Language attrition
Graduation Thesis
Presented to
the Faculty of the Department of
English Language and Literature
Notre Dame Seishin University
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirement for the Degree
Bachelor of Arts
By
Hiromi Ogawa
2004
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Contents
Check they all match please
Page
Overview
4
Chapter One
1.1. Introduction
1.2. L1 and L2 Acquisition
1.3. Differences between L1 and L2
A general Introduction Language Attrition
1.5. General Introduction to Attrition
1.6. Focus on the Thesis
4
4
5 1.4.
7
7
8
Chapter Two
2.1. Review Studies on Attrition and Language
Retention
10
2.2
Reasons for Language Loss
15
2.3. Features commonly found in Language
Attrition
19
2.4. Summary of Chapter Two
23
Chapter Three
3.1. Review of Chapter Two
3.2. The Experiment
3.2.1 Overview
3.2.2. Method
3.2.3. The Subject
3.2.4. Method
3.3.
Data
3.3.1. Some interesting points about Table
3.4.
Summary
Chapter Four
4.1.
4.2.
4.3.
4.4.
4.5.
4.6.
Review of Chapter Three
Discussion Section
The Background
Wider Implications for Teachers and
Students
Advice/Suggestions
Conclusion
References
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Overview
In this thesis, the author studies the phenomenon that was
caused through her experience.
The author, who is a Japanese
university student, who lived in America for nine months,
found that she was gradually losing her mother tongue,
Japanese, during her stay in America.
She took notes of the
incorrect Japanese that she used, and she used those data to
make a list showing parallels between her L1, and her L2
English.
When doing this she tried to find some rules and
causes of this language loss phenomenon.
Here she discusses
this language loss and seeks some general causes.
This phenomenon is now really a general phenomenon that
can happen to all of us when we are put into another language
context.
Moreover, language is such a dynamic entity, that
language attrition will always be an interesting and big area
to study. If we study abroad, occasionally, we might
encounter the phenomenon.
It is not only said L2 is English
but also other languages.
Here, in this thesis, we will look
at some knowledge about language attrition from some
linguists’ hypothesis and the author’s experiments.
In the final chapter, there is some advice for how to
avoid language loss, and advance your native language even
when you are staying in other country.
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Chapter One.
Introduction to language loss phenomena
1.1 Introduction
Many people speak only one native language.
have more than one.
Some people might
What happens to those people who are
learning another different language in a different situation?
If people around them never speak their native language but
their own, they will be forced to speak in their language.
Moreover, if you have to stay there for a long time, this
situation will cause certain phenomena which have been studied
by eminent linguists.
or attrition.
This phenomenon is called language loss
Here, we will study language loss by looking at
some theories and an actual experiment.
1.2 L1 and L2 acquisition
The terms, L1 and L2, are referred to sometimes in this
thesis.
These terms need clearly to be defined here.
Everyone
has their own native language (NL) - the language that a child
first learns.
This is also known as the primary language, the
mother tongue, or the L1 (first language). (Here, we use the
common abbreviation L1).
In addition, many children learn
more than one language from birth and may be said to have more
than one mother tongue.
For example, if the parents speak
only Japanese to the child and they don’t speak to the child
in any other language he will speak only Japanese.
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He
acquired Japanese first, therefore this child’s L1 can be said
to be Japanese.
However, the child whose parents who only
speak Japanese but also can speak English may not be said to
be the same as the former example.
If his parents talk to him
in English since he was born, the L1 can be “English.”
Any language other than the L1 is called the L2 (second
language.)
The abbreviation is L2 similar to L1 and this is
the common term.
Generally, the L2 refers to another language
after the L1, regardless of whether it is the second, third,
fourth, or fifth language.
For instance, a child’s native
language is Japanese, and in his life, he acquired English
speaking ability.
This means that his L1 is Japanese, and the
L2 is English.
1.3 Differences between L1 and L2
To distinguish the differences between L1 and L2, some
background information will be needed.
In the process of the
acquiring the L1 and L2 cannot be said to be completely the
same.
When learning the L1 and L2, the gaps between those
will occur.
Those gaps are seen in respect of the
psycholinguistic mechanisms.
Both the L2 and L1 learner
reconstruct the language they are learning, it is intuitive to
expect that the manner in which they do so will differ.
1
They suggested that the creative construction process between
the L1 and L2 acquisition is somewhat different.
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There are
some differences between L1 and L2 acquisition.
For example,
in the discourse relationship in written texts, the L2 readers
had greater overall difficulty with the texts than the L1
readers.
However, the parts that both of them feel problematic
or easy tend to be the same.
Moreover, Chomsky proposed the children’s language
acquisition ability as Innate which means that children are
biologically programmed for language and that language
develops in the child in just the same way that other
biological functions develop.
Chomsky also called this
function, which engages in language development, the language
acquisition device (LAD.)
His theory is also related to the
age-related differences between the L1 and L2 acquisition.
Ellis2
points out that however age does not alter the route
of acquisition, it has a big effect on the rate and ultimate
success.
