Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T07:29:00.638Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

15 - The Effects of Environment Change on Third Languages

The Case of Returnees

from Part III - Becoming and Staying Multilingual at Different Ages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2023

Jennifer Cabrelli
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Chicago
Adel Chaouch-Orozco
Affiliation:
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Jorge González Alonso
Affiliation:
Universidad Nebrija, Spain and UiT, Arctic University of Norway
Sergio Miguel Pereira Soares
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
Eloi Puig-Mayenco
Affiliation:
King's College London
Jason Rothman
Affiliation:
UiT, Arctic University of Norway and Universidad Nebrija, Spain
Get access

Summary

This chapter discusses the development of the language competence of returnee bilingual speakers, (i.e., heritage speakers who return to their (parents’) country of origin and, as a consequence of the return, are affected by changes of their language dominance). We discuss three scenarios in which an environmental shift may affect the status of a L3: (1) L3 attrition, when the L3 acquired in a foreign setting undergoes attrition due to reduction in input after returning to the homeland; (2) theoretical discussions of whether the relearning of an attrited L2 can be considered L3 acquisition; (3) the source of crosslinguistic influence on the L3 and how studying the returnee population can open an exciting opportunity to tease apart internal and external factors that are otherwise confounded in the traditional bilingual population. We combine the interpretation of the limited existing literature on language development in returnees with theoretical considerations, and propose research hypotheses to be tested in future research.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bardel, C., & Falk, Y. (2012). The L2 Status Factor and the Declarative/Procedural Distinction. In Cabrelli Amaro, J., Flynn, S., & Rothman, J. (Eds.), Third Language Acquisition in Adulthood (pp. 6178). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berkes, É., & Flynn, S. (2012). Enhanced L3 … Ln Acquisition and Its Implications for Language Teaching. In Cross-Linguistic Influences in Multilingual Language Acquisition (pp. 122). Cham: Springer.Google Scholar
Berman, R. A., & Olshtain, E. (1983). Features of First Language Transfer in Second Language Attrition. Applied Linguistics, 4(3), 222234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bardovi-Harlig, K., & Stringer, D. (2010). Variables in Second Language Attrition: Advancing the State of the Art. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 32(1), 145.Google Scholar
Choi, J., Broersma, M., & Cutler, A. (2017). Early Phonology Revealed by International Adoptees’ Birth Language Retention. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(28), 73077312.Google Scholar
Cohen, A. D. (1989). Attrition in the Productive Lexicon of Two Portuguese Third Language Speakers. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 11(2), 135149.Google Scholar
Daller, H., & Yıldız, C. (1995). Die türkischen Sprachfähigkeiten von Rückkehrern aus Deutschland. Zwischen Den Sprachen: Sprachgebrauch, Sprachmischung Und Sprachfähigkeiten Türkischer Rückkehrer Aus Deutschland, 2, 8394.Google Scholar
Daller, M. H., Treffers-Daller, J., & Furman, R. (2011). Transfer of Conceptualization Patterns in Bilinguals: The Construal of Motion Events in Turkish and German. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 14(1), 95119.Google Scholar
Eurostat. (2019). Migration and Migrant Population Statistics. Https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/pdfscache/1275.pdf.Google Scholar
Fallah, N., & Jabbari, A. A. (2018). L3 Acquisition of English Attributive Adjectives: Dominant Language of Communication Matters for Syntactic Cross-Linguistic Influence. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 8(2), 193216.Google Scholar
Fallah, N., Jabbari, A. A., & Fazilatfar, A. M. (2016). Source (s) of Syntactic Cross-Linguistic Influence (CLI): The Case of L3 Acquisition of English Possessives by Mazandarani–Persian Bilinguals. Second Language Research, 32(2), 225245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flores, C. (2010). The Effect of Age on Language Attrition: Evidence from Bilingual Returnees. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 13(4), 533546.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flores, C. (2012). Differential Effects of Language Attrition in the Domains of Verb Placement and Object Expression. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15(3), 550567.Google Scholar
