LANGUAGE ACQUISITICN PROCESSES IN BILINGUAL CHILDREN

A literature review and discussion of the language acquisition processes of young children looks at three types of child bilingualism: (1) simultaneous bilingualism in very young children, (2).sequential bilingualism in preschool children, and (3) sequential bilingualism in school-age children below the age of puberty. First, a theoretical framework for bilingual language acquisition is outlined, looking at the nature of communication, aspects of communicative competence (grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse, and Strategic) in the 'context of bilingualism, and language environment. Relationships between first and second language acqb4sition processes arer5then examined. A section focusing on simultandoug bilingualism in very young children looks at research on input characteristics and effects,,language attitudes, two stages of language system development (single and differentiated), aspects o