Age and First Language Attrition

doi:10.12002/j.bisu.086

Abstract

Abstract: As a reverse process of language acquisition, Language attrition has been drawn much attention in the past three or four decades. The fruitful research on language attrition is of great importance in research on language acquisition. Attrition can be divided into first language attrition and second language attrition with the former receiving more concerns and have been investigated by researchers at home and abroad. Among the causes having impact on first language attrition, age is considered as a key factor and has been a research focus. This paper discusses the corelation between age and L1 attrition based on previous researches by resorting to related theories and provides an overview of the relevant research. Firstly, this paper presents a brief introduction to critical period hypothesis in language acquisition by which the correlation between age and L1 attrition is explained. Then the paper reviews the major researches abroad which can be classified into studies investigating children or adults respectively and contrastive studies between children and adults. Finally, it discusses the shortcomings existing and how significant it is to the linguistic research at home.

Keywords: first language attrition; age; critical period hypothesis; lanuage attrition

摘要： 语言损耗作为语言习得的逆过程，在过去三四十年间备受关注，其丰富研究成果对语言习得等研究具有重要意义。损耗可分为母语损耗及二语损耗，前者更受关注。国内外学者就母语损耗进行了多方面研究，在众多影响因素中，年龄被视为关键因素并成为研究热点。本文在前人研究基础上，借助理论探讨了年龄因素与母语损耗的相关性，并对相关实证研究进行了整理。本文首先简要介绍了语言习得关键期假说，并通过该假说就年龄与母语损耗这一习得逆过程的关系作出相关解释；其次通过介绍国外学者就年龄对母语损耗的实证研究进行综述，并将其分为儿童或成人单独研究及儿童与成人对比研究两类；最后简要讨论了现存不足以及此研究对我国语言学研究的重要性。

关键词: 母语损耗, 年龄因素, 关键期假说, 语言损耗

CLC Number:

YANG Lianrui / CAI Pingping. Age and First Language Attrition[J]. Journal of Beijing International Studies University, 2017, 39(2): 20-29.

杨连瑞　蔡娉娉. 年龄因素与母语损耗[J]. 北京第二外国语学院学报, 2017, 39(2): 20-29.

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