Second language attrition
Encyclopedia
Second-language attrition occurs whenever the learner uses the second language
to an “insufficient degree (De Bot & Weltens 1991:43) or due to environmental changes the language use is limited and another language
is becoming the dominant one (Olshtain 1989: 151).
shares the experience of forgetting the acquired language skills once the period of formal instruction is over” (Schöpper-Grabe 1998: 231) Second Language Attrition can be defined as the “non-pathological decrease in a language that had previously been acquired by an individual” (Köpke & Schmid 2004: 5) and described as the “[…] loss of skills in the individual over time (de Bot & Weltens, 1995).
has developed. It is connected cross-sectional throughout different research areas. Language attrition
in general is concerned with what is lost (linguistic focus), how it is lost (psycholinguistic
and neurolinguistic
focus) and why it is lost (sociolinguistic
, sociologistic
and anthropologistic
focus) (Hansen 1999). Since over 25 years research has concentrated on Second Language Attrition. First studies, dealing with the topic of language loss or language attrition, were published in the late 70's (de Bot & Weltens 1989: 127). In 1980, as the University of Pennsylvania
hosted the conference “The Loss of Language Skills”, finally it was recognized as a field in the research of Second Language Acquisition. Since then various research paper
s – mainly within America – have been published. Later several studies in Europe
– especially the Netherlands
– followed. In other countries, however, language attrition research was paid hardly any attention (de Bot & Weltens 1995). Compared to the field of Second Language Acquisition, Language attrition is quite young and therefore so much is still unknown. Because there exists yet so much uncertainty about acquisition of second languages in general, the question raises why it is necessary to engage with their loss.
planning or foreign language teaching”. The theoretical grounding of the language attrition research derives primarily from cognitive and psychological
theories. Research in the area of language attrition concentrates generally on the loss of the L1 and L2. The first distinction that can be made is between pathological and natural language attrition. The former concentrates on language loss caused by a damage of the brain
, injury
, age
or illness
. However, this topic will not be investigated any further, because the language attrition in these cases is not caused by natural circumstances. Weltens (1987: 24) states another possible distinction, inter and intra generational language attrition. Inter generational language attrition is concerned with attrition within individuals, whereas intra generational language attrition concentrates on the attrition across different generations. Van Els (1986) distinguishes types of attrition in terms of which language is lost and in which environment it is being lost. Therefore he classifies:
. Since its establishment by Ebbinghaus in the late 19th century the empirical research
about learning still plays an important role in the modern research of memory.
contributed a lot to the research of the memory. He made the first empirical study concerning the function of the memory as to the storage and forgetting
of information. His major finding was that the amount of learned knowledge depends on the amount of time investigated. Further, the more time is passing by, the more repetitions are necessary. Resulting, from the findings of Ebbinghaus, the first theory of forgetting was established, the decay theory
. It says that if something new is learned a “memory trace” is formed. This trace is going to be decayed, if it is not used in the course of time, and by decaying of this trace forgetting takes place (Weltens 1987).
can be seen as one of the most important theories of forgetting. It indicates that prior, posterior or new learning information compete with already existing ones and therefore forgetting occurs. This inhibition
can be divided into two kinds: the retroactive inhibition, where information acquired at a later point in time block the information that was acquired earlier. Proactive inhibition, means that information acquired in the past can infer with new information. Hence, a blocking can occur which inhibits the acquiring of the new target item. (Ecke 2004: 325).
in 1880, later on Freud
took Ribot's idea up again and brought it in connection with aphasia
. (Weltens & Schmid 2004: 211). In 1940 Roman Jakobson
embedded it into a linguistic framework and claimed that language attrition is the mirror image of language acquisition (Weltens & Cohen 1989: 130). Even though only a few studies have tested this hypothesis
it is quite attractive to many researchers. Because as Weltens and Schmid (2004: 212) state, children acquire the language in stages and therefore it was suggested that language competence in general appears in different layers and therefore attrition, as the mirror image of acquisition will also happen from the top layer to the bottom.
, as the second language, among school children during the summer vacation
. Cohen result’s supported the regression hypothesis and his last-learned-first-forgotten thesis, that some things, which are learned the last are the first to be forgotten, when the learner has no input of the target language anymore.
and aphasia research and the survey of pidgin
and creole
languages (Müller 1995). By means of this hypothesis research it tries to detect the aspects of language that are first to be forgotten.
