needed to be looked at and renegotiated afresh.

By: Alexandra Grey

Alexandra Grey — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 05:57:44 +0000

This is very interesting, Ingrid, both Nizaqete’s life and your summary of relevant research. I was particularly heartened to read of studies inconsistent with the assumption that migrant parents perceive a general loss of power and status to their language broker children. I have heard such a claim from a senior family and community services worker, who suggested it was a contributing factor to family tensions and even family violence in migrant families. That’s of course a worrying consequence, but a consequence of what? Simply assuming that such problems are a consequence of children being language brokers also worried me. I hope to read more research in the area.