The Value of Languages in Linguistic Autobiography. Teaching Experience with Low-Educated Unaccompanied Multilingual Minors.

Abstract

At the core of linguistic autobiography lays one of our main educational purposes: leading students to appreciate and to take advantage of their own plurilingualism. The knowledge of different languages becomes a tool of useful compensation strategies in the process of learning a second language. This research aims to show the results obtained by the Unaccompanied Minors with an extremely low level of schooling attending literacy courses at the School of Italian Language for Foreigners of the University of Palermo. Thanks to the narrative devices used in linguistic autobiography it is possible to acquire a great amount of data about learners' plural identities and, by analyzing different variables of the users, to reflect upon the specific results in L2 proficiency. Students are involved in emotional activities that give them the opportunity to share complex stories, starting from the analysis and the appreciation of languages.