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4 Lexical access stages (based on Levelt, 1989:9). See Levelt (1989) and Levelt et al., (1999) for a more detailed version of the model. Levelt's (1989) model consists of three processing components: conceptualizer, formulator and articulator, 4 shows a simplified version of the model. In the first component, the CONCEPTUALIZER, the concept that the speaker wants to convey is selected from an array of semantically related concepts. This generates a preverbal message which is used as input for the next component, the FORMULATOR. The formulator stage involves the selection of the most appropriate lexical unit for the concept intended for communication and it consists of two steps: the encoding of the
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In dit onderzoek wordt het taalbehoud en taalverlies van Spaans als een vreemde taal bij Nederlandse en Duitse Erasmus-studenten onderzocht. Drie verschillende methodes zijn gebruikt om data te verwerven: mondeling (interview), taalkundig (C-test), en psycholinguïstisch (plaatjes benoemen). Daarnaast zijn ook achtergrondinformatie en persoonlijke f...
Citations
... Regarding oral fluency, Huensch and Tracy-Ventura (2017) suggest that particularly those measures which are slower to develop while abroad are more likely to show signs of attrition in delayed post-tests. Further studies, such as Raffaldini (1987, as cited in Howard, 2009), Coleman (1996, Mehotcheva (2010), and Pizziconi (2017) also report patterns of regression or limited progress in learners' proficiency development following their sojourns. Overall, the results of previous research on SA programs of different durations establish a rather inconclusive picture, but oftentimes suggest that SA effects on L2 skills tend to be volatile in nature. ...
... Moreover, similar to Steinwidder's (2016) findings, the student accounts in the present study corroborate the trend from linguistically oriented research (e.g., Howard, 2009;Llanes, 2012;Mehotcheva, 2010;Pérez-Vidal & Juan-Garau, 2009;Pizziconi, 2017), showing a decrease in language skills over time, possibly impacting students at lower skill levels (Jacob) and with fewer opportunities to use the L2 post-SA (Sara), in particular. While the experienced loss of L2 skills becomes particularly pronounced once students graduate from university, sojourners may, as in Jacob's case, nevertheless find the intensive L2 learning experience and building of confidence transferable when learning further languages at later points in their lives. ...
A relatively small body of research has been conducted on the near- and long-term effects of study abroad (SA) to date. This existing research suggests that SA effects on language skills tend to be volatile, while the impact on various aspects of learners’ personal, academic, and professional development may be longer-lasting. Yet, learner perspectives on the dynamics and durability of such effects, in particular in the context of short-term SA programs, remain largely unexplored. This study hence investigates the near-term impact of short-term SA programs as experienced by students within the first months and years following their sojourns. A qualitative case-study design is employed to examine the accounts of four American students of German, who studied abroad in Austria for four weeks and were interviewed repeatedly over a period of up to 40 months after their sojourns. The results suggest that, from the students’ perspective, many effects deteriorate in the near term, although the overall sojourn experience still appears influential. Abstract in German Nur wenige Forschungsvorhaben haben sich bislang den mittel- bis langfristigen Auswirkungen studentischer Auslandsaufenthalte gewidmet; die bisherige Datenlage deutet jedoch darauf hin, dass die Auswirkungen auf sprachliche Kompetenzen eher unbeständig sind, wohingegen die persönliche, studiums- und berufsbezogene Entwicklung der Lernenden länger von einem Auslandsaufenthalt beeinflusst wird. Die Dynamik und Beständigkeit derartiger Auswirkungen wurden jedoch kaum mit Blick auf kurze Auslandsaufenthalte (≤ acht Wochen) sowie aus der Perspektive der Studierenden erforscht, was die vorliegende Studie insbesondere hinsichtlich mittelfristiger Effekte fokussiert. Mittels eines qualitativen Fallstudiendesigns werden die Interviewdaten vier amerikanischer Deutschlernender untersucht, die sich vier Wochen in Österreich aufhielten und in einem Zeitraum von bis zu 40 Monaten nach ihrem Aufenthalt wiederholt befragt wurden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass viele Auswirkungen eines solchen Aufenthalts aus studentischer Perspektive mittelfristig verblassen, auch wenn der Auslandsaufenthalt im Gesamten weiterhin als einflussreiche Erfahrung wahrgenommen wird.
