1. The Lived Experiences a Selected Group of Female El Salvadoran Child Language Brokers Students in Prince George's County Public Schools
- Author
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Murray, Elaine C.
- Subjects
English language--Study and teaching--Foreign speakers ,Translating and interpreting--Research ,Education, Secondary ,Education - Abstract
Child language brokering is a phenomenon that occurs frequently among children who speak English and their non-English speaking parents and friends. When children interpret for their family members and friends, it is unnoticed by many organizations such as schools, healthcare organizations and businesses. Therefore, child language brokers have missed the opportunity to be recognized for the unusual work that they perform almost daily. Prior research on this topic has primarily focused on Spanish-speaking children from areas such as Mexico and China. This study sought to share the lived experiences of female students from the country of El Salvador. The following research question guided this study: What are the lived experiences of a select group of female El Salvadoran child language brokers in a large urban school district? This question was explored through a survey and in-depth, semi-structured interviews where participants were able to share their experiences when language brokering. Twenty participants participated in the survey and seventeen completed the instrument. Of those individuals, five female students from El Salvador were selected to participate in a semi-structured interview. The survey results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the interviews were analyzed to gain a thick, rich, description of the participants lived experiences as child language brokers. Four thematic findings emerged from NVivo coding: (a) trust, (b) happiness, (c) helping, and (d) learning. Given the findings of this study, the following three recommendations are offered to child language broker researchers as they seek to understand children who engage in this work: (a) explore why children broker for their friends and how this may impact that relationship. (b) reduce bias in the research by selecting an outside, non-interpreting researcher to collect both the qualitative and quantitative data, and (c) conduct research that answers the following 1) How do children perceive their abilities when language brokering? 2) Do participants think that their interpretation skills are important and valuable? and 3) How do participants perceive their language brokering skills within their school, school district and society?
- Published
- 2018
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