Healthy monolingual older adults experience changes in their lexical abilities. Bilingual individuals immersed in an environment in which their second language is dominant experience lexical changes, or attrition, in their first language. Changes in lexical skills in the first language of older individuals who are bilinguals, therefore, can be…

Papers are presented on the loss of language skills by those who have studied and then discontinued the use of a second language. The scope of the papers is summarized and dimensions of language attrition research is briefly discussed. Theoretical aspects of psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics with special relevance to language loss are…

Interview excerpts in Navajo and English convey the perceptions of Navajo elders regarding Navajo language attrition, including monolingual Navajo-speaking elders' isolation and loneliness, the loss of social control in mixed families of speakers and nonspeakers of Navajo, and the loss of culture that accompanies Native language attrition.…

This paper advances the hypothesis that an inability to fully participate in an immigrant parent's first language as a minority community language, and associated pressures this can put on the individual's sense of personal identity and self-esteem, can be a contributing factor to the profound alienation that has been implicated in the rise of…

First language (L1) attrition research focuses on syntactic and morphological deterioration in environments where L1 "attriters" rarely have contact with their L1, such as immigrants. There is no study that investigates L1 attrition in tones and in contexts where L1 can still be often heard. This study examines this attrition type in…

Describes a study of the effects on second language attrition of attitudes, motivations, and reported language use by learners during a six-month period after the completion of an intensive French course. (SED)

Reviews key issues generally addressed in studies of language attrition, including the effects of instructional methods on long-term retention, the effects of proficiency level on attrition, attrition's different effects on various language skills, typical forgetting curves, and typical attrition orders. 26 references.(CB)

Presents findings of research investigating first-language attrition of Turkish speakers in Australia and the role of subjunctive ethnolinguistic vitality perceptions in that process. Examines the relationship between societal factors and individuals' perceptions of the language contact situation as reflected in their speech behavior. (Author/VWL)

Childhood bilingualism may develop toward a steady state of balanced competence in 2 languages or toward an imbalanced competence in which one of the child's languages begins to undergo attrition or early stabilization. In child second language learning an analogous distinction is often drawn between additive and subtractive bilingualism. This…

This article presents a selective review of previous research findings on first language (L1) attrition. The review is intentionally limited in scope as it only discusses studies on morphosyntactic attrition in the L1 grammar of adult bilinguals. To this end--and in order to present the most current line of research in this field--I first report…

Examines the second stage of natural second language attrition in the first language environment observed in a Japanese male returnee child. The subject spent 7 years in the United States, was 8-years-old when he returned, and was highly proficient in English. The second stage is characterized by a period of change in syntax and morphology,…

Although there are considerable large-scale data on teacher attrition, few researchers have culled information specifically related to English teachers' risk for attrition. This study examines the effects of teacher characteristics, teaching conditions, student variables, self-efficacy, external support, and salary on secondary English language…

This study investigated how bilinguals' perception of their first language (L1) differs according to age of reduced contact with L1 after immersion in a second language (L2). Twenty-one L1 Korean-L2 English bilinguals in the United States, ranging in age of reduced contact from 3 to 15 years, and 17 control participants in Korea were tested…

Presents an abbreviated version of a large scale investigation of second language attrition covering 50 years. Results yield benefits to teachers and students of foreign languages by leading to an understanding of how various procedures of acquisition affect the rate of loss and ultimately minimize the potential for later attrition. (SL)

Language aptitude remains one of the most understudied predictor variables in L1 attrition research. The current study seeks to address this gap by investigating the effects of language aptitude on L1 retention in late attriters. Forty L1 Spanish-L2 Swedish bilinguals living in Sweden participated in the study, along with 20 functionally…