... Gürel, 2004Gürel, , 2007Murtagh, 2003;Schmitt, 2010) but the results of the studies testing this theory in morphological and syntactic attrition (e.g. Mehotcheva, 2010;Schmid, 2002Schmid, , 2007Taura, 2008;Xu, 2010) are inconclusive. Some ATH manifestations can be quite apparent, for example, when an attriter code-switches or uses an expression that is a calque of its counterpart in another language. ...
... For example, lexical recognition tasks show much less attrition than production tasks (Ammerlaan, 1996;Hulsen, 2000;Schmid & Köpke, 2009). Another manifestation of lexical attrition is reduced lexical diversity, which is usually measured by type-token ratio and lexical frequency profiles (Schmid, 2002(Schmid, , 2007Schmid & Jarvis, 2014;Laufer, 2003;Mehotcheva, 2010). ...
... Another important factor is the length of exposure to L2, whether in a formal setting in the home country or in L2 immersion in another country. Length of exposure might be even more important for L2 attrition than attained proficiency (Hansen, 1999;Mehotcheva, 2010 ...
Language attrition of first (L1) and second (L2) languages has been a prominent area of applied linguistic research recently, particularly with the increase in international migration. Few studies, however, examined simultaneous L1 and L2 attrition in the same population. A further understudied area is indirect (second-hand) attrition – L1 or L2 attrition in immigrants who have not learned the language of the new country and yet experience its influence in the languages they know. This study investigates lexical L1 and L2 attrition in L1 Russian-speaking immigrants in Israel and the effect of the interplay of Russian, English, and Hebrew languages on this attrition. Furthermore, the study aims to expand the knowledge of second-hand L1 and L2 attrition. It also examines how attrition is affected by L2/L3 level, L1/L2/L3 usage, language aptitude, education, and metalinguistic awareness.
The study employed a quantitative methodology. The participants included four study groups in Israel (monolingual L1 Russian speakers, bilingual L1 Russian – L2 Hebrew speakers, bilingual L1 Russian – L2 English, and trilingual L1Russian – L2 English – L3 Hebrew speakers) and two control groups residing in Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan (monolingual L1 Russian speakers, bilingual L1 Russian – L2 English speakers). The participants took a number of tests that examined lexical attrition of L1 Russian and (for English speakers) L2 English in the following areas: collocations, infrequent vocabulary, vocabulary size, perceived word similarity, and object categorization patterns. Additionally, the participants completed sociolinguistic questionnaires and took tests of language aptitude and metalinguistic awareness. The tests were administered online.
Results provided evidence for direct and second-hand L1 attrition of Russian, especially of collocations, under the influence of Hebrew. L2 English did not appear to have a significant effect on L1. L2 attrition of English was less prominent, but Hebrew appeared to affect L2 English, especially in the area of collocations. Higher levels of language aptitude, metalinguistic awareness, and education served as protective factors against attrition. Length of residence in the new country was shown to be an important factor for L1 and L2 attrition. Frequent use of Russian did not diminish L1 attrition, possibly because immigrants were exposed to attrited, or heritage Russian to a large extent in their daily lives. Frequent use of English, on the other hand, was associated with lower levels of L2 English attrition possibly because of the nature of the immigrants’ input in English that is largely from media produced in English-speaking countries and not in Israel.
The specific contributions of the study to the field of language attrition are in describing and explaining attrition in multilingual speakers and second-hand attrition.