These age-related differences are explained as the
“critical period.”
Only during this limited period, a
particular behavior can be acquired.
The optimum age for
acquiring another language is in the first ten years of life.
After that period, the brain alters its maximum flexibility.
From these points on the similarities and differences between
the L1 and L2 acquisition, the psycholinguistic mechanisms,
discourse acquisition, age-related, and critical period are
strongly related.
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1.4
A general introduction to the features of Japanese
Before describing the features of language attrition,
some types of language knowledge need to be introduced.
Table
1 explains some potential features which are important for
knowing the linguistic systems.
This list also plays an
important role in analyzing the attrition data will in Chapter
Three.
Vocabulary
Kanji, hiragana, katakana, five vowels
Productive
Speaking, writing
Receptive
Listening, Reading
Grammar
[Subject + Object + Verb ] structure
Table 1.
1.5.
Japanese basic language features
General Introduction to Attrition
these first two paras are not really about attrition
People have their own native language, but if they go overseas
sometimes they can lose some or all of it because they have to
speak and work and live in another language.
For example,
when they just want to exclaim something, they will usually
say the words in their own native language.
However, when
they stay in another country for a long time, they will tend
to say the words in that community’s language.
For instance,
in Japanese, they say “ うわ！ ”, but in English “ Wow!”
This is an interesting phenomenon, but it will happen
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with more complicated grammar too.
Or, even though they just
want to say some simple words, these words can be hard to
remember.
For example, they will take a lot of time just to
say “ごみばこ ” however they can remember it in the other
language.
Language attrition affects all people.
This attrition
phenomenon means the loss of the language, not all of it but
some parts. This phenomenon has been studied in respect of
psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic aspect, linguistic
aspects, and theoretical aspects.
We also need to discuss the
similarities and differences between the L1 and L2 attrition,
the reason for why people lose language, and several possible
ways to lose language.
This we will do in the following
chapter.
1.6 Focus of the thesis
In Chapter One, we studied type of language knowledge,
types of language users about L1 and L2, differences of
acquisition between L1 and L2, and some background of language
attrition.
In Chapter Two, further study of attrition will be
discussed considering some eminent linguists’ hypothesis on
attrition, and also, the common features found in language
attrition like code-switching and TOT phenomenon.
In Chapter Three, we will see some examples of language
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loss through a small case study experiment.
The author’s
actual experience will be introduced and her language
attrition data.
The author’s experience is L1 attrition
during her stay in Boston for nine months.
Those data are put
into some categories and explained with the percentages.
In Chapter Four’s discussion section we will look at
the reasons why language loss happens to us, the background of
attrition, and we will look at the wider implications for
teachers and students, and present some advice and suggestions
for people going overseas.
1
2
Dulay and Burton. 1991, p.113
Ellis. 1993, pp.559-617
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Chapter Two
Attrition
In Chapter One, we looked at general language knowledge
and background and looked at attrition in brief.
Taking this
knowledge the base of the Chapter Two, we will see the further
studies on attrition.
2.1.
Review studies on attrition and language retention
Before we review the similarities and differences
between L1 and L2 attrition, we need to review the definitions
both of them.
The second language attrition is the
disintegration or loss of the structure of a language learned
after the mother tongue (L1).
A person who experiences such
loss, a language attriter, is by definition bilingual.
As a
language is forgotten, it is replaced by another, most often
the attriter’s L1, or lost because of disuse.
First language
attrition is when a person loses his or her mother tongue.
For example, in Japanese, there are some common types of
attrition such as kanji problems, grammar mixing, word loss,
and so on.
The kanji problems are referred to incorrect
kanji, wrong kanji choice.
Grammar happens by mixing up the
English grammar system. The Japanese sentence structure is
usually written as subject + object + verb, however, once
people are faced with attrition, they will use the word order
subject + verb + object which is the English way.
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The word
loss is not to remember some words even if those are so simple
to say in ordinary life.
Many eminent linguists including sociolinguists and
psycholinguists have studied language loss for a long time.
The most widely used theory for describing the nature of the
language loss process was suggested by Jakobson (1941).
This
hypothesis describes the path of language loss as the opposite
of the language acquisition.
His theory on language loss has
contributed greatly to the work of many linguists.
Some terms
are used to refer to language attrition and language
regression including language loss, and language shift,
code-switching
and code mixing.
We need to look at these
definitions carefully.
In this thesis, the term language attrition is used
because it is generally used widely in linguistics. This is to
forget one language as he/she learns another language.
Moreover, here we will discuss language attrition with respect
to L1 as Japanese, and L2 as English.
To discuss the language
attrition further, we need to interpret some studies of
language attrition.
We will look at these later.
We should
also look at language knowledge (productive skills receptive
skills, vocabulary, grammar, etc.), the type of language users
(L1, L2), and language attrition.
This linguistic knowledge
and data will be used to illustrate the survey on language
attrition.
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Language regression is defined the period when a
language ceases to be a regular means of communication.
1
A
person can experience first language regression when another
language comes to replace it as a regular means of
communication.
