Date and time: Tuesday 17 November, 2026, at 15.15-16.45
Location: B1028-29 and Zoom:
https://tuni.zoom.us/j/61236869039?pwd=gGPCDrLningPN97SiYKK1S3wlDF7f4.1
Meeting ID: 612 3686 9039
Passcode: 355641
Optional pre-reading: Meyer, Bernd 2026: Sprachmittlungspolitiken in öffentlichen Einrichtungen in Deutschland. Sprachpolitik und Sprachenpolitik Jg. 1 (1), 67-87. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14618/spr_1_2026
Abstract
In my presentation I shall examine the topic of “linguistic mediation policies” from an applied linguistic perspective. Based on Spolsky’s categorisation of language policies as practices, ideas and measures, I explore how language barriers are overcome in multilingual settings. After clarifying the terminology and outlining the specific requirements of language mediators, the presentation highlights their central role as intermediaries between primary communication partners. An overview of sociolinguistic, translation, and social science research then provides insight into how language mediation policies are understood and how they relate to overarching language policies. This is followed by a discussion of the need for, and legal basis of, language mediation in Germany. Finally, I shall provide an overview of various practices at federal, state and local levels. The potential of machine translation to overcome language barriers is then discussed.
Biography
Bernd Meyer is a linguist by training, and a specialist for different aspects of multilingual communication in institutional settings. He graduated with a dissertation on interpreter-mediated briefings for informed consent at Hamburg University in 2003. Since 2010, he is Professor for Intercultural Communication and Cultural Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (Germany) in the Department for Translation, Linguistics, and Cultural Studies. Having been a full-time researcher and principal investigator on projects on interpreting and multilingualism conducted at the Research Centre for Multilingualism in Hamburg (SFB Mehrsprachigkeit), he is an expert in the analysis of interpreter-mediated interaction, as well as in the application of such findings to interpreter training. His research interests include multilingual and interpreter-mediated communication, working with corpora of spoken language, and doctor-patient communication.