Bridging Plurilingualism: From Orality to Writing Across Languages A Model of Multilingual Literacy for Newly Arrived Migrants in Palermo

Over the past ten years, Palermo has emerged as a particularly significant field of research for the observation, analysis, and teaching related to young and adult migrants. Since 2012, thousands of teenagers and young adults who crossed the Mediterranean using makeshift means—following equally harrowing journeys—have been welcomed into the classes of the Italian Language School for Foreign Students (ItaStra) at the University of Palermo. To date, hundreds of undergraduate and doctoral theses, as well as peer-reviewed articles supported by quantitative data and extensive audiovisual documentation, have been published, recounting this collective experience. In Palermo, through a project that has operated—and continues to operate—on multiple levels and has evolved through various stages, a new learner profile has gradually taken shape: a young individual characterized by fluid plurilingualism prior to departure, further enriched during their migratory journey, and equipped with new communicative resources and needs, yet with limited literacy and emerging reading and writing skills. After outlining this profile, the discussion focuses on an experimental teaching initiative for young plurilingual adults with low or no literacy skills. The literacy model developed within the framework of this initiative builds on students' existing linguistic repertoires and sociolinguistic competencies, enabling them to acquire reading and writing skills in the Roman alphabet. This empowers them to produce and understand texts both in Italian and in the different languages within their repertoires. By avoiding the imposition of a single linguistic norm, this approach fosters an autonomous form of literacy that emerges organically from the multilingual context of the classroom and is rooted in the students' everyday linguistic practices and learning strategies.