The time from time 1 to time 2 he describes as the Acquisition Period and between time line 2 and 3 as the Incubation Period (1982: 520). Further he states, that it is not enough to consider only the time that has passed between 2 and 3 to make statements about the attrition, rather the duration, relative success and nature of the acquisition period and the duration and content of the incubation phase has to be looked at as well (Gardner 1982: 520). The Acquisition Period is the time where language learning or language experience takes place, mainly from the first to the last lesson. During the Incubation Period no language training or language usage takes place and the forgetting may begin. He says that now, that language learning is not active anymore, a study about language attrition can be conducted (Gardner 1982a: 2).
orientates on the typical forgetting curve by Ebbinghaus. He said, that already after a very short amount of time a forgetting process sets in immediately, stabilises and then levels off. Bahrick conducted a study, where he tested 773 persons with Spanish as their L2. His probates had varying acquisition and incubation periods, up to 50 years of non-active learning. He discovered a heavy attrition within the first 5 years, then stabilised for the next 20 years (Weltens & Cohen 1989: 130). According to Bahrick the knowledge that remained after 5 years is stored in the permastore. Neisser (1984) uses a different term, he prefers critical threshold, a level, which has to be reached, and beyond that threshold knowledge will resist decay. This theory has been approved in the literature a lot, because the process of language attrition is slower, if a certain level of competence in the L2 is achieved (Feuerhake 2004: 5). Contrary to these finding Weltens & Cohen (1989: 130) are reporting from studies, where different results were found. According to these findings the forgetting curve begins with an initial plateau, a period where the language competence is not affected at all. This follows then with the onset of attrition. Weltens explains these results, by the high proficiency of the probates (bilinguals and immersion
students). However, unknown remains if the curve that follows this plateau might be exactly like the “normal” forgetting curve of language learners with a lower proficiency level (Weltens & Cohen 1989: 130).
and listening comprehension. He says that it happens because a process of maturation in general happens. Schöpper-Grabe determines that contact and the intensity with the target language cannot be the only variable causing language attrition.
of the learner as essential for the following attrition. It is said, that the higher the level of competence the less attrition will take place. Thus, a reference to the theory of the critical threshold can be drawn. Similar to this theory it is claimed, that according to conducted studies, the higher the level of competence of the learner at the end of the incubation period, the fewer will be lost. Therefore duration, success and intensity of the language instruction or language input in general is vitally important. Weltens (1989) divides factors influencing language attrition into two categories, the first one are psychological factors, which are dependent upon the individual learner and divided into biological and cognitive aspects. The second category are sociopsychological factors, as the attitude towards the target language and culture and aligned with the motivation for acquiring the language. Further, factors, which are settled in the language environment, should be considered as well, e.g. the status and prestige of the language are meaningful, too. Another frequent occurring factor is age. A variable that seems to be quite important, especially observing language attrition in children. Even though children are regarded as the better foreign language learner, their cognitive development
is less progressed compared to adults. Further, usually they haven’t learned to write or read in any language, and usually particularly not in the second language at all. Therefore their literacy
skill in the L2 is very limited if not even there yet. Cohen (1989) conducted a study observing young children. He found out, that the attrition in an 8-year old boy was stronger than the one in his 12-year old sister. Tomiyama, suggested on the basis of his findings, that these children might not lose their knowledge of the L2 completely, moreover the access to such information is inaccessible and may vanish with time passing by (Feuerhake 2004). At the beginning of the 80's another, so far unnoticed factor, was introduced into the research field. Socioaffective factors as attitude, orientation and motivation are now accounted. On account of that, he established a socio-educational model of language acquisition. Thereby motivation and attitude influence the workload of the individual to keep their language competence. Further, individuals, who have positive attitudes towards the target language, seek possibilities and opportunities during the incubation period to retain their language competence (Gardner 1987: 521). However, the factor motivation is hardly considered examining language attrition. Especially during the last 10–15 years it became more and more acknowledged in the field of language acquisition rather than attrition. Only Gardner considered motivation as a possible factor influencing attrition. Even until today it is hardly recognised as an influencing factor and therefore exist only a few studies about motivation
and its effects.
