Second Language Attrition and the Case of Irish

Name: Second Language Attrition and the Case of Irish
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Author: Eimear Geary
ISBN: 978-3-631-87896-5

Geary, Eimear

Second Language Attrition and the Case of Irish

An Exploration of the Savings Paradigm with Respect to Lexical Item Knowledge

by Eimear Geary (Author)

Linguistics

Series: Inquiries in Language Learning, Volume 33

Summary

This book offers further insight into the complex process of second language attrition and the interacting variables that influence it. Focusing on the Irish language, it explores the language behaviour and learning experience of four Irish adults residing in Germany, who have not had contact with the Irish language in approximately 30 years. It closely examines levels of retention of lexical item knowledge and observes that seemingly forgotten information can be reactivated on re-exposure. The book is also of particular relevance for those interested in minority languages and the impact of state and education policy on language maintenance.

Excerpt

Cover
Title
Copyright
About the author
About the book
This eBook can be cited
Preface
Vorwort
Table of contents
List of Tables
List of abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Research objectives
1.2 Uniqueness of the present study
1.3 The importance of understanding attrition
1.4 The relevance of lexical attrition research
1.5 Challenges in studying attrition
1.5.1 Establishing baseline knowledge
1.5.2 The interplay of extra-linguistic factors
1.5.3 Practical challenges
1.6 The role of qualitative analysis in attrition research
1.7 Organisation of the study
Chapter 2: Language attrition
2.1 Understanding attrition
2.1.1 Attrition: An issue of performance or competence?
2.1.2 Impermanency of loss and the effect of relearning
2.1.3 Consolidation of information
2.2 Attrition theories
2.2.1 The Regression Hypothesis
2.2.2 The Activation Threshold Hypothesis
2.2.3 Complex Dynamic Systems Theory
2.2.4 Meara’s model of lexical attrition
2.2.5 The Savings Paradigm and retrieval
2.3 Research on attrition
2.3.1 Studies on L2/FL attrition
2.3.2 Studies on relearning and savings
2.4 Influencing factors in L2 attrition
2.4.1 Age
2.4.2 Language proficiency at onset of attrition and general level of education
2.4.2.1 Language proficiency
2.4.2.2 Level of education
2.4.3 Length of learning/exposure and input
2.4.4 Length of incubation and rehearsal
2.4.5 Literacy
2.4.6 Attitudes and motivation
2.4.6.1 Attitudes
2.4.6.2 Motivation and attitudes as dynamic and changing
2.4.6.3 The interrelation of variables
2.4.6.4 Motivation and L1 attrition
2.4.6.5 Motivation and L2 attrition
2.4.6.6 Unique nature of motivation in minority language attrition
2.4.6.7 Challenges in measuring motivation
Chapter 3: The Irish language
3.1 Sociopolitical background of Irish
3.2 Endeavours to revive Irish
3.3 Trends in Irish speaker numbers
3.4 Irish: A minority language
3.5 Irish in education
3.6 Attitudes to the Irish language
3.7 Selected features of Irish grammar
3.7.1 Key characteristics
3.7.1.1 Verbal noun
3.7.1.2 Prepositional pronoun
3.7.1.3 Verbal adjective
3.7.1.4 Verb roots
3.7.2 Irish orthography
3.8 Peig
Chapter 4: Research design
4.1 Background information
4.2 Breakdown of sessions
4.2.1 Session 1
4.2.2 Session 2
4.2.3 Session 3
4.2.4 Session 4
4.3 General comments on study design
4.3.1 Establishing baseline knowledge and proficiency
4.3.2 Limitations in study design
4.4 Considerations in study design
4.4.1 Lexical item testing
4.4.1.1 Why only look at the lexicon?
4.4.1.2 Knowing a word
4.4.1.3 Justifications for testing procedure
4.4.1.4 Number of words and breakdown
4.4.1.5 Frequency of the items
4.4.1.6 Why a productive and a receptive test?
4.4.1.7 Issue of timing
4.4.2 Pseudowords
4.4.2.1 Creating pseudowords
4.4.2.2 Ratio of real words to pseudowords
4.4.3 Questionnaire and interview
4.4.3.1 Development of questionnaire and interview
4.4.3.2 Issue of memory
4.4.3.3 Limitations of questionnaires
4.4.3.4 Distinction between attitudes and motivation
4.4.3.5 Number of questions
4.4.3.6 Sensitivity of the data
4.4.4 Case study research
Chapter 5: Results and analysis
5.1 Individual participant profiles and test results
5.1.1 Enda
5.1.1.1 Enda’s learning profile
5.1.1.1.1 Experiences in learning Irish
5.1.1.1.2 Experience in modern foreign language education
5.1.1.1.3 Attitudes, identity and Irish language use
5.1.1.2 Test results – Enda
5.1.1.2.1 Session 1
5.1.1.2.2 Session 2a (Second pretest)
5.1.1.2.3 Tests on savings: Results
5.1.2 Ellen
5.1.2.1 Ellen’s learning profile
5.1.2.1.1 Experiences in learning Irish
5.1.2.1.2 Experience in modern foreign language education
5.1.2.1.3 Attitudes, identity and Irish language use
5.1.2.2 Test results – Ellen
5.1.2.2.1 Session 1
5.1.2.2.2 Tests on saving: Results
5.1.2.2.3 Category performance
5.1.3 Brendan
5.1.3.1 Brendan’s learning profile
5.1.3.1.1 Experiences in learning Irish
5.1.3.1.2 Experience in modern foreign language education
5.1.3.1.3 Attitudes, identity and Irish language use
5.1.3.2 Test results – Brendan
5.1.3.2.1 Session 1
5.1.3.2.2 Tests on savings: Results
5.1.3.2.3 Category performance
5.1.4 Cathy
5.1.4.1 Cathy’s language learning profile
5.1.4.1.1 Experiences in learning Irish
5.1.4.1.2 Experience in modern foreign language education
5.1.4.1.3 Attitudes, identity and Irish language use
5.1.4.2 Test results
5.1.4.2.1 Session 1
5.1.4.2.2 Tests on savings: Results
5.1.4.2.3 Category performance
5.2 Overview and analysis of overall results
5.2.1 Session 1
5.2.2 Session 2 (after relearning)
5.2.3 Session 3 (no relearning)
5.2.3.1 Comparison to session 2
5.2.3.2 Activation levels
5.2.4 Session 4 (after relearning)
5.2.4.1 Comparison with results from session 2
5.2.4.2 Activation levels
5.2.5 Overview of performance in individual word categories
5.2.5.1 Category breakdown of words known in session 1
5.2.5.2 Category breakdown after relearning
5.2.6 Summary of observations
Chapter 6: Discussion
6.1 Overview of participant profiles
6.2 Age at start of learning, length of learning and level of proficiency
6.2.1 Establishing levels of proficiency
6.2.2 Proficiency as established in the Leaving Certificate examination
6.2.3 Level of proficiency and relearning effects
6.3 Context of learning: Input and learning experience
6.3.1 Context of learning Irish
6.3.2 The role of home and social environment
6.3.3 Context of teaching Irish in the 1980s
6.4 Literacy
6.4.1 Focus on literacy in Irish learning
6.4.2 Reading
6.4.3 Writing
6.4.4 BICS and CALP
6.4.5 Reading in the maintenance of language knowledge
6.5 Attitudes and motivation
6.5.1 Instrumental motivation in learning Irish
6.5.2 Cultural identity and heritage as a motivator
6.5.3 Irish language learning and the future self
6.5.3.1 Motivation and minority languages
6.5.3.2 Attitudes to the learning scenario
6.5.4 Motivation to maintain knowledge of the language
6.6 Incubation: Length, input and rehearsal
6.6.1 Length of incubation
6.6.2 Input and rehearsal during incubation
6.6.3 Re-exposure and the Activation Threshold Hypothesis
6.7 Complex Dynamic Systems Theory and the attrition of Irish
6.8 Support for the Savings Paradigm
6.8.1 Cross-linguistic influence
6.8.2 Ease of retrievability
Chapter 7: Overview and closing remarks
7.1 Key findings
7.2 Considerations in supporting long-term retention of linguistic information
7.3 Qualifications and future research
References
Appendices
Series Index

