제2언어마멸연구의 변천과 전망

Abstract

This paper explores the flow of research that has been conducted in the field of second language attrition, and summarizes the main results. It further points out the main issues to be considered in the L2 attrition study, related hypotheses, intralinguistic factors, extralinguistic factors, constraints of study and methodological issues. To be specific, it is as followings.<BR> (1) Previous studies have mainly focused only on the short-term learning process and there are few studies that comprehensively describe all processes of long-term individual language changes, including maintenance and attrition stages. (2) L2 attrition research mainly targets English, and there are few studies targeting Japanese, and there are few longitudinal studies targeting attriters like imperial Japanese speakers and child returnees. (3) There are few studies focusing on various social properties such as L2 attriters and Japanese contacts, and there are few studies from sociolinguistic aspects including discourse and linguistic behavior. (4) The mainstream is to consider the L2 attrition from the linguistic formal aspect, and few are to consider from the grammatical functional aspect such as modality. Particularly, there is a lack of linguistic theoretical approaches such as transference, analytic structure and synthetic structure. (5) Under the stage of incubation, few L2 studies have discussed the correlation with learning environment, attitude and motivation, proficiency, and frequency of use.<BR> There is much left to find out in order to lay the foundation for the future of L2 attrition research. It is based on a very limited number of studies and target languages and should be validated. And we still have a lot to discover about the dominant hypothesis of L2 attrition. Additionally, it is necessary to determine what factors and their combinations affect the attrition process and how they affect it. L2 attrition research is expected to develop further based on knowledge of psychology, linguistics, and even brain science as a field of acquisition research. L2 retention study of grammatical ability and sociolinguistic ability, which had few linguistic descriptions, is expected to contribute to L2 education such as saving effects in the construction of new linguistic theory and relearning.