and lexical knowledge are more likely to suffer a high attrition process. Showing loss in speaking competence, the first evidence is that the speech tempo decreases. Longer and more frequently occurring speech pauses, under which the fluency
is suffering, are observable as well (Gardner 1987). Olshtain (1986) observed […] reduced accessibility in vocabulary
retrieval in all situations of attrition where there is a reduction of language loss over longer periods of time.” (1986: 163). Further, gaps concerning grammatical knowledge, especially tenses and conjunction of verbs occur quite frequently. Nevertheless, it can be said that productive skills are more affected than receptive ones, which mainly remain constantly stable (Cohen 1989) and if the learner shows already signs of language attrition it is more likely that transfer from L1 will happen (Berman & Olshtain 1983). Cohen examined in his studies several strategies, the learner applies to compensate the lack of adequate speaking skills, e.g. one strategy is code-switching, to uphold the communication. Another phenomenon observable is a kind of “mixed-language”. Müller (1995) states that on many levels of speaking the learner falls back on a mixture between different languages. Still, it is important to mention, that, as with almost every study that has been conducted in the different sub-fields of Second Language Acquisition research, several problems arise. There are longitudinal vs. cross-sectional studies, different variables, which have been used, and mainly terms and conditions of acquisition and incubation period are not standardised, particularly the length of the incubation period (Feuerhake 2004: 8). That means, some studies only observe language attrition after language programs, other look at the attrition in between breaks of language programs and studies, which examine the attrition after change of environment, regarding language and living conditions (Cohen 1975, Olshtain 1989). Finally, studies reviewed in this paper show that attrition follows a certain order, e.g. productive skills are more affected than receptive skills. Mainly due to difficulties in lexical retrieval a loss in fluency seems to be the first signs of language attrition, followed by attrition in morphology
and syntax
. Further observations in language attrition are necessary, to give a better understanding of how the human mind deals with language (Hansen 1999: 78).
terms. Thereby, the language becomes an instrument to achieve the higher purpose and the foreign language learning is concentrated on fulfilling the aim of the learner (Feuerhake 2004: 9).The integrative orientation follows the aim of acculturating
with the target language and country as well as the integration into the target language community.
Bahar (2005: 66) quotes Pintrich & Schunk (1996), who state that “[…] motivation involves various mental processes that lead to the initiation and maintenance of action […]”. Hence, motivation is a dynamic process that changes over time and the motivation of a learner as well might change during the learning process. Therefore, it cannot be seen as an isolated factor. Moreover, several other factors, which are settled within the learner, as well as in the environment, influence motivation and are responsible for its intensity and variability.
Second language
A second language or L2 is any language learned after the first language or mother tongue. Some languages, often called auxiliary languages, are used primarily as second languages or lingua francas ....
to an “insufficient degree (De Bot & Weltens 1991:43) or due to environmental changes the language use is limited and another language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
is becoming the dominant one (Olshtain 1989: 151).
Definition
“Almost everybody who has learned a foreign languageForeign language
A foreign language is a language indigenous to another country. It is also a language not spoken in the native country of the person referred to, i.e. an English speaker living in Japan can say that Japanese is a foreign language to him or her...
shares the experience of forgetting the acquired language skills once the period of formal instruction is over” (Schöpper-Grabe 1998: 231) Second Language Attrition can be defined as the “non-pathological decrease in a language that had previously been acquired by an individual” (Köpke & Schmid 2004: 5) and described as the “[…] loss of skills in the individual over time (de Bot & Weltens, 1995).
History
Beginning in the 70's until today a new and especially young field in the area of Second Language AcquisitionSecond language acquisition
Second-language acquisition or second-language learning is the process by which people learn a second language. Second-language acquisition is also the name of the scientific discipline devoted to studying that process...
has developed. It is connected cross-sectional throughout different research areas. Language attrition
Language attrition
Language attrition is the loss of a first or second language or a portion of that language by individuals. Speakers who routinely use more than one language may not use either of their languages in ways which are exactly like that of a monolingual speaker...
in general is concerned with what is lost (linguistic focus), how it is lost (psycholinguistic
Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language. Initial forays into psycholinguistics were largely philosophical ventures, due mainly to a lack of cohesive data on how the...
and neurolinguistic
Neurolinguistics
Neurolinguistics is the study of the neural mechanisms in the human brain that control the comprehension, production, and acquisition of language. As an interdisciplinary field, neurolinguistics draws methodology and theory from fields such as neuroscience, linguistics, cognitive science,...
focus) and why it is lost (sociolinguistic
Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society...
