First language attrition in a second language learning environment: the case of Korean-English late bilinguals

Abstract

This thesis explores L1 attrition among young Korean-English late bilinguals. Thirty Korean immigrants to New Zealand, who had arrived at the age of 12-13 years and had spent at least 2 years in New Zealand, participated in the study. Ten monolingual Korean children aged 12 years served as a comparison group for L1 data. Linguistic data in both L1 and L2 were elicited by a standardised picture-naming test and a story-retelling task supplemented by a stimulated recall protocol. Information related to social variables and language use patterns was elicited through a questionnaire and interviews. Skehan (1996; 1998; 2001) proposes three dimensions of linguistic performance— accuracy, fluency, and complexity. The general findings suggest that accuracy and lexical diversity in L1 are most susceptible to attrition and that there is general positive transfer from L1 to L2 skills. While there is no direct negative interaction between L1 and L2 proficiency, analysis reveals that increasing L2 fluency and a decrease in L1 use have possible indirect effects on attrition in L1 accuracy but not in L1 lexical diversity. The data suggest that, while the frequency of return visits to the homeland is an important social variable, language use involving the father and siblings is also an important factor in attrition or maintenance of L1 proficiency of adolescent late bilinguals. Qualitative analysis conducted on five cases corroborates the quantitative findings. Analyses of speech samples reveal that synthetic structures with semantic ambiguity are most susceptible to L1 attrition. The qualitative analysis also highlights the role of L2 socialisation in L1 attrition in adolescent immigrant children who negotiate their language use and identities in an L2-dominant environment and show different patterns of attrition in their L1.