Foreign language attrition

Abstract

The present contribution discusses recent developments and future directions in the attrition of instructed foreign languages, arguing for a distinction between this type of attrition and attrition involving second languages acquired implicitly in an immersion setting. An overview of the history of research in the field and the most prominent findings is provided, followed by a discussion of theoretical models and methodologically problematic issues. We conclude by outlining some future directions for the field. IntroductionIt is usually taken for granted that a foreign language will be forgotten once it is no longer used or studied, regardless of whether it is a school/university acquired language or a language learned abroad. Empirical findings, however, have so far failed to validate this assumption of the inevitability of language attrition. Some studies suggest individual variation in the susceptibility to foreign language attrition, although it is not yet clear what factors cause or contribute to linguistic resilience.While interest in the phenomenon of language attrition can be traced back to as far as the 16 th century (See Berko-Gleason, 1982), it was not until the 1980s that the decrease of linguistic skills in healthy individuals over time began attracting the attention of modern linguistics. In the early years, different terms were used to refer to the same phenomenon, amongst which language attrition, language loss and language regression. However, with the development of the field it became evident that this variation caused confusion. Consequently, language loss was suggested as a cover/general term for any type of decline in linguistic skills, both at individual or group level, encompassing both language shift, an intergenerational and societal phenomenon usually associated with diglossia situations, and language attrition, an intragenerational and individual phenomenon (de Bot & Weltens, 1995:151; de Bot, 1996:579; Hansen, 2001:61). With some minor exceptions, language regression is now mainly used to denote decay in the linguistic ability of previously normally developing infants, a symptom usually associated with medical conditions such as autism or degenerative disorders of the brain (Hyltenstam & Viberg, 1994) Within the field of language attrition, a further distinction is made between L1 attrition or the attrition of a native language associated with immigrants, as in the studies of de Bot and Clyne (1994), Gürel (2004), Hulsen (2000, Dostert (2007), Opitz (2004), Seliger and Vago (1991), Schmid (2002), Schmid, Köpke, Keijzer and Weilemar (2004), Yağmur, de Bot and Kurzillus (1999), and L2/foreign language (FL) attrition, the attrition of languages acquired later in life.Traditionally, no distinction is made between L2 and FL attrition, but we shall argue that there are substantial differences between languages that are learned by instruction through explicit processes, where the learner focusses on the input, on rules etc., and naturalistically acquired L2s (for the ...

Языковая Аттриция При Изучении Иностранного Языка

“…-как только индивид достиг достаточно высокого языкового уровня, он становится мало-восприимчивым к аттриции; -повторение не является достаточным фактором для того, чтобы преодолеть процесс по-тери языка [6].…”

I Thought I Forgot about it: A Case Study in Attrition of English Grammar and Reading Comprehension

“…Although it was mainly concerned with methodological issues at first, the FL attrition field today contributes to knowledge about research design, the state of the art in current research, intra-and extralinguistic factors, the selection of variables, etc. (Bardovi-Harlig & Stringer, 2010;Schmid & Mehotcheva, 2012).…”

“…There seems to be a growing recognition of the relevance of language attrition to second language acquisition (SLA) (Schmid & Mehotcheva, 2012), with language attrition viewed as the reverse process of language acquisition. It is generally taken for granted that attrition implies the permanent loss of foreign language (FL) input from the learner's repertoire as well as a reduction in the learner's receptive and productive competence.…”

“…Far fewer studies have been concerned with documenting FL attrition of structural sequences of grammar. Although studies of FL attrition whose focus has been predominantly on native language attrition have decreased in number recently, Schmid and Mehotcheva (2012) discuss recent developments and future road maps in research concerning attrition affecting a formally taught FL, and remark on the dearth of linguistics and language related variables in FL contexts, saying that "Empirical studies exploring L2/FL attrition remain limited, as does the knowledge and understanding of the phenomenon" (Schmid & Mehotcheva, 2012, p. 3).…”

Language attrition – implications for second/forei gn language acquisition

“…Mehotcheva (2010) found no correlation between length of exposure and language retention in a group of foreign language students of Spanish (M.S. Schmid/ T.H. Mehotcheva 2012).…”