, sociologistic
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
and anthropologistic
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
focus) (Hansen 1999). Since over 25 years research has concentrated on Second Language Attrition. First studies, dealing with the topic of language loss or language attrition, were published in the late 70's (de Bot & Weltens 1989: 127). In 1980, as the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
hosted the conference “The Loss of Language Skills”, finally it was recognized as a field in the research of Second Language Acquisition. Since then various research paper
Research paper
Research paper may refer to:* Academic paper , which is published in academic journals and contains original research results or reviews existing results* Term paper, written by high school or college students...
s – mainly within America – have been published. Later several studies in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
– especially the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
– followed. In other countries, however, language attrition research was paid hardly any attention (de Bot & Weltens 1995). Compared to the field of Second Language Acquisition, Language attrition is quite young and therefore so much is still unknown. Because there exists yet so much uncertainty about acquisition of second languages in general, the question raises why it is necessary to engage with their loss.
Purpose and Development
The purpose of Language Attrition in general is to discover how, why and what is lost. The aim in foreign or second language attrition research is to find out why after an active learning process the language competence changes or even stops (Gleason 1982). Further, results from research in this area could, as Van Els and Weltens (1989) counter, contribute inter alia for the understanding of relations between acquisition and attrition (van Els 1989). L2/FL attrition research is mainly important because it provides interesting results for foreign language instruction. De Bot and Weltens (1995: 152) state, that “[r]esearch on language attrition can also have a considerable impact on curriculumCurriculum
See also Syllabus.In formal education, a curriculum is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults...
planning or foreign language teaching”. The theoretical grounding of the language attrition research derives primarily from cognitive and psychological
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
theories. Research in the area of language attrition concentrates generally on the loss of the L1 and L2. The first distinction that can be made is between pathological and natural language attrition. The former concentrates on language loss caused by a damage of the brain
Brain damage
"Brain damage" or "brain injury" is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain injuries occur due to a wide range of internal and external factors...
, injury
Injury
-By cause:*Traumatic injury, a body wound or shock produced by sudden physical injury, as from violence or accident*Other injuries from external physical causes, such as radiation injury, burn injury or frostbite*Injury from infection...
, age
Age
Age may refer to:* Age , an aspect of mathematical model theory* Age , an international peer-reviewed journal operated by Springer.* The Age, a daily newspaper published in Melbourne, Australia* Agé, a god* Åge, a given name...
or illness
Illness
Illness is a state of poor health. Illness is sometimes considered another word for disease. Others maintain that fine distinctions exist...
. However, this topic will not be investigated any further, because the language attrition in these cases is not caused by natural circumstances. Weltens (1987: 24) states another possible distinction, inter and intra generational language attrition. Inter generational language attrition is concerned with attrition within individuals, whereas intra generational language attrition concentrates on the attrition across different generations. Van Els (1986) distinguishes types of attrition in terms of which language is lost and in which environment it is being lost. Therefore he classifies:
- loss of L1 in L1 environment, e.g. dialect loss
- loss of L1 in L2 environment, e.g. immigrants losing their mother tongue
- loss of L2/FL in L1 environment, e.g. loss of foreign languages learned at school
- loss of L2/FL in L2 environment, e.g. aging migrants losing their L2.
Theories of forgetting
To provide an answer how second language attrition happens, it is necessary to have a glance at the findings of the research of memoryMemory
In psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and recall information and experiences. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing memory....
. Since its establishment by Ebbinghaus in the late 19th century the empirical research
Empirical research
Empirical research is a way of gaining knowledge by means of direct and indirect observation or experience. Empirical evidence can be analyzed quantitatively or qualitatively...
about learning still plays an important role in the modern research of memory.
