Abstract

Bilingualism cannot be understood as a simple additive system in which two languages function independently; rather, it is a dynamic interaction where both languages remain active and continuously influence each other. The present study examined lexical retrieval in Hindi–English bilingual children aged 8 to 12 years, a group that has received relatively limited attention even though bilingual exposure is common in urban India. A total of 60 typically developing children, divided equally into two age groups: 8–10 years and 10–12 years participated in the study. Each participant completed a picture-naming task in four conditions: Blocked English (BE), Blocked Hindi (BH), Mixed English–Hindi (MEH), and Mixed Hindi–English (MHE). To account for the participants' distinct developmental levels, grade-stratified stimulus sets were used, and performance variations were analysed using a Two-Factor Mixed ANOVA framework. Performance in the Blocked English condition did not differ across the two age groups (p = .939), suggesting that single-language English retrieval mechanisms optimise early and successfully scale alongside advancing, age-appropriate vocabulary demands. In contrast, the Hindi and mixed-language conditions revealed significant age-related differences (p < .001), as older children demonstrated greater accuracy on their age-adjusted item sets. The most pronounced developmental gain emerged in the Mixed English–Hindi condition, indicating the specific cognitive load that sequential language switching places on developing dual-language control systems. Overall, these findings indicate that bilingual children’s vocabulary performance reflects changing patterns of dual-language control across different task contexts, rather than a consistent, linear developmental trajectory. By focusing on an underrepresented population, the study contributes to the current understanding of bilingual lexical processing and offers preliminary observations for culturally relevant clinical and educational contexts.

Keywords

Bilingualism, Lexical Retrieval, Language Switching, Blocked Naming, Mixed Naming,

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