Ever since its inclusion in the test papers of the KPG exams, [1] the notion of ‘mediation’ has attracted the attention of many ELT practitioners –especially foreign language teachers preparing students for these exams.

This month’s article is concerned with how mediation is understood in the context of the KPG exams in all languages, focusing on written mediation performance.

Oral mediation is an equally interesting issue and, therefore, deserves to be discussed separately, perhaps in the next issue of this publication.

• Testing and assessing candidates’ mediation performance, with tasks that entail relaying information from one language to another is one of the innovations of the KPG examination battery.
• Dendrinos (2006) has aptly defined the notion of mediation and her definition articulates the rationale which forms the basis for mediation activities in all the KPG languages. [2] 
• She views mediation as social practice the purpose of which is to work against communication breakdowns, to fill information gaps and/or to interpret meanings for others who may not have understood what has been said or written.

1. In the same paper, [3] Dendrinos also explains how mediation distinctly differs from translation and interpretation. In a nutshell, the latter require unconditional respect of the content of the source text, and the aim of the translator or the interpreter is to render every single message of the original text.
2. Equally important is the requisite that the target text be in the same textual form as the source text. On the contrary, mediation has no such constraints.
3. The aim of the mediator, unlike the translator or the interpreter, is to select from the source text information relevant to the task at hand and to render it appropriately for the context of situation.