Decay-Theory
Hermann EbbinghausHermann Ebbinghaus
Hermann Ebbinghaus was a German psychologist who pioneered the experimental study of memory, and is known for his discovery of the forgetting curve and the spacing effect. He was also the first person to describe the learning curve...
contributed a lot to the research of the memory. He made the first empirical study concerning the function of the memory as to the storage and forgetting
Forgetting
Forgetting refers to apparent loss of information already encoded and stored in an individual's long term memory. It is a spontaneous or gradual process in which old memories are unable to be recalled from memory storage. It is subject to delicately balanced optimization that ensures that...
of information. His major finding was that the amount of learned knowledge depends on the amount of time investigated. Further, the more time is passing by, the more repetitions are necessary. Resulting, from the findings of Ebbinghaus, the first theory of forgetting was established, the decay theory
Decay theory
Decay theory proposes that memory fades due to the mere passage of time. Information is therefore less available for later retrieval as time passes and memory, as well as memory strength, wears away. When we learn something new, a neurochemical “memory trace” is created. However, over time this...
. It says that if something new is learned a “memory trace” is formed. This trace is going to be decayed, if it is not used in the course of time, and by decaying of this trace forgetting takes place (Weltens 1987).
Interference theory
The Interference theoryInterference theory
-History:Bergström, a German psychologist, is credited as conducting the first study regarding interference in 1892. His experiment was similar to the Stroop task and required subjects to sort two decks of card with words into two piles. When the location was changed for the second pile, sorting...
can be seen as one of the most important theories of forgetting. It indicates that prior, posterior or new learning information compete with already existing ones and therefore forgetting occurs. This inhibition
Memory inhibition
In psychology, memory inhibition is the ability not to remember irrelevant information. Memory inhibition is a critical component of an effective memory system. For example, imagine if, when a person tried to remember where he had parked his car, every place he had ever parked his car came to mind;...
can be divided into two kinds: the retroactive inhibition, where information acquired at a later point in time block the information that was acquired earlier. Proactive inhibition, means that information acquired in the past can infer with new information. Hence, a blocking can occur which inhibits the acquiring of the new target item. (Ecke 2004: 325).
Retrieval-failure hypothesis
Today, it is another most approved theory concerning the function of the memory (Schöpper-Grabe 1998:237). It says that the storage of information happens on different levels. Therefore, information or memory is not deleted, rather the access to the current level is blocked and hence, the information is not available. Hansen (1999: 10) quotes Loftus & Loftus (1976) in order to describe forgetting: “[…] much like being unable to find something that we have misplaced somewhere.” Cohen 1986 states, evidence for knowing that a learner is not able to “find” something, is the use of the so-called progressive retrieval. Thereby the learner is unable to express something that is in his mind and therefore uses an incorrect form and eventually remembers the correct one (Cohen 1986; Olshtain 1989). Time is considered as the decisive factor to measure how far the attrition has proceeded already (de Bot & Weltens, 1995).Hypotheses of language attrition
It is necessary for a complete understanding of language attrition to have a look at the various hypotheses which try to explain how language changes over time.Regression hypothesis
The regression hypothesis can be named as the first established theory in language loss. Its tradition goes far back, further than any other theory. The first one, who designed it was RibotThéodule-Armand Ribot
Théodule-Armand Ribot , French psychologist, was born at Guingamp, and was educated at the Lycée de St Brieuc.In 1856 he began to teach, and was admitted to the École Normale Supérieure in 1862...
in 1880, later on Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
took Ribot's idea up again and brought it in connection with aphasia
Aphasia
Aphasia is an impairment of language ability. This class of language disorder ranges from having difficulty remembering words to being completely unable to speak, read, or write....
. (Weltens & Schmid 2004: 211). In 1940 Roman Jakobson
Roman Jakobson
Roman Osipovich Jakobson was a Russian linguist and literary theorist.As a pioneer of the structural analysis of language, which became the dominant trend of twentieth-century linguistics, Jakobson was among the most influential linguists of the century...
embedded it into a linguistic framework and claimed that language attrition is the mirror image of language acquisition (Weltens & Cohen 1989: 130). Even though only a few studies have tested this hypothesis
Hypothesis
A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. The term derives from the Greek, ὑποτιθέναι – hypotithenai meaning "to put under" or "to suppose". For a hypothesis to be put forward as a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it...
it is quite attractive to many researchers. Because as Weltens and Schmid (2004: 212) state, children acquire the language in stages and therefore it was suggested that language competence in general appears in different layers and therefore attrition, as the mirror image of acquisition will also happen from the top layer to the bottom.
