Language attrition and theories of forgetting: A cross-disciplinary review

Abstract

My purpose in this paper is to examine the psychological nature of forgetting (parts of) a language by individuals involved in language change across the lifespan. The objectives of the article are (1) to summarize psychological theories and hypotheses about forgetting and memory failure, and (2) to evaluate their relevance for the explanation of individual language attrition. By reviewing linguistically and psycholinguistically oriented language attrition studies that appear to implicate mechanisms of forgetting, I seek to contribute to the interdisciplinary study and discussion of language attrition phenomena.

Language attrition and reactivation in the context of bilingual first language acquisition

“…Attrition can also be viewed as a more general psychological phenomenon related to forgetting (see Ecke 2004 for an overview). For example, looking at L2 attrition, Hansen (1999) invokes retrieval failure theory where certain information may become inaccessible due to lack of relevant retrieval cues.…”

“…Furthermore, production may be regained quickly and with relatively little effort, under the right circumstances. This would suggest a temporary access problem, rather than true loss (Schmid 2002;Tomiyama 2000Tomiyama , 2009Yukawa 1998; see also Ecke 2004 andNg andWigglesworth 2007 for an overview and discussion of differential loss of productive and receptive skills). Drawing on bilingual aphasia, Paradis (1993Paradis ( , 2001 argues that previous experience can leave traces in memory and help subsequent activation if the right stimuli are present.…”

Higher Education Institutions without Foreign Language Continuity

“…However, intrinsically-motivated individuals, after a long gap, forgot fewer structures, had better recall and less attrition than students that did not (see Hansen, 2001;Ecke, 2004). Contemporary studies of the effects of FL discontinuity illustrate that FL disuse gives rise to FL attrition (Hansen, 2001;Crossling & Ward, 2002;Schmid et al, 2006;Evans, 2010;Hafizoah & Fatimah, 2010).…”

“…Contemporary studies of the effects of FL discontinuity illustrate that FL disuse gives rise to FL attrition (Hansen, 2001;Crossling & Ward, 2002;Schmid et al, 2006;Evans, 2010;Hafizoah & Fatimah, 2010). Essentially, not using/learning an FL continuously, as might be intuited, necessitates a process of FL retrieval (see Hansen, 2001;Ecke, 2004), and that process is manifest in varying degrees.…”

“…Problematically, it is often assumed that university entrants possess good general knowledge of an FL, usually English, which is then only to be enhanced with communicative language competence and specialized vocabulary within a specific academic, occupational or professional domain (Räisänen & Fortanet-Gomez, 2008a). Quite often such is not the case, and, worse, one of the most persistent problems in higher education is the gradual attrition of FL competence due to an FL discontinuity (Yoshitomi, 1992;Ecke, 2004) that is manifest most visibly in the form of declining grammatical competence and writing skills (Klapper, 2006;Skela et al, 2009). …”