How bilinguals produce a sentence in a second language: the dynamic competition-control model

Despite the prevalence of lexical production models, how bilinguals produce a sentence in context remains underexplored and unclear. To this end, this paper outlines a new model for second language (L2) sentence production by bilinguals by drawing on recent theoretical and empirical advances. Termed as the dynamic competition-control model, it explains how L2 is developmentally represented and accessed, how candidates from first language (L1) and L2 conceptual representations, lexical knowledge, and grammatical knowledge are activated and compete for selection, and how non-target competitors are inhibited in conceptualization, formulation, and articulation at three L2 developmental stages: the L1-mediation phase where L2 is largely accessed and retrieved via L1 translation, the dual-route phase where L2 is accessed and retrieved directly and via L1-mediation, and the autonomy phase where L2 is accessed and retrieved directly. ​