Flores, C. (2015). Losing a Language in Childhood: A Longitudinal Case Study on Language Attrition. Journal of Child Language, 42(3), 562590.Google Scholar
Flores, C. (2019). Language Development of Bilingual Returnees. In Schmid, M. & Köpke, B. (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Language Attrition (pp. 493501). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Flores, C. (2020). Attrition and Reactivation of a Childhood Language: The Case of Returnee Heritage Speakers. Language Learning, 70(1), 85121.Google Scholar
Flores, C., & Rato, A. (2016). Global Accent in the Portuguese Speech of Heritage Returnees. Heritage Language Journal, 13(2), 161183.Google Scholar
Flores, C., & Snape, N. (2021). Language Attrition and Heritage Language Reversal in Returnees. In Montrul, S. & Polinsky, M. (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Heritage Languages and Linguistics (pp. 351372). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Flynn, S., Foley, C., & Vinnitskaya, I. (2004). The Cumulative-Enhancement Model for Language Acquisition: Comparing Adults’ and Children’s Patterns of Development in First, Second and Third Language Acquisition of Relative Clauses. International Journal of Multilingualism, 1(1), 316.Google Scholar
González Alonso, J, & Rothman, J. (2017). Coming of Age in L3 Initial Stages Transfer Models: Deriving Developmental Predictions and Looking towards the Future. International Journal of Bilingualism, 21(6), 683697.Google Scholar
Hopp, H. (2019). Cross-Linguistic Influence in the Child Third Language Acquisition of Grammar: Sentence Comprehension and Production among Turkish–German and German Learners of English. International Journal of Bilingualism, 23(2), 567583.Google Scholar
Hyltenstam, K., Bylund, E., Abrahansson, N., & Park, H.-S. (2009). Dominant-Language Replacement: The Case of International Adoptees. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 12, 121140.Google Scholar
Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training. (2017). JILPT Report No. 40.Google Scholar
Kaya-Soykan, D., Antonova-Unlu, E., & Sagin-Simsek, C. (2020). The Production and Perception of Turkish Evidentiality Markers by Turkish–German Returnees. Applied Linguistics Review. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2020-0042.Google Scholar
Kubota, M. (2019). Language Change in Bilingual Returnee Children: Mutual Effects of Bilingual Experience and Cognition. Doctoral thesis. University of Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Kubota, M., Chevalier, N., & Sorace, A. (2020a). How Bilingual Experience and Executive Control Influence Development in Language Control Among Bilingual Children. Developmental Science, 23(1), article E12865.Google Scholar
Kubota, M., Chevalier, N., & Sorace, A. (2020b). Losing Access to the Second Language and Its Effect on Executive Function Development in Childhood: The Case of Returnees. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 55, article 100906.Google Scholar
Kubota, M., Heycock, C., Sorace, A., & Rothman, J. (2020c). Cross-Linguistic Influence on L2 Before and After Extreme Reduction in Input: The Case of Japanese Returnee Children. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 2365.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuhberg, H. (1992). Longitudinal L2-Attrition Versus L2-Acquisition, in Three Turkish Children-Empirical Findings. Interlanguage Studies Bulletin (Utrecht), 8(2), 138154.Google Scholar
Kupisch, T., & Rothman, J. (2018). Terminology Matters! Why Difference is Not Incompleteness and How Early Child Bilinguals Are Heritage Speakers. International Journal of Bilingualism, 22(5), 564582.Google Scholar
Lloyd-Smith, A., Gyllstad, H., Kupisch, T., & Quaglia, S. (2018). Heritage Language Proficiency Does Not Predict Syntactic CLI into L3 English. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 117.Google Scholar
Montrul, S. (2015). The Acquisition of Heritage Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pallier, C., Dehaene, S., Poline, J.-B., et al. (2003). Brain Imaging of Language Plasticity in Adopted Adults: Can a Second Language Replace the First? Cerebral Cortex, 13, 155161.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paradis, M. (2004). A Neurolinguistic Theory of Bilingualism (vol. 18). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, H. S. (2015). Korean Adoptees in Sweden: Have They Lost Their First Language Completely? Applied Psycholinguistics, 36(4), 773.Google Scholar
