Second language acquisition and bilingual development: A theoretical framework

Abstract

The theory presented here states that all developing and developed bilinguals, no matter what their age or environment, have a preferred and a second language, specific and general, and that a developing bilingual increases his competence in his second language through an overall fluctuating activity between bilingual preferred/ second‐language medium‐orientated communication and monolingual second‐language message‐orientated communication, with the former decreasing in inverse proportion to his increasing proficiency in the second language. Both communicative levels are essential and one without the other will handicap the bilingual, whether developing or developed, in his efforts to become, or remain, a balanced bilingual. The theory applies no matter whether individuals acquire a preferred and a second language during infancy or a second or foreign language at a later age, in or out of the classroom. Some of the implications of the theory are then discussed.