This paper aims to investigate expectations and perceptions regarding the figures
who mediate between healthcare personnel and foreign patients in Italy. The
objective is to explore the distinction – seemingly unique to Italy – between the two
terms “interpreter” and “mediator” and the reasons behind this separation.
Healthcare providers and interpreters/mediators were questioned about their
respective opinions through questionnaires and interviews. Both categories
worked in local health units of a Northern Italian region, predominantly in the
Emergency Departments. Special attention was paid to the following aspects:
interpreter/mediator’s roles and tasks, invisibility versus active participation and
the use of personal pronouns and indirect speech. In order to examine the level of
consistency between perceptions and practice on these topics, 26 mediated
encounters were observed according to prearranged parameters. These
consultations involved the same subjects who had previously participated in the
questionnaires. Four sessions, which proved to be particularly relevant for the
purposes of this research, were subsequently transcribed and examined from a
qualitative point of view. Themethod of the case study, herein adopted, allowed
for the analysis of the subjects’ behaviour fromdifferent points of view, in linewith
the overall objective of providing a holistic view of the themes investigated.
Drawing on Inghilleri’s suggestion of “interpreting” as a “zone of uncertainty”
(2005), the paper also refers, in particular, to Leanza’s newtypology of roles (2007), to Davies & Harré’s theory of positioning (1990) and to Bot’s description of reported speech (2007).