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List of Tables

Table 1 Distribution of tests (De Bot & Stoessel 2000: 340)

Table 2 Breakdown of testing sessions

Table 3 Participant profile - Enda

Table 4 Results of session 1 - Enda

Table 5 Results of session 2a - Enda

Table 6 Session 2a, Category breakdown of known items - Enda

Table 7 Category breakdown of real items for relearning - Enda

Table 8 Session 2b (after relearning) - Enda

Table 9 Session 3 (no relearning) - Enda

Table 10 Session 4 (after relearning) - Enda

Table 11 Participant profile - Ellen

Table 12 Results of session 1 - Ellen

Table 13 Session 1, Category breakdown of known items - Ellen

Table 14 Category breakdown of real items for relearning - Ellen

Table 15 Session 2 (after relearning) - Ellen

Table 16 Session 3 (no relearning) - Ellen

Table 17 Session 4 (after relearning) - Ellen

Table 18 Session 2, Category performance - Ellen

Table 19 Session 3, Category performance - Ellen

Table 20 Session 4, Category performance - Ellen

Table 21 Overview of word categories, Sessions 2–4 - Ellen

Table 22 Participant profile - Brendan

Table 23 Results of session 1 - Brendan

Table 24 Session 1, Category breakdown of known items - Brendan

Table 25 Session 2 (after relearning) - Brendan

Table 26 Session 3 (no relearning) - Brendan

Table 27 Session 4 (after relearning) - Brendan

Table 28 Category breakdown of real items for relearning - Brendan

Table 29 Session 2, Category performance - Brendan

Table 30 Session 3, Category performance - Brendan

Table 31 Session 4, Category performance - Brendan

Table 32 Overview of word categories, Sessions 2–4 - Brendan

Table 33 Participant profile - Cathy

Table 34 Results of session 1 - Cathy

←19 | 20→

Table 35 Session 1, Category breakdown of known items - Cathy

Table 36 Session 2 (after relearning) - Cathy

Table 37 Session 3 (no relearning) - Cathy

Table 38 Session 4 (after relearning) - Cathy

Table 39 Category breakdown of real items for relearning - Cathy

Table 40 Session 2, Category performance - Cathy

Table 41 Session 3, Category performance - Cathy

Table 42 Session 4, Category performance - Cathy

Table 43 Overview of word categories, Sessions 2–4 - Cathy

Table 44 Comparison of participant performance - Session 1

Table 45 Comparison of participant performance after relearning - Session 2

Table 46 Total number of items per participant

Table 47 Comparison of participant performance - Session 3

Table 48 Comparison of sessions 2 and 3: Total items known (all participants)