This is a process that occurs little by little
due to lack of language use.
For example, bilinguals make use
of the two languages in different contexts.
If one of the
languages presents more frequency of use, the individual may
show some changes in the proficiency of the other language.
Also, Hyltenstam and Viberg use the term attrition to refer to
a non-temporary regression.
It is also mainly caused by a
change of environment.
There are two types of Language loss.
One is the
world level area, which is a certain language loses from the
world or community historically.
The other can be said to be
the same phenomenon as language attrition.
People lose their
L1 through L2 contexts.
Code-switching is the use by a speaker of more than one
language, dialect, or variety during a conversation.
For
example, if people want other people to understand their
thoughts more correctly, they will choose to use their own
language.
We also face code-switching phenomena when we say
our traditional things that do not apply to any words in other
language.
Code mixing is the transfer of linguistic elements from one
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language into another in bilingual speech.
Bilinguals
sometimes choose their words according to circumstances.
If
they think it is the appropriate situation to use their one
language, they will transfer to the other language.
Tip-of-the-tongue is a phenomenon that also often occurs
to us and appears as an element in language loss and
attrition, and this will be discussed further later on.
From all this information about linguistic phenomenon
including language attrition, we will now look at some further
studies on language attrition.
First of all, people lose all or part of their first
language in contact situations with a second language.
For
instance, if person’s L1 is Japanese, and they go to America
to study English in an English speaking environment, they will
lose some parts of their L1, Japanese.
However, there are
two types of attrition between losses in the person’s L1, and
losses in a second, later-learned language, L2.
Here, we are
discussing the L1 attrition, and furthermore, taking the
information from L2 attrition, we will look at the
similarities between L1 and L2 attrition.
Give it a number and change the others
Some theories of language attrition
One of the theories of attrition is the regression hypothesis,
which means that “attrition is the mirror image of
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acquisition”
2
which means the first items lost will be the
ones that were acquired last.
This is similarly suggested,
“Last learned, first forgotten” (Lisa, 2002, Yoshitomi, 1992,
P.295).
Another similarity is productive skills tend to lead
to attrition rather than receptive skills
3
.
More of the
skills of speaking and writing tend to be lost than the skills
of listening and reading. This is because the grammatical
rules are more frequent than individual words and may be less
likely to be lost because of the frequency role.
When we look at the differences between L1 and L2
attrition, the author suggested that the attrition period is
different for each other: more we learn language, the less we
forget.
Generally, the L1 learning period is longer than the
L2 learning period and this means that the L1 will remain in
our minds more than the L2.
Moorcraft & Gardner (1987)
commented on this difference in L1 and L1 attrition from the
aspect of elements of the language lost.
They hypothesized
the French students in their study exhibited more grammatical
than lexical losses because “most grammatical structures are
incompletely and recently learned”4
This was supported by the
fact that those students in this study had not mostly learned
many of the grammatical structures and they showed attrition
after the summer vacation, and many structures that had been
learned earlier and more completely than grammatical
structures did not show attrition.
According to Yoshitomi
(1992), when L2 attrition is considered individually,
“beginning students lose more grammar than vocabulary, while
advanced students lose more vocabulary than grammar” For
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example, if you have learned English for 6 years and you are
an advanced English speaker, while you have learned German for
just 3 months, and can merely speak it, you will find some
problems when you stop learning both of them.
You can speak
English remembering the grammatical structure in your mind,
but sometimes fail to find the correct words, but you will be
in trouble if you are asked to explain personal changes.
The
reason why the grammatical structure tends not to be forgotten
is that grammar is less likely to be lost because of its more
“redundant and systematic” nature, its tendency to be more
well-connected, and its higher frequency 5
.
That is to say,
we do not speak thinking of the grammatical problems.
enough for us to recall.
It is
However, words are sometimes needed
to be recalled.
2.2 Reasons for Language Loss
Why do people lose language?
This is the most
important topic in this thesis. There are several possible
ways to lose language including the lack of use and
interference.
Lack of use refers to the frequency of using
the language is concerned with attrition.
When interference
occurs the L2 dominates the L1 and takes away some L1
knowledge.
Only two possible reasons are discussed here but
later there will be further explanation.
As we saw, the definition of L1 language attrition is
the phenomenon that people lose all or part of their first
language when in contact situations with a second language.
For example, if your L1 is Japanese and you have a chance to
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study English intensively for a month, moreover, people are
not allowed to use Japanese in that context, your Japanese
will become weaker and it may be lost gradually.
is easy to see this phenomenon.
Sometimes it
For example, You may not say
correct Japanese words with which you have already been
acknowledged, or cannot write the correct kanji letters.
For
instance, if you just want to say or write some simple words,
you cannot remember them and even cannot explain what they
are.
Below, there are some types of hypothesis why language
loss happens.
a.
lack of use
b.
interference
c.
retrieval failure
d.
schema
We will look at each of these below.
A. lack of use
In Chapter One, we learned about the L1 and L2 learning
processes and saw the differences between them.
