A test to evaluate the language of a bilingual child. The ELAL Avicenne

Language plurality is now a regular fact, generating situations where bilingualism is proved or just assumed. It obliges clinicians to dispose of methods and tools specifically for pinpoint language troubles before they become solidly installed. Language evaluation for allophones and newly arrived (ELAL Avicenne), with its particular methodology, respond to this objective. Not considering bilingualism as the sum of two monolingual states and without disregarding that bilingualism has psychological implications, we propose a methodology in order to seize the extent of overall language acquisition and trace the dynamics of linguistic development in children from 3 to 6 years old. The ELAL Avicenne is conceived to be an economical and accurate language test. Based on a cross-linguistic model of language development and functioning, it offers an interpretative ground in which the performances of tested subjects can be grasped in a coherent and functional whole. (C) 2016 Societe Francaise de Psychologie. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.