Last-learned-first-forgotten hypothesis
According to the regression hypothesis two similar approaches developed. Cohen (1975) started to conduct several studies on his own to determine “whether the last things learned are, in fact, the first things to be forgotten, and whether forgetting entails unlearning in reverse order from the original learning process.” (Cohen 1975: 128). He observed the attrition of SpanishSpanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, as the second language, among school children during the summer vacation
Summer vacation
Summer vacation is a vacation in the summertime between school years in which students and instructors are off school typically between 6 and 12 weeks, depending on the country and district.-Students:In some countries, students participate in programs such as organized sports, summer camps, and...
. Cohen result’s supported the regression hypothesis and his last-learned-first-forgotten thesis, that some things, which are learned the last are the first to be forgotten, when the learner has no input of the target language anymore.
Best-learned-last-forgotten hypothesis
Another variation of the regression hypothesis is the best learned-last-forgotten hypothesis, which emphasises the intensity and quality of the acquired knowledge not the order. Therefore, the better something is learned, the longer it will remain, because the language component that is repeated again and again is automated and thus with a high probability sustain in the memory (Schöpper-Grabe 1998: 241).Linguistic-feature hypothesis
It was introduced in the field by Andersen (Andersen 1982). He claims that second languages or foreign languages which share more differences with the respective mother tongue than similarities are more endangered to be forgotten than those similar to the L1. Another point is the attrition of components, which are less “functional”, “marked” or “frequent” compared to other elements (Weltens & Cohen 1989: 130). This hypothesis is more differentiated and complex as the regression hypothesis, because it considers aspects from first and second language acquisition research, language contactLanguage contact
Language contact occurs when two or more languages or varieties interact. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics.Multilingualism has likely been common throughout much of human history, and today most people in the world are multilingual...
and aphasia research and the survey of pidgin
Pidgin
A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. It is most commonly employed in situations such as trade, or where both groups speak languages different from the language of the...
and creole
Creole language
A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable natural language developed from the mixing of parent languages; creoles differ from pidgins in that they have been nativized by children as their primary language, making them have features of natural languages that are normally missing from...
languages (Müller 1995). By means of this hypothesis research it tries to detect the aspects of language that are first to be forgotten.
Process of language attrition
Defining the process of language attrition it has to be considered that there exist several theories as well. Almost every researcher claims different stages how language attrition is happened.Acquisition and Incubation period
Gardner (1982: 519520) believes that the process of second language attrition is divided into three points in time:- second language learning begins (time 1)
- language instruction terminates (time 2)
- assessment of language competence (time 3)
The time from time 1 to time 2 he describes as the Acquisition Period and between time line 2 and 3 as the Incubation Period (1982: 520). Further he states, that it is not enough to consider only the time that has passed between 2 and 3 to make statements about the attrition, rather the duration, relative success and nature of the acquisition period and the duration and content of the incubation phase has to be looked at as well (Gardner 1982: 520). The Acquisition Period is the time where language learning or language experience takes place, mainly from the first to the last lesson. During the Incubation Period no language training or language usage takes place and the forgetting may begin. He says that now, that language learning is not active anymore, a study about language attrition can be conducted (Gardner 1982a: 2).
The typical forgetting curve
The forgetting curveForgetting curve
The forgetting curve hypothesizes the decline of memory retention in time. A related concept is the strength of memory that refers to the durability that memory traces in the brain. The stronger the memory, the longer period of time that a person is able to recall it...
orientates on the typical forgetting curve by Ebbinghaus. He said, that already after a very short amount of time a forgetting process sets in immediately, stabilises and then levels off. Bahrick conducted a study, where he tested 773 persons with Spanish as their L2. His probates had varying acquisition and incubation periods, up to 50 years of non-active learning. He discovered a heavy attrition within the first 5 years, then stabilised for the next 20 years (Weltens & Cohen 1989: 130). According to Bahrick the knowledge that remained after 5 years is stored in the permastore. Neisser (1984) uses a different term, he prefers critical threshold, a level, which has to be reached, and beyond that threshold knowledge will resist decay. This theory has been approved in the literature a lot, because the process of language attrition is slower, if a certain level of competence in the L2 is achieved (Feuerhake 2004: 5). Contrary to these finding Weltens & Cohen (1989: 130) are reporting from studies, where different results were found. According to these findings the forgetting curve begins with an initial plateau, a period where the language competence is not affected at all. This follows then with the onset of attrition. Weltens explains these results, by the high proficiency of the probates (bilinguals and immersion
Language immersion
Language immersion is a method of teaching a second language in which the target language is used as the means of instruction. Unlike more traditional language courses, where the target language is simply the subject material, language immersion uses the target language as a teaching tool,...
