In the present paper a social psychological model for the development of bilinguality in the young child is proposed, covering all typical cases of bilingual development. Central to the proposed model of bilingual development are the valorisation mechanisms which the child develops through her/his own system of social networks during early childhood as well as the social psychological mechanisms which develop consequently in the child.
Taking as a starting point a general theoretical approach to language development, the model attempts to take into account the empirical evidence of the social, social psychological, linguistic and cognitive aspects of bilingual development. In the second part of the paper different outcomes of early bilingual development are discussed in the light of the model and an attempt is made to define the conditions that are necessary in order for the child to develop a harmonious type of bilinguality as well as those that might lead to an impairment of the cognitive development of the bilingual child.
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