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Abstract Language brokers facilitate communication between two linguistically and/or culturally different parties. Unlike formal interpreters and translators, brokers mediate, rather than merely transmit, information. Recent research suggests that language minority (LM) students who broker assume parental duties that include making educational decisions and communicating directly with schools, which greatly impacts their own educational experiences. The purpose of this study is to examine the prevalence of this phenomenon among Chineseand Vietnamese-American bilingual students, and to explore the linguistic, cultural, and affective factors associated with brokering. The results suggest that nearly all of the subjects brokered for a variety of people in the home and at school, among many other settings, and that brokering has a number of affective and linguistic consequences for LM students. The implications of these findings for educators and policy makers are discussed.
Lucy Tse (Tue,) studied this question.