students). However, unknown remains if the curve that follows this plateau might be exactly like the “normal” forgetting curve of language learners with a lower proficiency level (Weltens & Cohen 1989: 130).
Relearning
Another phenomenon is relearning. Some studies show that despite the end of learning and no language input a residual learning can happen. Weltens (1989), who studied foreign language learners, identifies an increase in readingReading comprehension
Reading comprehension is defined as the level of understanding of a text. This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text. ....
and listening comprehension. He says that it happens because a process of maturation in general happens. Schöpper-Grabe determines that contact and the intensity with the target language cannot be the only variable causing language attrition.
Factors influencing second language attrition
In the literature several factors are named for explaining why language competence is decreasing. Many researcher, however, regard the level of competenceLinguistic competence
Linguistic competence is the system of linguistic knowledge possessed by native speakers of a language, it is in contrast to the concept of Linguistic performance, the way the language system is used in communication...
of the learner as essential for the following attrition. It is said, that the higher the level of competence the less attrition will take place. Thus, a reference to the theory of the critical threshold can be drawn. Similar to this theory it is claimed, that according to conducted studies, the higher the level of competence of the learner at the end of the incubation period, the fewer will be lost. Therefore duration, success and intensity of the language instruction or language input in general is vitally important. Weltens (1989) divides factors influencing language attrition into two categories, the first one are psychological factors, which are dependent upon the individual learner and divided into biological and cognitive aspects. The second category are sociopsychological factors, as the attitude towards the target language and culture and aligned with the motivation for acquiring the language. Further, factors, which are settled in the language environment, should be considered as well, e.g. the status and prestige of the language are meaningful, too. Another frequent occurring factor is age. A variable that seems to be quite important, especially observing language attrition in children. Even though children are regarded as the better foreign language learner, their cognitive development
Cognitive development
Cognitive development is a field of study in neuroscience and psychology focusing on a child's development in terms of information processing, conceptual resources, perceptual skill, language learning, and other aspects of brain development and cognitive psychology compared to an adult's point of...
is less progressed compared to adults. Further, usually they haven’t learned to write or read in any language, and usually particularly not in the second language at all. Therefore their literacy
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
skill in the L2 is very limited if not even there yet. Cohen (1989) conducted a study observing young children. He found out, that the attrition in an 8-year old boy was stronger than the one in his 12-year old sister. Tomiyama, suggested on the basis of his findings, that these children might not lose their knowledge of the L2 completely, moreover the access to such information is inaccessible and may vanish with time passing by (Feuerhake 2004). At the beginning of the 80's another, so far unnoticed factor, was introduced into the research field. Socioaffective factors as attitude, orientation and motivation are now accounted. On account of that, he established a socio-educational model of language acquisition. Thereby motivation and attitude influence the workload of the individual to keep their language competence. Further, individuals, who have positive attitudes towards the target language, seek possibilities and opportunities during the incubation period to retain their language competence (Gardner 1987: 521). However, the factor motivation is hardly considered examining language attrition. Especially during the last 10–15 years it became more and more acknowledged in the field of language acquisition rather than attrition. Only Gardner considered motivation as a possible factor influencing attrition. Even until today it is hardly recognised as an influencing factor and therefore exist only a few studies about motivation
Motivation
Motivation is the driving force by which humans achieve their goals. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. The term is generally used for humans but it can also be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation...
and its effects.
