In Favor of Multicultural Integration: An Experimental Design to Assess Young Migrants’ Literacy Rate

Abstract

According to the UN Refugee Agency, several migratory flows are involving 65.6 million people worldwide, among them refugees, those seeking asylum, those who migrate for economic reasons, and stateless people [1]. In this regard, knowledge is the key to integration in contemporary society: in fact, learning the language of the country of migration (i.e., destination country) is crucial for beginning integration and taking part in interactive activities, such as educational training opportunities. Nevertheless, learning the language of the destination country is also mandatory in order to obtain the residence permit (i.e. visa) or to become a naturalized citizen. A practical application related to the above addresses the opportunity to assess young migrants’ L2 learning competence, focusing on the need to carry out a diversified and reliable achievement test, a placement test, and a proficiency test. The profiles of L2 young learners outline the priority of testing instruments adapted to specifically measure the language proficiency of the treatment and control groups, due to a variety of native languages, levels of school degrees, and type of migration. The aim of this paper is to present an experimental design concerning how to assess young migrants’ literacy rate and, therefore, how to formulate an initial laboratory diagnosis of their starting language competencies, as well as to monitor their progress. More specifically, we propose three tests – achievement test, placement test, proficiency test BICS-CALP – sharing the bioprofile which is both a background analysis tool as well as an assessment tool for the linguistic and cultural skills of the L2 young migrants. The experimental design proposes the integration of the performance-based assessment tests that, using also bioprofile, lead to a gradual construction of the learners’ competence profile. L2 is a key element to be adequately integrated into receiving societies. For that reason, early laboratory diagnosis avoids newly arrived migrants leaving school early, as well as individual skills diagnosis which allows for the enhancement of an intercultural linguistic integration process.