FEATURES OF TEACHING MEDIATION IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN EUROPEAN SECONDARY EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

Summary. Introduction. In contemporary foreign language education, mediation is a pivotal component of communicative competence, gaining prominence following the update of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Its role in secondary education is to develop students’ ability to relay information, adapt discourse, and facilitate intercultural interaction in authentic contexts. Thus, mediation is fundamental to the development of students’ mediative competence.

Purpose. The study aims to analyze the state of mediation teaching in European schools; identify features of various mediation activities and strategies, and outline problematic issues in its theory and practice.

Methods. Theoretical methods, including literature analysis, synthesis, induction, and deduction, were applied to clarify the problem, while systematization and generalization helped identify issues in European school practice.

Results. The analysis of European curricula reveals that mediation remains uneven. While text mediation (i.e., relaying specific information and text processing) dominates, subtypes involving creative texts, data explanation, and mediation of concepts are largely neglected in Germany, except in France. A systemic gap exists across all contexts regarding mediation strategies, particularly in the breakdown of complex information. In practice, tasks lack clear differentiation between mediation types and strategies, leaving mediation of concepts and communication outside systematic instruction.

Originality. The study provides a comparative analysis of mediation implementation across diverse European systems, identifying gaps between theoretical CEFR descriptors and their practical application in secondary school curricula.

Conclusion. The identified gaps indicate that even when mediation is normatively established, its implementation in school-based foreign language education remains partial and fails to ensure the holistic development of corresponding skills.