The Cambridge English Assessment team has published an article on mediation skills in the English language classroom.
We all have to take information, understand it, and then explain it to others. Although it may be second nature to many, it takes a unique set of skills to pull this off successfully. Perhaps you’re at university and your lecturer has asked you to look at an English research paper and summarise it to your study group in your home language. Or maybe you’re at work and you have taken a detailed safety brief that you have to relay back to colleagues. Other common examples that require these skills include explaining a timetable to a new class or just passing on the latest gossip!
A key skill for language learners
Taking information, summarising it, and passing it on is an example of what linguists call mediation, and it is a key skill for language learners at all levels. It’s the subject of the latest Cambridge Paper in ELT, Mediation: What it is, how to teach it and how to assess it which looks at some of the best strategies teachers can use to teach and assess mediation skills and have a lot of fun in the process.