Former child language brokers: preliminary observations on practice, attitudes and relational aspects

The present paper sets out to report on the preliminary results of a section of the project InMedioPueri carried out at the Department of Interdiscilinary Studies in Translation, Languages and Cultures of the University of Bologna and having as its general aim the mapping of Child Language Brokering (CLB) as a crucially important but yet not explored phenomenon in Italy (Antonini forthcoming). Specifically, this part of the study aims at outlining the impact of CLB on the development of the children who performed it on an emotional and relational level. In order to systematically explore these aspects, which have been only partially touched upon in the literature (Tse & McQuillan 1996; Buriel et al 1998; Weisskirch & Alva 2002), a significant part of the project is devoted to collecting data concerning the linguistic and cultural mediation activity as perceived by former child language brokers, i.e. by bilingual adolescents and young adults who acted or, in some cases, still act as mediators for their families or other members of the same minority immigrant community who are not fluent in Italian.