Cognitive, communicative, and cultural sensitivity competencies of future teachers in relation to textual mediation for adult immigrants

Abstract

Due to the social circumstances leading to increased professional demand, it is necessary to provide more specialized training to initial teacher education students so they can address textual mediation for L2-learning adult immigrants. This research aims to understand how students in education perceive the impact of textual mediation on certain critical skills following a teaching intervention. There are few previous studies on textual mediation in the field of applied linguistics. A qualitative methodology evaluated an intervention involving 103 education students in focus groups. The results reveal that educational mediation with adult immigrants enhances oral and written communication skills, translation ability, note-taking, and creative text analysis. Linguistic adaptation and expanded cultural awareness are crucial in this process. As a practical application, the research underscores the importance of fostering cognitive, communicative, and cultural awareness competencies in initial teacher education students for effective language instruction to adult immigrants.