The attrition of English as a second language of Japanese returnee children

This study presents a multiple case study of Japanese returnee children who are in the process of losing their English as a second language. English speech samples from four Japanese girls aged nine and ten, with an incubation period (i.e. the period between the termination of language contact and the time when retention is assessed) from zero months to more than 12 months were collected through tasks involving free interaction, story description, planned speech, and listening comprehension. In addition, supplementary information was collected through questionnaires and interviews. Data collecting sessions were held once every three months and comparisons were made among the four returnees' English proficiency over time.;The analysis of the speech samples revealed that the returnees did not exhibit much language loss in terms of individual sub-skills of English. Their syntactic skill regarding the use of verb morphology and articles showed only a slight regression over time. Their lexicon did not seem to be affected heavily by attrition either, other than the fact that the frequency and type of communication strategies used by the subjects changed at different stages of attrition. It was found, however, that their overall accuracy of English use declined significantly over time, implying that, while each linguistic sub-skill erodes only slightly, the returnees' overall command of English does regress, in that their ability to coordinate linguistic sub-skills spontaneously and communicatively in real time interaction becomes affected gradually.;It was also found that motivation and the opportunity to use English in communicative situations play an important role in the maintenance of the subjects' English. These findings are discussed in detail and in relation with previous studies on L2 attrition. Suggestions are made as to what kind of future studies are in particular need.;The study also presents an extensive literature review of the field of language attrition and proposes a tentative model of language acquisition and attrition based on current developments in psychology and neurobiology.