Areas affected by language attrition
Feuerhake (2004: 7) reports that, looking at released studies, that have been conducted, it can be seen that all four competence areas2 are affected. Though some of these seem more likely to be affected than others, e.g. grammarGrammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
and lexical knowledge are more likely to suffer a high attrition process. Showing loss in speaking competence, the first evidence is that the speech tempo decreases. Longer and more frequently occurring speech pauses, under which the fluency
Fluency
Fluency is the property of a person or of a system that delivers information quickly and with expertise.-Speech:...
is suffering, are observable as well (Gardner 1987). Olshtain (1986) observed […] reduced accessibility in vocabulary
Vocabulary
A person's vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge...
retrieval in all situations of attrition where there is a reduction of language loss over longer periods of time.” (1986: 163). Further, gaps concerning grammatical knowledge, especially tenses and conjunction of verbs occur quite frequently. Nevertheless, it can be said that productive skills are more affected than receptive ones, which mainly remain constantly stable (Cohen 1989) and if the learner shows already signs of language attrition it is more likely that transfer from L1 will happen (Berman & Olshtain 1983). Cohen examined in his studies several strategies, the learner applies to compensate the lack of adequate speaking skills, e.g. one strategy is code-switching, to uphold the communication. Another phenomenon observable is a kind of “mixed-language”. Müller (1995) states that on many levels of speaking the learner falls back on a mixture between different languages. Still, it is important to mention, that, as with almost every study that has been conducted in the different sub-fields of Second Language Acquisition research, several problems arise. There are longitudinal vs. cross-sectional studies, different variables, which have been used, and mainly terms and conditions of acquisition and incubation period are not standardised, particularly the length of the incubation period (Feuerhake 2004: 8). That means, some studies only observe language attrition after language programs, other look at the attrition in between breaks of language programs and studies, which examine the attrition after change of environment, regarding language and living conditions (Cohen 1975, Olshtain 1989). Finally, studies reviewed in this paper show that attrition follows a certain order, e.g. productive skills are more affected than receptive skills. Mainly due to difficulties in lexical retrieval a loss in fluency seems to be the first signs of language attrition, followed by attrition in morphology
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
and syntax
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
. Further observations in language attrition are necessary, to give a better understanding of how the human mind deals with language (Hansen 1999: 78).
Motivation
The following chapter is trying to explain motivation and its influence on language attrition. Until 1990 the sociopsychological model of Gardner dominated the research about motivation. Gardner and Lambert emphasise thereby the importance of attitude towards the language, the target country and language community (Feuerhake 2004).Instrumental and integrative orientation
According to Gardner and Lambert (1972) a learner is instrumental orientated if learning a foreign language has a function, e.g. for success in careerCareer
Career is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a person's "course or progress through life ". It is usually considered to pertain to remunerative work ....
terms. Thereby, the language becomes an instrument to achieve the higher purpose and the foreign language learning is concentrated on fulfilling the aim of the learner (Feuerhake 2004: 9).The integrative orientation follows the aim of acculturating
Acculturation
Acculturation explains the process of cultural and psychological change that results following meeting between cultures. The effects of acculturation can be seen at multiple levels in both interacting cultures. At the group level, acculturation often results in changes to culture, customs, and...
with the target language and country as well as the integration into the target language community.
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
The instrumental and integrative orientation is not enough to cover all aspects of the term motivation, the term intrinsic and extrinsic motivation was added to the model. The term intrinsic is connected with behaviour, which results from the reward of the activity itself. The learner acts, because he is enjoying the activity or it is satisfying his curiosity. Mainly it is self-determined and the learner is eager to learn a foreign language because he wants to achieve a certain level of competence. The learner enjoys learning and the acquisition of a foreign language is challenging. Extrinsic motivated learners are orientated on external stimuli, e.g. positive feedback or expectations from others. In general four different types of extrinsic motivation can be distinguished (Bahar 2005):- External: the learner is only motivated through external stimuli, e.g. exams
- Introjected: the learner pushes him/herself to achieve the desired goal, e.g.
- Identified: the value of the learning is recognised and for its own sake fulfilled.
- Integrated regulation: part of the personality, i.e. to fulfil a need.
Bahar (2005: 66) quotes Pintrich & Schunk (1996), who state that “[…] motivation involves various mental processes that lead to the initiation and maintenance of action […]”. Hence, motivation is a dynamic process that changes over time and the motivation of a learner as well might change during the learning process. Therefore, it cannot be seen as an isolated factor. Moreover, several other factors, which are settled within the learner, as well as in the environment, influence motivation and are responsible for its intensity and variability.