Public service interpreting in Italy and child language brokering: two sides of the same coin

This paper will provide an introductory overview of Public Service Interpreting (PSI) in Italy, followed by a review of the literature on non-professional interpreting in PSI with a specific focus on Child Language Brokering (CLB) in the educational setting. We will then illustrate and discuss the results of a research that used a methodology that is new to CLB studies in Italy, namely the use of narrative vignette interviews. A vignette provides a story-telling trigger that allows the respondents to reflect on what happens in the story and is a valid method for eliciting complex and sensitive accounts of CLB in our case. The results of the analysis of the narratives created with the aid of this methodology brought to the fore new aspects of the practice of CLB in the public service setting in general and in the educational setting in particular.