Interpreting as dialogic mediation. The relevance of expansions

Interpreters’ reflexive coordination may promote different forms of mediation. Dialogic mediation, in particular, achieves promotion of active participation, displays sensitivity for the interlocutors’ interests and/or needs, and treats alternative perspectives as reciprocal enrichment. Drawing on a set of healthcare interactions involving Arabic-speaking patients in Italian services, the present study discusses interpreters’ actions included in sequences of dialogic mediation, in particular: (1) promotional questions, which encourage the production of personal narratives and narratives of illness on the part of patients; (2) multi-part expansions, where patients’ stories are co-authored with interpreters; (3) renditions as “formulations”, which focus on patients’ problems, emotions and cultural background and involve healthcare providers in the interactional narrative. Dialogic mediation can be considered a form of negentropic interpretation, in that it provides the opportunity to exercise and recognise personal agency and hybridise different cultural voices.