Chapter published in:
Non-professional Interpreting and Translation: State of the art and future of an emerging field of research
Edited by Rachele Antonini, Letizia Cirillo, Linda Rossato and Ira Torresi
[Benjamins Translation Library 129] 2017
► pp. 281–293

Chapter 14
Child language brokers’ representations of parent–child relationships

This paper reports the analysis of qualitative data from a broader study of young people’s representations of conflicting roles in child development. Just over a quarter of the group, bilingual students who spoke a variety of first languages had had personal experience of child language brokering (CLB). Employing vignette methodology, they were invited to reflect on the implications of an adolescent boy’s language brokering activities for, among other things, his relationships within his family. In this paper, we will present brief case studies to illustrate different positions that members of the group adopted in relation to developmental scripts emphasizing independence and interdependence between young people and their parents (Dorner et al. 2008). Through an analysis of individual CLB case studies, we illustrate various ways in which individual young people reported the balancing of the demands of autonomy and connectedness in their analysis of relationships between young people and their parents.
Keywords: case studies, child development, family dynamics, semi-structured interviews, vignettes
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology
    • 2.1Procedure
    • 2.2Composition of the sample for this study
    • 3.Analysis
    • 3.1Case study 1: Bana
    • 3.2Case study 2: Elena
    • 3.3Case study 3: Rosana
    • 3.4Case study 4: Joăo
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 19 June 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.129.14cli
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Ceccoli, Federica
2021. Reconstructing the experiences of child language brokering: a focus on the socio-emotional impact of the practice. The Translator 27:2 ► pp. 216 ff. Crossref logo
Crafter, Sarah & Humera Iqbal
2020. The Contact Zone and Dialogical Positionalities in “Non-Normative” Childhoods: How Children Who Language Broker Manage Conflict. Review of General Psychology 24:1 ► pp. 31 ff. Crossref logo
Crafter, Sarah & Humera Iqbal
2022. Child language brokering as a family care practice: Reframing the ‘parentified child’ debate. Children & Society 36:3 ► pp. 400 ff. Crossref logo
García-Sánchez, Inmaculada M.
2018. Children as Interactional Brokers of Care. Annual Review of Anthropology 47:1 ► pp. 167 ff. Crossref logo

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