febrero 2, 2023
La mediación es una destreza más bien reciente en los exámenes de inglés, tanto en la escuela de idiomas, como en otras instituciones, como Oxford Academy. La mayoría de los alumnos tienden a confundir esta prueba con una prueba de expresión escrita sin más, y en realidad tiene muchos matices que la diferencian.
En este post te explico varias cuestiones a tener en cuenta a la hora de enfrentarte a tu prueba de mediación escrita.
Doing well at written mediation implies having reasonably good reading comprehension and writing skills. However, written mediation is somehow different from the former.
The kind of texts that we are likely to find involves a variety of micro-skills and strategies that need to be carried out in order to handle written mediation tasks successfully.
These strategies include linking the information found in the text with previous knowledge, and adapting the language and cultural references, so that the receiver can relate to the relevant information and said references do not impair their understanding. The challenging language can be adapted by rephrasing, paraphrasing and explaining technical concepts or cultural references.
Other strategies are simplifying the text, leaving out unnecessary information which is irrelevant for the receiver, and highlighting key information, trying to synthesize the text and boiling it down to the essential message that needs to be relayed.
On the other hand, when we come across graphics, charts and infographics, or information that is presented in a very succinct way, we may need to amplify the information in the text, by giving examples, explaining things more thoroughly, or relating the information to facts and data that the receiver already knows.
Regarding micro-skills, the most important ones are clarifying, summarizing, interpreting the information in the text, adapting cultural references, paraphrasing, rephrasing, and translating. The most common problem that I tend to see is that most students mistake mediating for translating, and try to translate the whole text from A to Z, often making many mistakes in the process, and rendering the task way too long and unnatural.
I suggest you check this video that Victoria Santa Cruz, from the website The Way Experience uploaded on YouTube. Here, mediation and the strategies and micro-skills it implies are analyzed.
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