Abstract
AbstractIn the vast body of research on language learning, there is still surprisingly little work on the attrition or retention of second/foreign languages, particularly in multilinguals, once learning and/or use of these languages ceases. The present study focuses on foreign language attrition and examines lexical diversity and (dis)fluency in the oral productions of 114 multilingual young adults, first language German speakers who learned English as their first (FL1) and French or Italian as their second foreign language (FL2), shortly before and approximately 16 months after graduation from upper secondary school. The level of foreign language use after graduation was found to have a noticeable impact on the measured change in output quality in the FL2, but only little in the FL1, where participants’ initial proficiency was considerably higher. The amount of use in the FL1 had no visible connection with attrition/maintenance in a rarely used FL2. Those participants who felt their speaking skills in one of their foreign languages had improved were correct in their self-assessment, but the degree to which the remaining subjects felt their speaking skills had deteriorated was not reflected in their productions.
Highlights
Foreign language learning in Austrian schools Children in Austria come into contact with their first foreign language in primary school and begin learning it more intensively from Grade 5 onwards; this FL1 is virtually always English (98%; Statistik Austria, 2016)
The expected level of proficiency at graduation is set at level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for the FL1 and at level B1 for the FL2
We aimed to explore if and how factors such as initial proficiency and language use influenced the development of oral production skills in multilingual learners of more than one foreign language
Summary
Foreign language learning in Austrian schools Children in Austria come into (playful, nonintensive) contact with their first foreign language in primary school and begin learning it more intensively from Grade 5 onwards; this FL1 is virtually always English (98%; Statistik Austria, 2016). Those who continue on past the mandatory 9 years of schooling will have had at least 8 years of FL1 English instruction by the time they graduate from upper secondary school at the end of Grade 12 or 13. The expected level of proficiency at graduation is set at level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for the FL1 and at level B1 for the FL2 (see BMB Bundesministerium für Bildung, 2017, for details)
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