Welcome to
The Bilingual Mediation Center
BMC directs its energy to the development of tools and processes which foster understanding and respect for each other's needs and goals as interpreters.
Our approach is to serve interpreting communities offering custom-designed professional development programs that work with them on a continuing basis. Each community has a unique history, varied demographics, and a range of issues to consider. Both locally and nationally, BMC places emphasis on finding approaches to creating change in a constructive manner.
Through this approach BMC offers sequential instructional sessions, with adequate spacing to allow for practice, experience, and integration of skills taught in earlier trainings.
We provide these services:
- Direct training of interpreters at all levels
- Development of appropriate assessments and diagnostic tools
- Assistance to interpreter educators by designing curriculum and effective methods for teaching interpretation
- Implementation of programs to refine performance (e.g.. mentorship)
- Creation of materials to assist interpreters to develop further
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About The Director
Betty Colonomos is the director of the Bilingual Mediation Center. She was awarded the Masters Comprehensive Skills Certificate (MCSC) from RID in 1980 and was the second recipient of the Mary Stotler Award for excellence in Interpreter Education from CIT. Betty has served as the chair of many national committees on standards and evaluation of interpreters, most recently serving as co-chair on the CIT/ASLTA Task Force on Interpreting Standards.
Well known as an educator of interpreters and a language consultant, Betty developed the Integrated Model of Interpreting- the most widely used model for teaching processes used in training sign language interpreters. She consults with schools and the legal system as an expert on linguistics and cultural issues impacting the Deaf community and provides services in the area of instruction, consultation, mentorship, cross-cultural mediation, language assessment, interpretation, translation and curriculum development.
Co-Presenters and Facilitators
The Bilingual Mediation Center works with other professionals in the arena of teaching, interpretation, and assessment. These colleagues are of the highest caliber and meet or exceed our standards. Specific information will be shared at the time of contract negotiation.
About Our Learning Philosophy
Based on the works of L.S. Vygotsky and others who have applied his theories to education, our approach is informed by these principles:
- learning is fostered by participation in activities designed to nurture reflective practice
- insights are revealed through dialogue and inquiry
- collaboration with peers and mentors in a safe environment facilitates this process
- the locus of control in the hands of the learner promotes self-discovery
- cognition, emotion, and culture are interrelated and significantly impact learning
Vygotsky's Cognitive Development Theory postulates that social interaction is fundamental to cognitive development. Vygotsky's theory is comprised of concepts such as culture-specific tools, language and thought interdependence, and the Zone of Proximal Development.
Vygotsky's sociocultural theory emphasizes that children learn through social interaction that include collaborative and cooperative dialogue with someone who is more skilled in tasks they're trying to learn. Vygotsky called these people with higher skill level the More Knowledgeable Other (MKO).
According to Vygotsky, the cultural tools and social development largely influence cognitive development. The cultural tools, which include symbolic tools and real tools provide support for all kinds of mental processes which are of high order. Some of these include reasoning and problem-solving.
Our goal is to bring this model to interpreting communities that value growth, are willing to discuss their work in an environment that respects the development of each learner, and that seek to provide the elevate the quality of services provided to consumers. To this end, we offer a variety of holistic training approaches and formats that recognize and honor the diversity of our communities.
