The young learner’s lexicon is a predictor for its future success in school, and the organization of the lexicon needs to be well developed in order to give the learner efficient access to the words’ use and meaning. The purpose of the study is to investigate the word association pattern among 31 students in the second and the fifth grade in a multicultural Swedish school, and to try to explain these patterns in relation to variables such as age, gender, time spent in Sweden, linguistic background and the teachers’ assessment of the students’ abilities. The word association patterns were examined using a shortened version of the Kent and Rosanoff word association test. The results showed clear resemblances of word association patterns on a group level when compared to age, linguistic background and teachers’ assessment. However, there were big differences on an individual level. / <p>Svenska som andraspråk</p>