Table 49 Comparison of sessions 2 and 3: Items recalled (all participants)

Table 50 Comparisons of sessions 2 and 3: Items recognised (all participants)

Table 51 Comparison of participant performance after relearning - Session 4

Table 52 Comparison of sessions 2 and 4: Total items known (all participants)

Table 53 Comparison of sessions 2 and 4: Items recalled (all participants)

Table 54 Comparison of sessions 2 and 4: Items recognised (all participants)

Table 55 Category performance across participants (Session 1 / Session 2a (Enda))

Table 56 Overview of participant profiles

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Acknowledgements

I especially wish to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Dr. Andreas Rohde, for his unfailing support and guidance throughout this project and with whom I enjoyed many interesting and stimulating conversations about the complexities and intricacies of language acquisition and attrition.

I would also very much like to thank my examiners, Prof. Dr. Christiane Bongartz and Prof. Dr. Dany Adone, for their willingness to take part in the project; I am very aware of the great amount of time and effort that that involves.

A very big thank you also to my colleague, Dr. Kim Schick, for her reassuring encouragement and sound advice and to Kerstin Chlubek and Pia Holtappels for taking time out from their busy schedules to assist in the testing procedure. I also wish to thank my colleagues at the English Department II of the University of Cologne for their support and encouragement. I feel very fortunate to be part of such a great team.

I am extremely indebted to Andrew O’Sullivan, Cara Donnellan, Éanna O’Sullivan and Eilin Geraghty for their invaluable input and assistance with this project. I am also immensely grateful to my father, Maurice Geary, and Sinéad Geary, John Oman, Tom Geary, Úna Ní Raifeartaigh, Susanne Köhler, Uwe Buchner, Alf Gündel, Katrin Geiger, Stefanie Anzinger and all my dear friends for their unwavering support and kindness.

Most of all, and from the bottom of my heart, thank you to Liam and Maeve for putting up with the long hours of writing at home and for all of the fun times in between, as well as for your remarkable wisdom and inspiring attitude to life that kept me focused and motivated throughout this project. This book could not have been written without you.

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Chapter 1: Introduction

With increasing globalisation, migration and international travel, bi- and multilingualism have become normal phenomena with much linguistic research conducted accordingly on the acquisition and learning of language. When an individual acquires a second or more languages, this invariably has repercussions for the inner workings of the linguistic system and the co-existence of these languages, with increased use of one language influencing availability of the other. Increasingly in the last 30 years, researchers have begun to explore this phenomenon and how periods of disuse and inactivation can lead to attrition of linguistic knowledge.

Language attrition is considered a process whereby knowledge (partly or completely) of a particular language once known is lost or “forgotten” over time. Explorations of attrition attempt to gain a more comprehensive insight into linguistic representations in the brain and to understand what supports the consolidation of information so that language knowledge is retained, even after long periods of language disuse. It also asks if seemingly forgotten knowledge is in fact still intact and, should this be the case, what conditions need to be in place for this information to be reactivated.

The present study explores whether or not second language (L2) lexical knowledge acquired in childhood and puberty has been completely erased after a prolonged period of inactivity or whether it has merely become inaccessible, i.e., whether residual levels of knowledge of the language are still present and available and through re-exposure can be reactivated. The L2 in question is Irish, a language that is learned throughout one’s entire period of school education in the Republic of Ireland, starting in the first year of primary school. It is a compulsory subject for the majority of pupils and has to be taken in the state school examination, the Leaving Certificate, at the end of the final year at secondary school.

Details

Pages: 296
Year: 2022
ISBN (PDF): 9783631878958
ISBN (ePUB): 9783631878965
ISBN (Hardcover): 9783631869055
DOI: 10.3726/b19720
Language: English
Publication date: 2022 (July)
Published: Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Wien, 2022. 296 pp., 56 tables.

Biographical notes

Eimear Geary (Author)

Eimear Geary studied at University College Dublin, Ireland, and at the University of Cologne, Germany, where she was awarded her PhD in Applied Linguistics. She is a lecturer in Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, and Language Practice at the English Department II of the University of Cologne. Her principal research interests include language attrition, language maintenance, bilingualism and multilingualism, and second language acquisition.

Second Language Attrition and the Case of Irish

Summary

Excerpt

Table Of Contents

List of Tables

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1: Introduction

Details

Biographical notes

Key Subject Areas