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Bilingual Competence and Bilingual Proficiency in Child

Development
Norbert Francis
Published in print: 2011 Published Online: Publisher: The MIT Press
August 2013 DOI: 10.7551/
ISBN: 9780262016391 eISBN: 9780262298384 mitpress/9780262016391.001.0001
Item type: book

When two or more languages are part of a childs world, we are

presented with a rich opportunity to learn something about language
in general and about how the mind works. This book examines
the development of bilingual proficiency and the different kinds of
competence that come together in making up its component parts. In
particular, it explores problems of language ability when children use two
languages for tasks related to schooling, especially in learning how to
read and write. It considers both broader research issues and findings
from an ongoing investigation of child bilingualism in an indigenous
language-speaking community in Mexico. This special sociolinguistic
context allows for a unique perspective on some of the central themes
of bilingualism research today, including the distinction between
competence and proficiency, modularity, and the Poverty of Stimulus
problem. The book proposes that competence (knowledge) should be
considered as an integral component of proficiency (ability) rather than
something separate and apart, arguing that this approach allows for
a more inclusive assessment of research findings from diverse fields
of study. The bilingual indigenous language project illustrates how the
concepts of modularity and the competence-proficiency distinction
in particular might be applied to problems of language learning and
literacy. Few investigations of indigenous language and culture approach
bilingual research problems from a cognitive science perspective. By
suggesting connections to broader cognitive and linguistic issues, this
book points the way to further research along these lines.

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The Debate on the Nature of Bilingual Proficiency
Norbert Francis

in Bilingual Competence and Bilingual Proficiency in Child Development

Published in print: 2011 Published Online: Publisher: The MIT Press
August 2013 DOI: 10.7551/
ISBN: 9780262016391 eISBN: 9780262298384 mitpress/9780262016391.003.0003
Item type: chapter

This chapter examines research from other subfields of child bilingual

development which have direct relevance for educational language
policy. In particular, it explores how the childs languages interact and
how the child gains access to concepts and processing strategies through
first (L1) and second language (L2). After outlining the concepts of
bilingual proficiency, the chapter looks at bilingualism in one school
in Mexico in order to distinguish between different kinds of language
ability, focusing on the two skill areas that receive the most attention in
school: reading and writing. It also considers how academic literacy skills
learned through one language can be applied to school tasks that involve
reading and writing in another language. The chapter concludes with a
discussion of the related concepts of Common Underlying Proficiency,
Central Processing System, Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency,
and transfer.

Research on the Components of Bilingual Proficiency

Norbert Francis

in Bilingual Competence and Bilingual Proficiency in Child Development

Published in print: 2011 Published Online: Publisher: The MIT Press
August 2013 DOI: 10.7551/
ISBN: 9780262016391 eISBN: 9780262298384 mitpress/9780262016391.003.0005
Item type: chapter

This chapter examines the idea that bilingual proficiency is internally

diversethat is, componential. It shows that the proposed modification
to Cumminss Common Underlying Proficiency Model needs some
modification itself and considers Paivios Bilingual Dual Coding Model
as well as M. Paradiss Three-Store Hypothesis. It also discusses why
one language subsystem does not appear to affect another in certain
cases, but prolific interaction seems to occur in other cases. Furthermore,
it looks at how language combining and mixing are accomplished in a
grammatically systematic way, how language and general cognition
appear to be interdependent, maximum imbalance in bilingualism,
how bilingual speech constitutes evidence of language separation, and
borrowing and codeswitching. Finally, the chapter proposes a model

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of how two languages are represented in the bilingual, based on an
extension of Jackendoffs Tripartite Parallel Architecture.

Conclusion
Norbert Francis

in Bilingual Competence and Bilingual Proficiency in Child Development

Published in print: 2011 Published Online: Publisher: The MIT Press
August 2013 DOI: 10.7551/
ISBN: 9780262016391 eISBN: 9780262298384 mitpress/9780262016391.003.0010
Item type: chapter

This chapter examines, within the framework of modularity, whole-

language and naturalistic approaches to literacy and second language
(L2) learning as well as the proposed model of bilingual competence and
bilingual proficiency. It also considers aspects of language loss as a shift
affecting an entire speech community and future prospects for advances
in the field of bilingualism. It first explores how the evolution toward
bilingualism, and then toward a new monolingualism, affects domains
of knowledge associated with the displaced language. It then looks at
what is natural and unnatural in language learning, reading subskills and
specific reading disability, first language (L1)L2 autonomy, and L1L2
interaction. The chapter concludes with some reflections on language
and culture.

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