FEATURES OF VERBAL AND COGITATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF JUNIOR SCHOOLCHILDREN IN THE CONTEXT OF BILINGUALISM
The research is considers the problem of the influence of bilingualism on the cognitive and communicative development of children. The paper presents the results of a theoretical and experimental study of the relationship of specialized education - as a form of a social situation of development, and psychological patterns of development in primary school age. The study is based on the concept of “dialogue of cultures” (E.N. Matyukhina, A.V. Shafrikova, M. Kruger-Pratratz) and multicultural education (V.V. Makayev, Z.A. Malkova, V.Yu. Hotinets , V.F. Gabdulhakov); theory of the activity approach and developmental teaching (L.S. Vygotskiy, V.V. Davydov, L.V. Zankov, N.F. Talyzina, etc.); the concept of the interaction of languages in the mind of bilinguals and their influence on the parameters of speech activity (N.V. Baryshnikov, A.A. Zalevskaya, I.A. Zimnyaya and others); the position of “environmental” influences on the development of personality (D. Bruner, L.S. Vygotsky, A.R. Luria, M. Mid, V.V. Rubtsov, J. Piaget, etc.). Empirically, the features of verbal and thinking activities of children of primary school age (monolinguals who speak Russian; bilinguals who speak two languages from early childhood as a result of language communication in a bilingual environment, that is, a second language begins to be introduced up to 4-7 years old; and bilinguals who have started learning a second language after 8 years). The study confirms that bilingual children are distinguished by cognitive abilities, such as the “flexibility” of thinking, intellectual quickness and non-standard approach to processing information of different levels. Monolinguals have a larger lexical reserve and productivity of speech activity. Multilingual early childhood education is not solely oriented towards learning, its main goal is the development of their communicative abilities, and cognitive processes.