If people
learn their L2 during the critical period, their L2 language
can be the same level as the L1.
However, if they learn it
after the critical period, they can never attain the same
level as their L1. Once L1 learners stop using a language,
they forget some of what they have previously learned, such as
letters, idioms, fluency, grammar, and so on, slowly.
So, lack
of using L1 can lead to forgetting it, but if people use their
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L2 more than their L1, the L2 can take the role of the L1.
This hypothesis also applies to some other potential reasons.
B. Interference
Interference means that the L2 takes away part of the L1.
Interference happens when the target material and other
material that was either learned previously interfere with
each other.
(Example)
L1 grammatical structure
dominates
S
私は
桃を
O
L2 grammatical structure 私は
I
食べる
V
食べる
eat
S
桃を
a peach.
V
O
This example means that the English (L2) grammatical
structure dominates the Japanese (L1) grammatical structure.
Generally, Japanese word order is SOV, while, English is SVO.
If the L2 grammatical system interferes with the L1 one, the
phenomenon as the latter may occur.
Weltens (1989) explained this as people forget a
particular thing “A,” because they learned “B” either before
(retroactive interference) or after (proactive interference)
they learned “A.”
of “A”
6
.
The memory of “B” interferes with the recall
The likelihood and degree of interference becomes
greater as the two structures become more similar 7 .
This
theory would thus predict that the attriting language that is
most similar to the corresponding element in the dominant
language (L1), is most likely to be interfered with and
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forgotten.
For instance, L2 learning studies that show that
more transferring between L1 and L2 occurred when the
languages were closely related than when they are not, and
when the particular structures in the two languages were
similar. 8
C. Retrieval failure
This means that people cannot find the L1 information.
The information does not disappear but becomes temporarily
unavailable.
(Example.)
木 – We know this thing but we cannot remember the name
of “ 木 ”.
We can say this in English as “tree” but not
in Japanese.
We cannot find the L1’s form (pronunciation
- Ki) in our minds.
Hansen & Reetz-Kurashige also defined this phenomenon
as “the forgotten information is not gone, but has become
inaccessible,” and could be obtained with the right cues. 9
This means that the information does not disappear completely,
but it exists somewhere in people’s mind. This theory is
supported by studies that show that with greater processing
time, subjects are able to remember more 10 , and by the
existence of the “savings” effect, where relearning forgotten
items is more successful than learning similar items for the
first item 11 .
The difference between interference and retrieval
failure is whether people can remember the forgotten items
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again or not.
Interference disturbs the remembering of what
they have learned previously, and it is mainly impossible to
be retained. Retrieval failure permits people to recall what
they want to remember from a prompt.
D. Schema
Schema is our general knowledge and background that make
up all we know.
For example, the schema for the wedding
ceremony between Japanese and Americans will differ in some
ways.
Generally in Japan, we can change the wedding dress
many times during the ceremony, but not so in America. Brides
in America wear the white dress in the ceremony.
Thinking
more, we will find out the differences between the wedding
ceremony style between Japan and America.
Those are also
because of the differences in schema.
We Japanese have learned Japanese well so we can retain
a great deal of Japanese information because we have a
“schema”, or “structured” system of relationships for
Japanese.
Our knowledge of this schema allowed us to continue
to “generate” correct answers.
Schema let us expand our
world, but at the same time, schema interferes with
remembering what we have learned previously.
We sometimes
cannot clearly see what the correct way to express what we
want to say in our language (L1).
2.3 Features commonly found in language attrition
The “permastore” named by Bahrick (1984), means the
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“response refers to a critical threshold during [or after]
learning”, and that once responses reach this threshold, they
will not be forgotten (p.33).
When people remember an
experience, they are not retrieving a particular stored item,
but are using their “general knowledge” to construct the
memory. For instance, for Japanese people, it is a natural
ritual to take off their shoes at home.
We do this not because
we are forced to, but we know it is the normal way of living
in Japan.
We store this information in our mind called
“permastore.” I moved this to here, it fits better
People who encounter language attrition phenomenon
often have some simultaneous phenomenon.
before, there are TOT and code switching.
As introduced
Those phenomena are
often seen with those people and they recognize it slightly
but they cannot be conscious if they have TOT or code
switching.
Tip-of-the-tongue effect (TOT)
TOT is the phenomenon that people have a high feeling
of knowing, but cannot recall the answer.
Sometimes we
encounter such situations as we know the answer, but we cannot
exactly say the word.
TOT is properly called “The
Tip-of-the-Tongue Effect”, which means they feel they know
something perfectly, but cannot recall the answer, when we are
trying to recall a specific word, and find that it eludes us.
Brown and McNeill (1966) attempted to induce a TOT state in
their subjects by reading out definitions of comparatively
rare words and asking their student subjects to provide the
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word.
If a subject could not say it, but she felt like
knowing the word, she was allowed to stop and try to provide
as much information as possible about the missing word.
They
found that the subjects could be accurate in recalling a good
deal about the word, even though they could not produce the
word itself.
names.
