Lexical Attrition of General and Special English Words after Years of Non-Exposure: The Case of Iranian Teachers

Abbasian, Reza; Khajavi, Yaser

doi:10.5539/elt.v3n3p47

Cited by 6 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Interestingly with such a slight drop, a paired sample t-test reveals a significant difference (df = 42, t = 1.88, p = <.001). The rate of forgetting found here is in line with the work of Bahrick (1984), Weltens (1989), Bierling (1990), Abbasian and Khajavi (2010) and Alharthi (2012) and mirrors memory research that attrition occurs relatively soon after the end of a learning session (Baddeley, 1990). On the other hand, the participants' mean scores on receptive and productive word knowledge increase a little at Time 3 (M = 65.77), (M = 37.74) though the gains are not statistically significant.…”

Section: ) Is There a Relationship Between The Initial Achievement Osupporting

confidence: 76%

“…Previous empirical studies that have contributed significantly to the literature on FL attrition at the lexical level have been focused on situations where learners of English rarely use words they know after the conclusion of formal instruction (e.g. Abbasian & Khajavi, 2010;Bierling, 1990;Marefat & Rouhshad, 2007). However, equally interesting is attrition in situations where some possibly limited use is made of the FL after formal instruction has ceased.…”

Section: The State Of Foreign Language Attrition Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The second is that there is a level of language proficiency beyond which language skills become relatively immune to loss and the level of language proficiency is maintained. There is some evidence that a rapid decline of FL target vocabulary occurred soon after formal instruction had ended (Abbasian & Khajavi, 2010;Alharthi, 2012;Bahrick, 1984;Bierling, 1990;Weltens, 1989). Apart from Alharthi's (2012) study, there seems to be a lack of longitudinal research concerning the rate vocabulary attrition.…”

Section: Rate Of Attritionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Impact of Attrition on Vocabulary Knowledge among Saudi Teachers

Alharthi¹

2014

ELT

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This two-year longitudinal study tracks the extent of vocabulary attrition among Arabic-speaking English graduate teachers. Data were collected through pre-post tests of receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge. The results showed drastic attrition in vocabulary knowledge soon after the end of formal instruction followed by slight gain, although the gain was not quite back to the level of baseline achievement. Verbs and adjectives were more prone to attrition than nouns. The rate of attrition was greater for productive than receptive lexical knowledge. Interestingly, knowledge at peak attainment emerged as a predictor of attrition over time.Keywords: vocabulary attrition, EFL, KAU, retention, initial knowledge, baseline The State of Foreign Language Attrition ResearchThere has been a great deal of research on various aspects of language acquisition including vocabulary in the last three decades, and as a result we have witnessed new insights being gained, hypotheses generated and evidence and counterevidence cited (Bogaards & Laufer, 2004;Coady & Huckin, 1997;Meara, 1980;Milton, 2009;Nation, 1990Nation, , 2001 Nation & Webb, 2011;Peters, 2013;Schmitt, 2008Schmitt, , 2010Tian & Macaro, 2012). However, there has been comparatively little research into lexical attrition specifically in the foreign language (FL) arena, describing key processes and how quickly or slowly lexical knowledge is forgotten. Yet, more recently attrition and retention of lexical knowledge by adults has received increased attention in the research literature (see Alharthi, 2012;Bahrick, 1984;de Bot & Weltens, 1995;Weltens, 1989). Previous empirical studies that have contributed significantly to the literature on FL attrition at the lexical level have been focused on situations where learners of English rarely use words they know after the conclusion of formal instruction (e.g. Abbasian & Khajavi, 2010;Bierling, 1990;Marefat & Rouhshad, 2007). However, equally interesting is attrition in situations where some possibly limited use is made of the FL after formal instruction has ceased.To take a concrete example, the type of exposure to English for King Abdulaziz University (KAU) graduate students in Saudi Arabia is very often mainly -and in some cases even entirely -confined to the classroom. As a result, this limited exposure is likely to lead to lexical attrition over time. This would create a challenge for EFL majors who are supposed to build up a much larger lexical repertoire which then can help them with their teaching of English. By extension, it is possible that they may find it hard to retain the bulk of their vocabulary knowledge upon leaving KAU and therefore will start to lose their vocabulary. Thus, it appears that once students finish their formal study of English, they are less likely to use the target language. The aim of this research then is to measure the extent of attrition and retention of vocabulary knowledge over time among EFL graduate students. The study focuses on one of the four settings of attrition outli...

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Section: ) Is There a Relationship Between The Initial Achievement Osupporting

confidence: 76%

Section: The State Of Foreign Language Attrition Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Rate Of Attritionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Impact of Attrition on Vocabulary Knowledge among Saudi Teachers

Alharthi¹

2014

ELT

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Section: L2 Vocabulary Attritionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In terms of the speed of attrition, some evidence show that a rapid decline of L2 vocabulary would occur soon after formal instruction (e.g., Abbasian & Khajavi, 2010;Alharthi, 2012;Bierling, 1990;Weltens, 1989). For example, Abbasian and Khajavi (2010) studied 210 Persian teachers' rate of vocabulary attrition in general and special vocabulary and found that the speed of attrition increased gradually as the year of non-exposure to English increased. Alharthi (2014) investigated 67 Arabian English graduate teachers and the results showed that soon after the formal instruction, drastic attrition was observed among the teachers' vocabulary knowledge and there was slight gain in the second year.…”

Section: L2 Vocabulary Attritionmentioning

confidence: 99%

English Vocabulary Attrition of Young Chinese EFL Learners

Zhu

Xie

2019

IJL

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Language attrition, the reverse process of acquisition, is part of the field of language acquisition, and vocabulary is the first and most frequent linguistic unit that suffers attrition. Vocabulary attrition of young L2 learners deserves special attention because a successful language learning experience at the early stage facilitates learners’ later learning efficiency. However, research on young L2 learners’ vocabulary attrition seem scant in the current literature. Such being the case, this study investigates 72 Chinese primary school EFL learners’ English vocabulary attrition after an interval of a two-month summer recess through a repeated vocabulary test. Statistical results indicate that the young Chinese learners suffer significant attrition in vocabulary after the disuse of English during the holiday. In addition, verbs are found to be more vulnerable than nouns to attrition, but many words are partially remembered instead of being completely forgotten, as Retrieval Hypothesis proposed. Pedagogical implications for vocabulary teaching in Chinese primary schools and other similar L2 contexts are discussed.

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