Language attrition and ideology: Two groups of immigrants in Israel

Ben-Rafael, Miriam; Schmid, Monika S.

doi:10.1075/sibil.33.14ben

Cited by 32 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Among the previously suggested external factors that potentially impact on attrition are amount of use and contact with the language (De Bot, Gommans, & Rossing, 1991;Köpke, 1999;Soesman, 1997) and emotional and attitudinal factors (Ben- Rafael & Schmid, 2007;Schmid, 2002), in accordance with the predictions made by the ATH. However, more recent investigations (Dostert, 2009;Keijzer, 2007;Schmid, 2007;Schmid & Dusseldorp, 2010;Varga, 2012) consistently point out that L1 use does not explain fluency or lexical diversity in free speech and cultural/emotional preferences do not predict the language performance, either (Hulsen, 2000;Yağmur, 1997;Waas, 1996).…”

Section: Ath and L1 Attritionsupporting

confidence: 73%

L1 accessibility among Turkish-Dutch bilinguals

Yılmaz

Schmid²

2012

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This study investigates whether lexical knowledge in the first language (L1) of late Turkish-Dutch bilinguals becomes less accessible for the production of fluent speech and in controlled experimental tasks as a result of extended stay in the Netherlands. It is also considered to what degree extra-linguistic factors can account for this phenomenon. Data are collected from the first generation Turkish migrants (n = 52) and from a monolingual reference group in Turkey (n = 52) via a lexical naming task, a free speech task and a sociolinguistic background questionnaire. The results show that the bilingual group is indistinguishable from the monolinguals on the experimental task. However, in the free speech task, they not only are significantly more disfluent than the monolinguals but also make significantly less use of diverse, in particular low-frequency, vocabulary. Overall, the results signal that bilinguals were outperformed by the monolinguals in spontaneous language production but not on a controlled task. We interpret this finding to indicate a decrease of automaticity in the access to linguistic knowledge which impedes the rapid integration of information from all linguistic levels. Further analyses with respect to the relations between the L1 change and nonlinguistic factors are discussed within the Activation Threshold Hypothesis (ATH).

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Section: Ath and L1 Attritionsupporting

confidence: 73%

L1 accessibility among Turkish-Dutch bilinguals

Yılmaz

Schmid²

2012

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“…Like SLA, FLA is mediated by a number of external factors, such as exposure and use (e.g. Hulsen 2000;Schmid 2007), attitude and motivation (Ben-Rafael and Schmid 2007;Schmid 2002) or aptitude (Bylund 2008). However, the overall impact of these factors on ultimate proficiency or fossilization appears to be far less strongly pronounced than what has been found in SLA (Schmid and Dusseldorp, forthc.).…”

Section: First Language Attrition As a Testing Ground For Cp Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

On L1 attrition and the linguistic system

Schmid¹

2009

EUROSLA

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One of the most puzzling observations for linguists is the difference between learning a language from birth and later in life: while all normally developing children can attain full native language proficiency, there is considerable variability in ultimate attainment among older speakers who attempt to acquire a second language (L2). There is an ongoing controversy in linguistic research on whether this discrepancy is due to a maturationally constrained window of linguistic development making language learning difficult or impossible after puberty, or to general cognitive factors linked to the fact that the later an L2 is established, the stronger the competition it has to overcome from the more deeply entrenched first language (L1). Studies attempting to resolve this controversy have so far focussed exclusively on the development of L2 skills. New insights may be provided by investigating the first language skills of migrants who have become dominant in the L2 (referred to as L1 attriters). Such speakers learned their L1 as monolinguals during childhood, and were therefore not impeded by maturational constraints in the acquisitional process. Having lived in an L2 environment for a long period of time, however, their seldom-used L1 shows signs of the influence of their highly active L2. A systematic comparison of L1 attriters and L2 learners may therefore be able to shed some light on the question of whether there is a qualitative or merely a quantitative difference between L1 acquisition in childhood and L2 acquisition later in life: If being a native speaker is maturationally constrained, even attrited L1 systems should remain native-like. But if the persistent problems of L2 learners are due to issues such as lack of practice and exposure, and competition between their two language systems, bilinguals who use their second language dominantly should become more similar to L2 speakers in their L1.

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“…A rich body of literature has found language attitudes to be key predictors and outcomes of successful second language learning (15,16) as well as a factor in explaining first language attrition among adults (17,18). Most of these studies focused on measuring attitudes towards particular languages and language speakers, such as French and English in Canada (19,20), and…”

Section: Measuring Language Attitudes In the Us Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Perceptions of Bilingualism Scales

Luk¹,

Surrain²

2019

Preprint

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An increasing number of children in the U.S. and around the world are exposed to multiple languages, yet there is considerable variation in individual bilingual outcomes. Previous research has shown that factors such as input, usage, and language history can help explain this variation, but less is known about the role of attitudes towards bilingualism, and no instrument currently exists for measuring such attitudes. Guided by previous theories on language perceptions, we describe two new scales developed to measure general perceptions of the value of bilingualism (study 1: Perceptions of Bilingualism, PoB) and parental perceptions of the value of bilingualism for one’s child (study 2: Perceptions of Bilingualism for child, PoB+) in the United States. We use factor analysis and Item Response Theory (IRT) to test the reliability, dimensionality, and individual item contributions of each scale using a national online sample of 422 adults (study 1) and a subsample of 321 parents (study 2). The final 10 and 8-item scales demonstrate internal reliability, unidimensionality, and precision of the intended construct to be measured. We report associations between scale scores and demographic characteristics and discuss how an IRT approach can complement classical approaches to attitude scale development. The PoB and PoB+ are useful tools to explore the association between social perceptions of bilingualism and language use for oneself and for one’s child.

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Language attrition and ideology: Two groups of immigrants in Israel

Cited by 32 publications

References 12 publications

L1 accessibility among Turkish-Dutch bilinguals

L1 accessibility among Turkish-Dutch bilinguals

On L1 attrition and the linguistic system

The Perceptions of Bilingualism Scales

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