Another example for this phenomenon is with
For instance, if people want to recall the name of the
city which has a big mall in Okayama prefecture (Kurashiki),
they know it had two letters, first is K and the second is u,
but cannot recall other letters.
Most readers might have the
situation like this. As we can see, TOT can occur in language
loss situations.
Code-switching
Code-switching is defined as the use of more than one
language in the course of a single communicative episode. 12
People switch languages while they are talking for many
reasons. When they are talking with a friend whose L1 is
different from theirs, they will talk by mixing some words
that makes the friend understand more clearly.
For example,
if they just want to describe “hot”, but the friend cannot
understand what it means.
word as the friend’s L1.
code-switching.
So, they will use the same meaning
That is one example of
The reasons for code-switching include
adjusting to the environmental situation, lacking the proper
words, wanting a better understanding, and lack of knowledge,
avoidance/conformation, loss of languages, intention.
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1. Adjusting to the environmental situation.
This means to adjust to the environment where people are now
and show their identity.
(e.g.) When people go abroad, they will be put in a situation
to have to adjust to and speak the language there.
2. Lacking the proper words
The words that do not exist in another language or one that
lacks the words for them.
(e.g.) kimono – there is no proper words this in another
language.
3. For better understanding
This means to tell the feelings more properly and correctly.
(e.g.) If people want to know how they feel to others,
especially emotionally, they will say it in their L1.
4. Lack of knowledge
People do not know the words in other languages.
(e.g.) When they just do not know what they can say in a
certain language, they will use their language.
5. Avoidance/conformation
This is to avoid making grammar mistakes.
(e.g.) If people are not sure about a word they want to say,
they will avoid saying it in their L2, but in their L1.
6. Loss of language
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This is language attrition itself.
(e.g.) People lose the ability of language and vocabulary.
7. Intention
This can occur when people intentionally decide to switch
codes such as a means to keep secrets, or they just do not
want to tell anyone, which means the language take the role of
a signal of privacy.
(e.g.) If people have a secret with someone, they will have
some signal only between them.
Those are the functions referred to as code-switching.
Perhaps, people have some idea about them.
Code switching
also has an important role in talking with the people all over
the world.
Two phenomena were introduced in this section.
These
might be obstacles for learners, though, they are sometimes
useful for living in other countries and we can avoid these
phenomenon in advance if we do not want have them.
2.4 Summary of Chapter Two
In Chapter Two, we covered language attrition in
detail. Moreover, we also see other phenomenon related to
language attrition, which are language regression, language
loss, language shift, code-switching, code mixing and TOT.
Also, some reasons for language loss were introduced and such
as lack of use, interference, retrieval failure and schema.
They are all the potential reasons for language attrition.
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We
could learn many things about language loss enough to go on to
Chapter Three.
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Chapter Three
3-1. Introduction
In Chapter Two, we studied language attrition in some
detail.
given.
Four potential causes of language attrition were
Those were lack of practice, interference, retrieval
failure, and schema.
Moreover, we saw the features commonly
found in language loss, TOT and code switching. On the basis
of these theories, we will see Chapter Three.
Now we will look at an experiment that investigates the
types of language loss that occurred in a case study.
In this
case study, we will see the actual date on language attrition
experimented by a student whose L1 is Japanese and L2 is
English in other country’s context.
3-2. The Experiment
3.2.1 Overview
The Author noticed in her time in the US that was
losing some of her Japanese L1. So when the experimenter was
faced with the phenomenon of losing some of her L1, she took
memos in a notebook.
The mistakes in L1 were decided from the
experimenter’s perspective and comments of people around her,
who spoke the same L1 as her.
That perspective was whether it
was natural or not, comparing from that of what she had spoken
in Japan. This experiment helped her to seek some rules and
causes of language attrition.
Also, as we studied some
phenomenon such as code switching and TOT, she can find out if
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that phenomenon really happened to her.
3.2.2
Method.
In this section we will look at what happens to the
subject’s speaking, writing, listening, and reading skills in
L1 through the L2 context for nine months by looking at the
lists that she made during her stay in Boston.
She collected
the data by herself and sometimes ask for help with her
friends who have the same L1 as her.
3.2.3 The subject
The experimenter is a Japanese whose L1 is Japanese.
She is also the author of this thesis.
years old at that time.
She was twenty-one
Her major is English linguistics.
However, she had time to talk in English not more than 3 or 4
times a week.
One time is less than ninety-minutes.
course, she spoke Japanese most of time in Japan.
Of
She could
speak, write in, hear, and read Japanese as the same aged
people could.
She went to Boston in the U.S.A. in September 2002, and
was there for 9 months until May 2003.
She went to a college
in Boston taking the same classes with native Americans.
She
listened to the lectures, had conversations, and wrote papers
in English. She had gradually improved her English skills.
She had merely had conversation with Japanese people.
She
only spoke Japanese less than once ａ week.
She found that language loss happened to her after
three months staying in Boston and speaking English in the
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ordinary life.
First, she gradually could not remember
Japanese phrases and kanji, and then she often failed to say
long sentences in Japanese by making mistakes with the grammar
structures. She also could see TOT phenomenon and
code-switching
frequently.
