Urdu-English Vocabulary Development Assessment in Bilingual Young Children: Focusing on Domain-Specific Vocabulary Growth and Conceptual Scoring

Abstract

This study examined vocabulary acquisition in Urdu-English bilingual toddlers across five domain-specific topic areas: animals, vehicles, kitchenware, food, and body parts, over six months. The final analytic sample comprised 110 children from Urdu-dominant households in North Nazimabad, Karachi, assessed at two time points using structured picture-card vocabulary tasks. Vocabulary knowledge was scored in three ways: Urdu-only, English-only, and conceptual scoring, which credited knowledge of a concept in either language.

Results showed measurable vocabulary growth across domains from T1 to T2, with receptive knowledge consistently exceeding expressive production. Conceptual scoring produced the most complete estimate of bilingual lexical knowledge, whereas English-only scoring underestimated children’s vocabulary and increased the risk of classifying children as having low vocabulary when they knew the relevant concepts in Urdu. Baseline-adjusted models further indicated that domain-matched caregiver input, child interest, interactive English exposure, and SES were associated with vocabulary development in theoretically meaningful ways.

Overall, the findings support the use of bilingual and conceptual scoring in early vocabulary assessment and show why domain-specific interactional experience must be considered when interpreting lexical development in multilingual Pakistani contexts.