ABSTRACT
Children learning language in dual-language environments need to learn and use linguistic forms to meet everyday, language-specific discourse demands. The difference in mixing has implications for how language dominance is viewed and assessed and means that there is a role for both interdependence and independence in assessment and treatment of language disorders. Reflecting an interdependence perspective, some researchers suggest that sequential bilingualism is more inter-related in the early stages of second language learning because the stronger, established language mediates or guides development in the second language. Opportunities to hear and use each of a bilingual's languages support the acquisition of morphology and syntax. Productivity and grammaticality have strong within-language associations indicating independence, and across-language associations may indicate interdependence. A focus on general learning principles needed for language production and use may provide children with basic skills for improving language performance in each of their languages.