She noticed it when she could not
remember “door” in Japanese.
In Japanese, it is “戸” , but
she could not recall the name.
Also, she often gave a faint
exclamation in English like “Wow!” when speaking Japanese
(code-switching) instead of saying “うわっ！”
Those phenomena
became a trigger for her to study what happens to her L1
through L2, and she started collect data to seek some rules
and causes of language attrition.
3.2.4 Method
The experimenter wanted to collect the words or
sentences in which she made mistakes.
notebook.
She collected data in a
She took memos when she felt she failed to speak
the correct Japanese, could not remember the appropriate
Japanese phrases understand the hearing Japanese words
quickly, writing Kanji, and so on.
The list below is the
potential mistakes.
Table 1 (in section 1.4) is a list of some potential
mistakes in Japanese. Table 2 below is the actual list of
mistakes that the subject made in Japanese when she was
staying abroad.
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Make this table fit one page
Table 2. Potential Mistakes that she could make in Japanese
ProduCtive
Speak.
Writing
RecepTive
Listen
1. Code switching
2. Unclear pronunciation
3. Can’t speak with the proper sentences
4. Can’t describe things in details
5. Mistakes on doubled consonant’s expression
6. Mistakes on voiced consonant’s expression
7. Mistakes on the denizens
8. Can’t speak honorific expressions well
9. Incorrect form, strange form
10. Incorrect Kanji
11. Spelling order incorrect
12. The omitted words
13. Inappropriate punctuation mark place
14. Unnatural paragraphing
15. Strange sentence order
16. Can’t remember the people’s names
17. Tends to confirm what people say many times
18. Can’t do dictations
19. Can’t understand honorific expressions
Reading 20. Can’t read Kanji
21. Takes a lot of time to read a book
22. Can’t understand summaries easily
System
Grammar
23. Wrong affirmation and negation
24. Inappropriate conjunctions
25. Not enough sentence elements
26. Unclear distinction among causative voice,
passive voice, voluntary, and possibility
27. Improper words choice
28. Wrong verb choice for the body movement
29. Wrong verb choice for food, clothing and
shelter
30. Wrong verb choice for hearing and seeing
31. Wrong verb choice for cognition and
thinking
32. Wrong verb choice for transference and
transition
33. Mixing of intransitive and transitive verb
34. Mistakes on compound verb
35. Unclear distinction between sonkeigo and
kenjougo
There are the abbreviations for some terms.
Productive skills = Produc.
Speaking = Speak.
Receptive skills = Recep.
Listening = Listen.
Vocabulary = Vocab.
Discourse = Disco.
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These descriptions on the list above refer to the
potential mistakes which the people whose L1 is Japanese might
have after long-term usage of English.
These features can’t
always apply to all people who were once in the English
context.
We need to analyze these features in consideration
of the personal equation. She used this list of categories to
collect her data.
She collected data for almost five months during her
stay in Boston.
She took as many memos as possible.
However,
of course, she could not record all of the mistakes in
Japanese.
She analyzed the collected data and put them into some
categories.
She tries to seek the cause of the mistakes,
rules, and reasons for the language loss.
3.3 Data
The data consisted of 109 Japanese mistakes.
Those
mistaken Japanese does not mean only words and fraises but
also includes grammar and kanji problems.
The data are divided into some categories.
productive skills, receptive skills and system.
of them has other sub-categories.
Those are
Moreover, each
The productive skills are
speaking and writing, receptive skills are listening and
reading, and system is grammar as was said before.
Based on
the list B, the experimenter counted the number of categories
in which she made mistakes and calculated the percentages for
each of them.
Table below is the percentage list and some
examples.
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The features in the lists are all based on Table 2.
Table 3.
The percentages of the Japanese mistakes
LEGEND
Rank
/ Number of occurrences /
%
/ Category
- Wrong Japanese words
- Correct Japanese words
- Translated correct English words
Rank 1
Number 41
37.6%
Code switching
- お金がコスト
- お金がかかる
- costs money
Rank 2
Number 13
11.9%
Improper words choice
- とらねこ
- ドラヤキ
- Dorayaki
Rank 3
Number 11
10.1%
Incorrect Kanji
- 雑氏
- 雑紙
- Magazines
Rank 4
Number
7
6.4%
Can’t speak with the proper sentences
- 食べてね、夕食を、疲れて寝た、自分の部屋で。
- 夕食を食べてから疲れて自分の部屋で寝た。
- I was tired and fell asleep in my room after
eating dinner.
Rank 5
Number
6
5.5%
Tends to confirm what people say
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many times
- 横になる？(could not understand)
- 気分の悪くなった方は横になって下さい。
- Please lay down if you feel bad
Rank 5
Number
6
5.5%
Unclear distinction between sonkeigo
and kenjogo
- 私はこちらを召し上がります。
- 私はこちらをいただきます。
- I would like to eat this one.
