Vulnerable native grammars: the effects of limited input in native language attrition

This project investigates the potential impact of learning a second language (L2) on a speaker's native language (L1). Native language attrition describes a change in speakers' L1 skills or knowledge when they are no longer exposed to it as frequently, for instance after migrating. This may manifest in word retrieval difficulties, comprehension delays, lack of confidence, etc. The least understood aspect of attrition concerns the vulnerability of a speaker's L1 grammar: their subconscious knowledge of the language's structure which is set during childhood. While relatively rare and restricted, attrition in adult L1 grammar is attested. Yet strikingly, it is incompatible with current models of language acquisition which assume that speakers' grammars remain unaltered beyond childhood. Our view is that such acquisition models, assuming stable L1 input in adulthood, have overlooked a potentially significant influence of substantive changes in L1 input. To elucidate the nature of grammatical attrition, we wish to investigate and provide answers to these questions:

1. Which aspects of the grammar are susceptible to attrition?
2. What language input conditions favour attrition?
3. How can a model of L1 acquisition be articulated to accommodate attrition?
4. What are the implications for the concept of the 'native speaker' for both academics and the general public?

Two of the investigators have recently begun to work towards an acquisition model entailing a prediction that attrition is more likely where the L2 is typologically close to the L1. The present project explores this experimentally, comparing the potential for grammatical attrition across three groups of speakers extensively exposed to another language variety during adulthood. The first group comprises speakers exposed to a syntactically distinct dialect of their L1 (Southern English speakers who have moved to Belfast); the second comprises speakers exposed to a typologically and diachronically related language (German speakers who have moved to the Netherlands); the third comprises speakers exposed to a typologically distinct language (Spanish speakers who have moved to Britain). Seeking robust evidence for the nature of the grammatical properties susceptible or resilient to attrition, we will undertake detailed comparative theoretical analyses of the syntactic phenomena in question. The composition of the project team bears out this integration of experimental L2 acquisition methods with theoretical approaches to comparative syntax. The three experimental groups will undertake a set of tasks to reveal their knowledge, use, and perceptions of their L1 by comparison with monolingual controls, including oral interviews (which will form a major new corpus of transcribed and tagged attrition data), off-line acceptability judgement tasks, an online processing task and a linguistic background and language use questionnaire. Our analysis will compare attrition patterns within and across the groups, identifying correlations with contextual characteristics, self-evaluation, quantity and quality of exposure to L1/L2 input. Combining these data with a nativeness perception task of attriters by monolingual L1 speakers allows us to problematise the concept of the 'native speaker', examining nuances and new understandings raised by L1 attrition both for the wider public and for its status within linguistic theory. This project will create the first open-access repository of attrited native speech will allow bilingual speakers to share experiences of attrition and website visitors to engage in debate.

In summary, this project furthers our understanding of grammatical attrition in adult bilingual speakers on various levels. It establishes the nature and scope of attrition, advances new visions for major theories of the language faculty and its maturation within individuals, and explores implications for public and academic understandings of the 'native speaker'.

This project investigates changes in the grammars of adult bilingual/bidialectal native speakers. We are ultimately interested in examining how resilient adult native grammars are when speakers move from a 'monolingual only' input scenario to one where input from at least two languages or dialects are available. We employ a novel multi-method approach to investigate the nature and scope of attrition combining research tools from corpus linguistics, language acquisition and linguistic theory. By examining data from bidialectal/bilingual speakers collected through various tasks, we will provide significant evidence that can make a substantial contribution to important theoretical discussions currently taking place in the attrition research community. Two key questions driving our research agenda are: How can changes in input conditions affect the L1 grammar of bilingual/bidialectal speakers? How can current models of native language acquisition account for cases of grammatical attrition affecting adult grammars across different bilingual contexts?

This project will create the first open-access oral corpus of attrited native language which will benefit the research community as a whole. Following established protocols set in the principal investigator's past projects, the new database will include the original audio files, transcriptions and corresponding XML files. We will make this resource fully available to the wider research community via the UK Data Service, Talkbank as well as via the University of Southampton website. This will benefit other researchers interested in native language attrition and will ensure that the impact of this research outlasts the life of the project.

Besides the benefits to the academic community, this project will also benefit the very people undergoing attrition. Through our existing research, we have become aware that our participants, bilingual/bidialectal migrants, recognise that their knowledge and/or use of their native language has changed but they cannot understand how or why; furthermore, in some cases, these speakers report that they can no longer function as a 'proper native speaker'. We will create materials informing on what attrition is which these speakers will be able to access easily. We will also organise several information sessions targeting bilingual immigrant families to raise awareness on the flexibility of nativeness as a natural and expected outcome of migration.
This project, thus, explores questions which are of interest to the general public. In particular, we are interested in raising awareness and start a public debate on the notion of nativeness and what different shapes it can take. We are used to think of a native speaker as someone who has perfect command and use of their native language (compared with foreign language learners for instance). Yet, as this project will show, this is not necessarily the case of millions of native speakers who migrate and settle in foreign language contexts. There is currently very little awareness of native language attrition by the public and of some of the difficulties that native speakers face when living abroad. A repository or oral speech aimed to the general public will provide samples of attrited native language. We will select excerpts from our oral interviews with some participants where they share and describe their experiences using their native language whilst living abroad. Visitors to this site will be able to become familiar with this variety of their own native language. They will also be able to learn about the feelings of speakers who have moved abroad and have little contact with other speakers of the same native language.

Our findings will also have implications for those who work with migrant families, education specialists working with learners from diverse backgrounds and for those involved in promoting and supporting multilingualism in schools and communities.