... Murtagh, 2003) through simultaneous and early bilingual children and adolescents whose parents have returned to their country of origin after an extended stay in another linguistic environment ('returnees', e.g. Flores, 2015;Lee, 2002;Taura, 2008), investigations of former Study Abroad university students (Engstler, 2012;Huensch et al., 2019;Mehotcheva, 2010) to the very specific experience of the Latter Day Saints missionaries in the US who typically receive a short period of intensive instruction in a FL followed by two to four years of proselytizing in that linguistic environment, but who, more often than not, stop using the foreign language entirely upon their return to the US (e.g. Hansen, 2011;Nagasawa, 1999;Russell, 2012). ...
Instructed foreign language knowledge – that is, language skills acquired exclusively in the classroom without the benefit of any significant immersion experience – remains a vastly neglected area of studies on language learning in general and language attrition in particular. There is also little consideration of foreign language attrition and maintenance as a problem for policy or pedagogy.
The present talk will give an overview of what is and what is not known about second language (L2) attrition at the present time. It will then present the results from a pilot project that will hopefully serve as the foundation for larger studies of instructed L2 attrition in future years.
... Tale strumento deve molto all'AMTB (Attitude and Motivation Test Battery) di Gardner (2004), in quanto utilizza il metodo Likert per quantificare le tendenze testate, ricondotte poi su scale numeriche analizzabili statisticamente. Lo stesso modello è stato ripreso da Schmid, Yilmaz (2018) per l'indagine sulla dominanza linguistica di parlanti tedeschi in Canada e di marocchini, tedeschi e turchi in Olanda, e testato anche in lingue diverse dall'inglese, come tedesco (Schmid, Dusseldorb, 2010) e spagnolo (Mehotcheva, 2010). ...
This work aims at detecting the weight exerted by four psychosocial factors on the maintenance of the aspiration feature of voiceless stops produced by Italian Argentinian migrants from Calabria. The main objective is to verify if a persistent sense of belonging to the heritage cultures and languages can trigger higher /p t k/ aspiration levels. Information about language uses, attitude towards Italian and dialects, and degree of integration in the host country culture was collected through an interview, elaborated and converted into indicators (from 0 to 2). These indicators were used to carry out both qualitative and quantitative analyses, in order to assess the presence of correlations between the given factors, based on self-evaluations, and VOT values produced by migrants when speaking their home dialects.
Keywords: language contact, psychosocial variability, VOT, Italian-Argentinian migrants, heritage speakers.
... Participants also tend to drop out along the way, resulting in often small, under-representative participant samples (e.g. N = 5 in Mehotcheva, 2010; N = 2 in Tomiyama, 2008;N = 4 in Yoshitomi, 1999; though see Murtagh, 2003;and Xu, 2010, for exceptions). To circumvent these issues with data collection, many studies on FL attrition have used cross-sectional designs instead (e.g. ...
... Abbasian & Khajavi, 2010;Bahrick, 1984aBahrick, , 1984bHansen & Chen, 2001), or a combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal designs (e.g. Grendel, 1993;Mehotcheva, 2010;Weltens, 1988). In cross-sectional studies, groups with differing attrition lengths are compared to each other as well as to a baseline group of non-attriters (i.e. a group of comparable learners) of the foreign language. ...
... competing lexical entries) is thought to increase these activation thresholds and hence complicate subsequent retrieval (the Activation Threshold Hypothesis, Köpke, 2002;Paradis, 2004). Both theory and lab-based experimental evidence thus point towards a clear role for language use and interference in attrition, and yet, as Mehotcheva and Köpke (2019) summarise, the majority of studies that have investigated the role of language use report no (consistent) relationship between language use (of the target and / or other languages) and foreign language retention (Bahrick, 1984a(Bahrick, , 1984bHessel, 2020;Mehotcheva, 2010;Xu, 2010; but see also Huensch et al., 2019). ...