Rank 6
Number
4
3.6%
Can’t understand honorific
expressions
- 航空券・・・？
- 航空券は再度お電話を頂きそれからの確定となります。
- Confirming an airplane cricket needs a calling
again from you.
Rank 6
Number
4
3.6%
Unclear distinction among
causative voice, passive voice,
voluntary, and possibility.
- パイが焼けられる。
- パイが焼かれる。
- The pie is baked.
Rank 7
Number
3
2.7%
Can’t speak honorific expressions
well
- 食べて頂いてください。
- 召し上がってください。
- Please eat it.
Rank 8
Number
2
1.8%
Wrong verb choice for the body
movement
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- 足がむせる
-足がむれる
- The feet get sullen.
Rank 8
Number
2
1.8%
Wrong verb choice for cognition and
thinking
- 胸が悪い
- 気分が悪い
- I feel bad.
Rank 8
Number
2
1.8%
Wrong verb choice for transference
and transition
-進むの？
-出発するの？
- Are you leaving?
Rank 8
Number
2
1.8%
Mistakes on compound verb
- 努力に返す
- 努力に応える
- The efforts are reworded.
Rank 9
Number
1
0.9%
Can’t describe things in details
- wanted to say “みかん” in Japanese, but could
not remember.
- みかん
- Japanese orange
Rank 9
Number
1
0.9%
The omitted words
- 何かもない
- 何もかもない
There isn’t anything.
Rank 9
Number
1
0.9%
- 今日まで
色々
Unnatural paragraphing
お世話になりました。
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(from a letter)
- 今日まで色々お世話になりました。
- I appreciate your kindness. (The blanks problem)
Rank 9
Number
1
0.9%
Strange sentence order
- 帰りました、早くに、昨日。
- 昨日早くに帰りました。
- I got home earlier yesterday.
Rank 9
Number 1
0.9%
Can’t read Kanji
- かつじばん？
- 掲示板
- billboards
Rank 9
Number
1
-私
0.9%
行く
Not enough sentence elements
食堂。
- 私は食堂に行く。
- I’m going to the cafeteria.
Rank 9
Number
1
0.9%
Mixing of intransitive and transitive
verb
- 火が上昇され
- 火が燃え上がり
- The fire burns out.
Table 3. The actual mistakes in Japanese
3.3.1 Some interesting points about Table 3
In Table 3, I put the thirty-five potential mistakes in
Japanese.
However, according to the experiment, listed in
Table 3, there are twenty-one actual types of L1 mistakes.
Moreover, we can see many mistakes happen because of
code-switching.
Also, the experimenter had many problems with
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writing the correct kanji form.
As the words which were
code-switched are comparatively simple words that are easier
to say in L2, the implications are related to the
code-switching problem.
Similarly, Tomiyama researched a Japanese child who had
learned English in a naturalistic setting and subsequently
returned to Japan, where he had much less exposure to English.
She suggests that, “for the more intimate, personal words, the
emotional words and interjections, it might have been more
appropriate and natural to the child to use his comfortable
L1, and using these L1 words also gave the child a break from
his L2 performance”. 13
She collected data from the child at
various intervals following his return to Japan, and noted
that, during the first five months after his return, the child
was able to converse entirely in English, without any
code-switch to L1 Japanese, and the process was first seen in
“emotion-laden utterances, interjections, and
conversational-fillers”.
So, if we feel easy or comfortable to say those words
in L1 or L2, they will use either of them.
In the case of
the experiments here, the subject felt comfortable to say
those expressions.
Lack of use is also concerned to attrition.
As to say incorrect kanji, the subject had few opportunities
to write and read kanji.
When we learn something, for
example, other language, we need to study to remember letters
and grammars.
We can think some reasons why those mistakes happened
seen in Table 3.
However, lack of use seems to be mainly
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related to language attrition.
3.4 Summary
In Chapter Three, we saw the potential mistakes
features and the actual mistakes features in Japanese
according to data that experimenter made during her stay in
America.
There are twenty-one actual mistakes out of
thirty-five potential mistakes.
Also, we can see many mistakes
on the features related to code-switching, and kanji forms.
Moreover, we find that there is strong relationship to lack of
use, which cause language attrition.
There is another reason from the perspective of lexical
attrition. Very specific nouns are more prone to attrition
than general ones.
to Israel.
Their subjects were Americans who relocated
Their L1 was English, but they had had years of
reduced exposure to English.
They tried to tell a story from
pictures that required them to produce very specific nouns,
such as “pond” and “gopher”.
