Language Brokers

“Language brokers” are children of foreign-born parents, many of whom are the first members of their family to attend U.S. schools and learn English. Their parents often rely on these children to interpret and translate for them in a variety of situations. In acting as language brokers, these children play a linguistic intermediary role between their non-English-speaking parents and English speakers of U.S. society.

Children serving as language brokers can be found among all language minority immigrant groups. In addition, language brokering is prevalent in Europe and other countries experiencing an influx of immigrants. Through the schooling children receive in the host country, they also become familiar with the new culture and therefore serve as cultural brokers as well as language brokers. That is, in addition to translating and interpreting, they help their parents and family to understand U.S. culture and society.

Children who serve as language brokers have always been a part of the settlement and acculturation experience of immigrants coming to the United States. The millions of eastern and southern European immigrants who came to this country between 1892 and 1915 relied on their U.S.-schooled children to help navigate American society. Despite their important role in family adaptation to American society, they were overlooked in the behavioral science research on immigrants of this era, which focused on adults. Only in the last 15 years has research on children as language brokers emerged in the scientific literature on immigrants.

The majority of this research has focused on two multinational groups: Asian Americans and Latino Americans. Since language brokering has only recently gained public attention, it is often perceived as a uniquely Asian and Latino cultural practice, rather than as a shared experience among all immigrant groups coming to the United States since English became the dominant societal language. For persons of Mexican descent, language brokering takes on a unique historical significance in the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. In 1519, in Mexico, a 14-year-old Indian girl named Malintzin, or Malinche, was presented to the Spaniards as a gift. Adept at learning languages, she became a translator for [Page 1322]Hernán Cortés, giving him valuable insights into the culture and mythology of the Aztec, which he exploited and used to defeat them in 1521. Today, in Oaxaca, Mexico, some indigenous children educated in Mexican public schools serve as language brokers between their Zapotec-speaking parents and Spanish-speaking Mexicans.