While recent laboratory studies suggest that the use of competing languages is a driving force in foreign language (FL) attrition (i.e. forgetting), research on “real” attriters has failed to demonstrate such a relationship. We addressed this issue in a large-scale longitudinal study, following German students throughout a study abroad in Spain and their first six months back in Germany. Monthly, percentage-based frequency of use measures enabled a fine-grained description of language use. L3 Spanish forgetting rates were indeed predicted by the quantity and quality of Spanish use, and correlated negatively with L1 German and positively with L2 English letter fluency. Attrition rates were furthermore influenced by prior Spanish proficiency, but not by motivation to maintain Spanish or non-verbal long-term memory capacity. Overall, this study highlights the importance of language use for FL retention and sheds light on the complex interplay between language use and other determinants of attrition.
... Instead, the limited research suggests that proficiency level attained might better predict the amount of attrition/retention (Mehotcheva 2010;Murtagh 2003;Xu 2010). It has also been shown that in FL settings attrition is non-linear; initial attrition can be rapid but subsequently stabilizes (Weltens 1989). ...
... A study of special relevance here is that of Mehotcheva (2010), who researched a population of mixed L2/FL learners similar to that under consideration in this study. She examined the FL Spanish attrition of L1 Dutch and L1 German university students, between 12 and 72 months following a period of study abroad (SA) in Spain. ...
... Two CLAN commands provided the measures of lexical diversity used in the current study: VOCD and MATTR. VOCD is the command that generates a D score, a measure that has been used in previous research on L1 (e.g., Schmid & Jarvis 2014) and FL attrition (e.g., Mehotcheva 2010). We also chose to run our analyses using MATTR, which has been found to be less sensitive to text length (Fergadiotis et al. 2015) and is therefore a potentially more valid measure of lexical diversity. ...
Advances in Learner Corpus Research (LCR) and Second Language Acquisition (SLA) have brought these two fast-moving fields significantly closer in recent years. This volume brings together contributions from internationally recognized experts in both LCR and SLA to provide an innovative, cross-collaborative examination of how both areas can provide rich insights for the other. Chapters present recent advances in LCR and illustrate in a clear and accessible style how these can be exploited for the study of a broad range of key topics in SLA, such as complexity, tense and aspect, cross-linguistic influence vs. universal processes, phraseology and variability. It concludes with two commentary chapters written by eminent scholars, one from the perspective of SLA, the other from the perspective of LCR, allowing researchers and students alike to reflect upon the mutually beneficial harmony between the two fields and link up LCR and SLA research and theory.
... Los migrantes tienden a adaptarse, casi sin darse cuenta, a todos los aspectos de la vida y tienen un porcentaje mayor de uso de la lengua del país al tener contacto con nativos. Mehotcheva (2010) y Köpke et al. (2007) utilizaron la expresión umbral de activación (activation threshold) como modelo que delinea la interacción entre dos lenguas y que se ve determinada por la frecuencia en la que se usa una palabra. Si una palabra se emplea a menudo, es decir, se activa, dicha palabra no necesitará estimulación para ser recuperada por lo que su umbral de activación estará bajo. ...
Resumen
La lingüística abarca una amplia gama de fenómenos que evolucionan a la misma velocidad que las lenguas lo hacen. Algunos fenómenos lingüísticos como la atrición han sido confundidos con otros fenómenos y han recibido nombres distintos en el transcurso de la historia debido al contacto entre varias lenguas. Por ese motivo, un estudio sobre dicho fenómeno se estima oportuno. Esto engloba la elección de la palabra atrición como traducción de attrition , su definición, las circunstancias que deben producirse para que surja, los tipos de atrición que pueden darse y una comparación de la atrición lingüística con otros fenómenos lingüísticos. Esta exploración concluye con el hecho de que la atrición es el término apropiado, ya que delimita este fenómeno lingüístico que, aunque no es un fenómeno nuevo, sí es cada vez más actual debido a las migraciones y a la globalización.