The subjects were often unable
to produce the correct specific noun. Instead, they either
used words, such as “body of water,” with more general
semantic features, or words, such as “squirrel,” that were in
the same general semantic category as the target word, but
contained incorrect specific semantic features. 14
1
2
3
Hyltenstam and Viberg, 1993, p.198
Lisa, 2002, Yoshitomi, 1992, pp.293-318
Hansen & Reetz-Kurashige, 1999, pp.3-20
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4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
Moorcraft & Gardner, 1987, pp.327-340
Neisser 1984, pp.32-35
Lisa, 2002, Weltens, 1989, p.33
Lisa, 2002, Neisser, 1984, pp.32-35
Hansen & Reetx-Kurashige, 1999, pp.3-20
Hansen & Reetx-Kurashige, 1999, p.10
Hansen & Reetz-Kurashige, 1999, pp.3-20
de Bot & Stoessel, 2000,pp.333-353
Monica Heller, 1991, P.1
Tomiyama, 1999, pp.59-79
Olshtain & Barzilay, 1991, pp.139-150
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Chapter Four
4.1. Review of Chapter Three
We saw data about the potential mistakes and actual
mistakes in Japanese which was collected by a student during
her stay for five months out of nine months in America.
We
also saw the interesting points comparing between Table 2 and
Table 3.
Now, we will have further discussion from now about
this in this chapter.
4.2. Discussion Section
We have studied some reasons for the language attrition:
lack of use, interference, retrieval failure, and lack of
schema.
Lack of use and practice cause people to forget what
they previously learned.
Also, interference which is L2 takes
away part of the L1 and retrieval failure that means people
cannot find the L1 information will be related to lack of use.
Moreover, people forget the information from their schema,
because that information is old enough not to stand by.
These
potential reasons seem to relate to lack of use and practice.
4.3. The background
We also learned about the L2 learning process in Chapter
One.
The famous linguist suggests that loss is a mirror image
of acquisition.
It will be able to be said at least at the
point of main process of language attrition.
are some other aspects of attrition.
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However, there
We studied the theory:
“beginning students lose more grammar than vocabulary, while
advanced students lose more vocabulary than grammar,” in
Section 2.1.
From this we can also say that verbs seem
significantly more resistant to attrition.
possible explanation for this.
There is a
Ellis & Beaton noted that one
reason nouns are easier to learn than verbs is that they tend
to be more imagable. 1
If nouns are better remembered because
they are easier to learn, and they are only easier to learn
because they are more imaginable, when the imageability factor
is controlled, the nouns are no longer easier, and would no
longer be more likely to be remembered.
Another difference is
that it is easy to remember what we forget more quickly than
in the learning process.
We have a lot of background
information in the process of learning, and our schemata
broaden during this period.
We do not have to take a lot of
time to retain the information.
These are some notable
possible explanations for the differences between the process
of acquisition and language attrition.
4.4. Wider implications for teachers and students
The school is the place where the teachers teach their
knowledge to their students.
Moreover, not only students but
also teachers need to learn what they have to teach their
students. Teachers might be struggling with how to stop this
language attrition and how to teach the way to students.
Also, students wonder how they should practice to prevent them
from forgetting their L1. The teachers and students will stop
-38-
learning Japanese if they learn another language in other
countries, and as we have seen will start forgetting it too.
They will not recognize their Japanese skills are getting low
because they do not have to learn Japanese. However, they
gradually do lose their Japanese skills.
What do they need to
do is displayed next section.
4.5. Advice / Suggestions
There are several important ways for language learners to
keep the L1 while in the L2 context.
If we remember the time
people learned their L1 as a beginner.
They needed to learn
how to write and read, spell and write sentences, and how to
speak and listen.
For example, they had to practice kanji
spelling and also they had to remember those meanings.
When
learning something, people have to continue to practise not to
forget what they have previously learned.
Here is some advice for learners how not to forget
their L1 during staying abroad.
1. Read Japanese
Read anything written Japanese language: the website,
newspaper articles, books, letters, etc.
2. Write Japanese words and sentences
Write Japanese words, particularly using kanji letters.
sentences are helpful to use a lot of words.
into Japanese from English will be good.
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Long
Also translating
3. Speak in Japanese
With Japanese friends, talk or chat about any topic.
Also,
advise each other on their mistakes with words or idioms and
so on and write down these mistaken words so you do not do it
again.
4. Listen to Japanese
Talk with the Japanese friends or listen to radios, music,
news on TV, and etc, in Japanese.
These are some of the main strategies to prevent
language attrition.
This should be practiced everyday, but if
it is impossible, at least one hour per three days a week will
be needed.
Teachers and students will be relieved with these
strategies, but saying is easy but practicing is really hard.
They need to consider these strategies and practice them with
strong will.
Furthermore, in Chapter Two, we learned that schemata
are helpful to remember what we have learned previously.
have enormous information in our mind.
into the permastore.
We
Some of them are put
So, to keep that information in schema
we also need to practice what we have learned.
Teachers need
to teach with the way that students can broaden their schema.
Still, they need to practice and practice what they learned in
the class everyday.
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4.6. Conclusion
In this thesis we learned that language attrition and its
background. Learning processes were compared with language
attrition process.
Some differences can be seen between them in respect
of grammar and nouns resistance.
Also, there are some reasons
for language attrition, which are lack of use, interference,
retrieval failure, and schema.
Generally, learners need to
prevent language attrition, and solve the problems of their
lack of use and schema.
Even while people stay abroad and
have few opportunities to use Japanese, they need to make
efforts to practice Japanese in everyday life.
1
Ellis & Beaton 1993, p.559-617
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