Second language attrition: are different nouns equally likely to be lost?

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating L2 attrition of vocabulary in adult Iranian learners of English at four different proficiency levels. A 40-item vocabulary test measured their productive and receptive vocabulary in and out of context for concrete and abstract nouns with different frequencies. After an interval of 3 months, subjects took the same test. The results revealed that there is no significant difference between the attrition rate of concrete and abstract nouns across different proficiency levels. Moreover, advanced learners who did not participate in classes and had no exposure to English throughout the 3 months interval demonstrated a significant amount of attrition in non- contextualized nouns. Besides, those learners who continued participating in English classes demonstrated attrition in receptive vocabulary but advanced non-continuing learners underwent attrition in productive vocabulary. Additionally, both continuing and non- continuing learners except advanced ones underwent attrition in low-frequency nouns. These findings suggest that certain words are more vulnerable to attrition and that even learners who are still in the process of learning English are susceptible to it.