... It remains an open question, however, how much of this school-learned foreign language knowledge, proficiency and skills is retained later in life. In general, the phenomenon of foreign language attrition is still underresearched (Herdina & Jessner, 2013;Mehotcheva, 2010), and research on the attrition of more than one (foreign) language within the individual is virtually nonexistent to date. ...
... Since the establishment of the field in the early 1980s, a number of studies have been dedicated specifically to the attrition of formally learned/school-acquired foreign languages (e.g., Bahrick, 1984aBahrick, , 1984bGardner, Lalonde, & MacPherson, 1985;Godsall-Myers, 1981;Grendel, 1993;Mehotcheva, 2010;Murtagh, 2003;Nagasawa, 1999;Wang, 2010;Weltens, 1989;Xu, 2010). The participants in many if not most of these studies may actually have been multilinguals, but only Weltens (1989), Grendel (1993), and Mehotcheva (2010) explicitly mention that their participants had learned more than one non-L1, and all of the studies listed examine attrition in only one language. ...
... Since the establishment of the field in the early 1980s, a number of studies have been dedicated specifically to the attrition of formally learned/school-acquired foreign languages (e.g., Bahrick, 1984aBahrick, , 1984bGardner, Lalonde, & MacPherson, 1985;Godsall-Myers, 1981;Grendel, 1993;Mehotcheva, 2010;Murtagh, 2003;Nagasawa, 1999;Wang, 2010;Weltens, 1989;Xu, 2010). The participants in many if not most of these studies may actually have been multilinguals, but only Weltens (1989), Grendel (1993), and Mehotcheva (2010) explicitly mention that their participants had learned more than one non-L1, and all of the studies listed examine attrition in only one language. ...
In the vast body of research on language learning, there is still surprisingly little work on the attrition or retention of second/foreign languages, particularly in multilinguals, once learning and/or use of these languages ceases. The present study focuses on foreign language attrition and examines lexical diversity and (dis)fluency in the oral productions of 114 multilingual young adults, first language German speakers who learned English as their first (FL1) and French or Italian as their second foreign language (FL2), shortly before and approximately 16 months after graduation from upper secondary school. The level of foreign language use after graduation was found to have a noticeable impact on the measured change in output quality in the FL2, but only little in the FL1, where participants’ initial proficiency was considerably higher. The amount of use in the FL1 had no visible connection with attrition/maintenance in a rarely used FL2. Those participants who felt their speaking skills in one of their foreign languages had improved were correct in their self-assessment, but the degree to which the remaining subjects felt their speaking skills had deteriorated was not reflected in their productions.
... 1. Are these score gains long-lasting, or do they represent a likely-to-fade acute effect of participating in an intensive language program? 12 2. Can a follow-up elective course make a difference in pre-serving (or even improving) test score gains made during the first year into the second year? ...
Background/Objectives: The freshmen English program at a medical school in Japan has consistently succeeded in improving proficiency by approximately 30 points on the TOEFL ITP® test. This study analyzes how the students’ language proficiency progresses during their second year.
Methods: Participants were second-year students at a Japanese medical university who could enroll in an elective course, and participation in this course served as the treatment in this study. Participation was voluntary for the 2017 class students (n=102) but was actively encouraged through linkage with advancement criteria for the 2018 class students (n=98). Collected data was analyzed using a mixed-design ANOVA, with time (TOEFL scores at start, and end of year two2) as a within-subjects factor and elective course attendance (< 60 lessons, ≥ 60 lessons) as a between-subjects factor.
Results: The analysis revealed no main effect of time on test scores for the 2017 class; the predicted interaction between time and attendance was significant (F(1, 99) = 15, p < .001, ηp2 = .133). For the 2018 class, the analysis revealed a main effect of time on test scores (F(1, 95) = 38, p < .001, ηp2 = .283); the predicted interaction between time and attendance was also significant (F(1, 95) = 6, p < .05, ηp2 = 0.061).
