Language attrition: mechanisms of occurrence, features of study and prospects for further research

Abstract

This theoretical review clarifies the concept of "language attrition " by defining the phenomenological and contextual features of its utilization, discussing the definition of contradictions, and suggesting potential directions for future research. Taking into account existing data, we regard the existing approaches to language attrition and analyze the mechanisms underlying the phenomenon. This analysis seems to be the first step in building up an integral theoretical model summarizing the available empirical data. It helps to apply a neurobiological approach, allowing to identify neural markers of language attrition at different levels of language processing and within different language categories. To this end, we propose specific experimental approaches to recording neural traces of attrition and formulate working hypotheses based on proposed experimental paradigms.

Problems of teaching foreign students in mixed groups

“…This weakening, according to the researcher, "proceeds most intensively at the beginning, and then goes into decline" [21], however, it may represent "a tangible symptom of disconnection and rupture with the natural language environment" [7]. The processes of destruction of the native or well-mastered language system are observed quite often in people who have been living in bilingualism or multilingualism for a long time [22,23]. If to talk about the beginning of bilingual education in Russia, it is necessary to declare that individual cases of language attrition in the native language of students begin manifesting themselves by the end of the first term.…”