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Interdependence of first- and second-language proficiency in bilingual children

1991; Cambridge University Press; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1017/cbo9780511620652.006

Jim Cummins,

EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning

When children begin the acquisition of a second language (L2), whether in the home or at school, their cognitive resources clearly play a central role in the rapidity and ultimate success with which that language is acquired. Other individual factors, such as motivation, and contextual factors that determine amount and type of exposure to the second language, are also central to the acquisition process and in most situations are likely to interact with cognitive factors. I argue in this chapter that the process of second-language acquisition can be clarified by distinguishing between two dimensions of proficiency that relate in specific ways to determinants of the acquisition process, namely, attribute-based and input-based aspects of proficiency.