Lexical Development in Bilingual Adolescents: A Study of Chinese–English Word Association Networks

This study examined the development of bilingual lexical networks in adolescence through word association task and network analysis. Participants were Chinese-English bilinguals in Grade 8 (middle school; aged 13-14 years) and Grade 11 (high school; aged 16-17 years). Networks were constructed based on word association responses separately for each grade and language, and structural properties of networks were computed. Results showed that from Grade 8 to Grade 11, the Chinese networks displayed increased within-group convergence while maintaining overall structural stability and small-world features. In contrast, the English networks expanded in size, with longer average shortest paths, higher local clustering, and greater modularity (Q), reflecting rapid growth and restructuring, while also exhibiting small-world features. Across grades, L1 networks remained larger and more structured than L2 networks, though the gap decreased over time, indicating increasing cross-language similarity. These findings provide new insights into bilingual lexical development during the adolescent years.