Polinsky, M. (2015). When L1 Becomes an L3: Assessing Grammatical Knowledge in Heritage Speakers/Learners. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18, 163378.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polinsky, M. (2018). Heritage Languages and Their Speakers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Puig-Mayenco, E., Miller, D., & Rothman, J. (2018). Language Dominance and Transfer Selection in L3 Acquisition. In Cho, J., Iverson, M., Judy, T., Leal, T., & Shimanskaya, E. (Eds.), Meaning and Structure in Second Language Acquisition: In Honor of Roumyana Slabakova (pp. 229260). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Puig-Mayenco, E., Rothman, J., & Tubau, S. (2020). Language Dominance in the Previously Acquired Languages Modulates Rate of Third Language (L3) Development over Time: A Longitudinal Study. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 124.Google Scholar
Reetz-Kurashige, A. (1999). Japanese Returnees’ Retention of English-Speaking Skills: Changes in Verb Usage over Time. In Hansen, L. (Ed.), Second Language Attrition in Japanese Contexts (pp. 2158). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rothman, J. (2009). Understanding the Nature and Outcomes of Early Bilingualism: Romance Languages as Heritage Languages. International Journal of Bilingualism, 13(2), 155163.Google Scholar
Rothman, J. (2011). L3 Syntactic Transfer Selectivity and Typological Determinacy: The Typological Primacy Model. Second Language Research, 27(1), 107127.Google Scholar
Rothman, J. (2015). Linguistic and Cognitive Motivations for the Typological Primacy Model (TPM) of Third Language (L3) Transfer: Timing of Acquisition and Proficiency Considered. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18(2), 179190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothman, J., González Alonso, J. G., & Puig-Mayenco, E. (2019). Third Language Acquisition and Linguistic Transfer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schwartz, B. D., & Sprouse, R. A. (2021). The Full Transfer/Full Access Model and L3 Cognitive States. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 11(1), 129.Google Scholar
Snape, N., Hirakawa, M., Hirakawa, Y., Hosoi, H., & Matthews, J. (2012). L2 English Generics: Japanese Child Returnees’ Incomplete Acquisition or Attrition. Selected Proceedings of the 2012 Second Language Research Forum, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. (pp. 1821). Somerville: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Snape, N., Matthews, J., Hirakawa, M., Hirakawa, Y., & Hosoi, H. (2014). Aspect in L2 English: A Longitudinal Study of Four Japanese Child Returnees. EUROSLA Yearbook, 14(1), 79110.Google Scholar
Steinkrauss, R., & Schmid, M. S. (2016). Entrenchment and Language Attrition. In Schmid, H.-J. (Ed.), Entrenchment and the Psychology of Language Learning: How We Reorganize and Adapt Linguistic Knowledge (pp. 367383). Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Taura, H. (2008). Language Attrition and Retention in Japanese Returnee Students. Otaku: Akashi Shoten.Google Scholar
Tomiyama, M. (1999). The First Stage of Second Language Attrition: A Case Study of a Japanese Returnee. In Hansen, L. (Ed.), Second Language Attrition in Japanese Contexts (pp. 5979). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tomiyama, M. (2000). Child Second Language Attrition: A Longitudinal Case Study. Applied Linguistics, 21(3), 304332.Google Scholar
Tomiyama, M. (2008). Age and Proficiency in L2 Attrition: Data from Two Siblings. Applied Linguistics, 30(2), 253275.Google Scholar
Treffers-Daller, J., Daller, M., Furman, R., & Rothman, J. (2016). Ultimate Attainment in the Use of Collocations Among Heritage Speakers of Turkish in Germany and Turkish–German Returnees. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 19(3), 504519.Google Scholar
Ventureyra, V., Pallier, C. & Yoo, H. (2004). The Loss of First Language Phonetic Perception in Adopted Koreans. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 17(1), 7991.Google Scholar
Yildiz, Y., & Koyuncuoglu, H. (2017). The Attrition of Turkish as a Third Language: A Preliminary Case Study Investigation. ITL-International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 168(2), 278304.Google Scholar
Yoshitomi, A. (1992). Towards a Model of Language Attrition: Neurobiological and Psychological Contributions. Issues in Applied Linguistics, 3(2), 293318.Google Scholar
Yoshitomi, A. (1999). On the Loss of English as a Second Language by Japanese Returnee Children. In Hansen, L. (Ed.), Second Language Attrition in Japanese Contexts (pp. 80111). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×