Conclusions: The results indicate that, when free to choose, better performing students tend to attend more elective lessons, while poor performers opt to skip these and see no change in scores. By contrast, when actively encouraged to participate in an elective class, both types of learners improve their listening scores.
Keywords: foreign language attrition, TOEFL ITP, learner motivation, learner autonomy
... Research into the forgetting or 'attrition' of languages has to date mostly focused on first language (L1) attrition, the forgetting of one's mother tongue when immersed in a second language (Choi, Broersma, & Cutler, 2017;Isurin, 2000;Pallier et al., 2003;Pierce, Klein, Chen, Delcenserie, & Genesee, 2015; for reviews, see Köpke & Schmid, 2004;Schmid, 2016;Schmid & Köpke, 2019). For foreign language (FL) attrition, only a handful of studies exist, all of which are of a mainly descriptive nature (e.g., Bahrick & Phelphs, 1987;Bahrick, 1984;de Bot & Weltens, 1995;Mehotcheva, 2010;Murtagh, 2003;Weltens, Van Els, & Schils, 1989;Grendel, 1993;Tomiyama, 2008;Weltens, 1988;Xu, 2010; for an overview, see Schmid & Mehotcheva, 2012;Mehotcheva & Köpke, 2019). 1 A seminal case study by Bahrick (1984) on the retention of school-learned Spanish, for example, showed that most foreign language forgetting happens in the first three to six years and then levels off, with the most basic vocabulary apparently preserved in what he called 'permastore'. Other studies have established that productive skills, as compared to receptive skills, are most vulnerable to forgetting (e.g., Bahrick, 1984;de Groot & Keijzer, 2000), and that we tend to lose first the words and structures we learned last, or possibly those learned least well (also known as the regression hypothesis; e.g., Olshtain, 1989;Kuhberg, 1992). ...
... Apart from those general trends, people differ vastly in how much and how fast they attrite in a foreign language. Some studies have failed to observe attrition even after years of no exposure to the foreign language (e.g., Grendel, 1993;Murtagh, 2003;Weltens et al., 1989), while others find notable forgetting already after just a year or even less (e.g., Bahrick, 1984;Mehotcheva, 2010). Some of those differences can be accounted for by the tests that were used to elicit measures of language retention (e.g., productive vs. receptive tests), however, there are also several study-external factors that are believed to impact individual forgetting rates. ...
... Some of those differences can be accounted for by the tests that were used to elicit measures of language retention (e.g., productive vs. receptive tests), however, there are also several study-external factors that are believed to impact individual forgetting rates. Among those are proficiency at attrition onset (e.g., Bahrick, 1984;Mehotcheva, 2010;Weltens, 1988), age at attrition onset (e.g., Bardovi-Harlig & Stringer, 2010), as well as language usage patterns and motivation to maintain the foreign language (e.g., Mehotcheva, 2010). For a recent discussion of extra-linguistic factors in FL attrition, see Mehotcheva and Mytara (2019). ...
Research in the domain of memory suggests that forgetting is primarily driven by interference and competition from other, related memories. Here we ask whether similar dynamics are at play in foreign language (FL) attrition. We tested whether interference from translation equivalents in other, more recently used languages causes subsequent retrieval failure in L3. In Experiment 1, we investigated whether interference from the native language (L1) and/or from another foreign language (L2) affected L3 vocabulary retention. On day 1, Dutch native speakers learned 40 new Spanish (L3) words. On day 2, they performed a number of retrieval tasks in either Dutch (L1) or English (L2) on half of these words, and then memory for all items was tested again in L3 Spanish. Recall in Spanish was slower and less complete for words that received interference than for words that did not. In naming speed, this effect was larger for L2 compared to L1 interference. Experiment 2 replicated the interference effect and asked if the language difference can be explained by frequency of use differences between native- and non-native languages. Overall, these findings suggest that competition from more recently used languages, and especially other foreign languages, is a driving force behind FL attrition.
