Sometimes, during a conversation, we find ourselves looking for a word in a particular language but it just won’t come up. Have we forgotten the word? Is it possible to entirely forget a language we’ve once learnt?
Second Language Acquisition generally means learning a second language that isn’t one’s first language, or a language that we learn or pick up (usually formally) as we grow older. In “Bridging the Gap between Second Language Acquisition Research and Memory Science: the Case of Foreign Language Attrition” by Mickan, McQueen and Lemhöfer (2019), Second Language Acquisition (SLA) involves the encoding of new words, consolidating, and committing them to long-term memory, and later retrieving them.
In Singapore, most of us experience early second language acquisition in Singapore or even simultaneous second language acquisition (exposure to both languages at the same time). Some of us may pick up a second language (or third, or fourth!) later in life, usually in a classroom setting. Sometimes, this sort of learning is referred to as foreign language learning ad in their recent paper, Mickan et al explored reasons for forgetting words in foreign languages we’ve learnt.
Foreign Language Attrition: forgetting words in that another language
Attrition happens when a previously mastered foreign language is forgotten. Some factors that affect the rate and/or severity of attrition are:
- How proficient the speaker was before attrition
- How old the speaker is when attrition happens
- How often the language is used and how often they are exposed to it
- How motivated the speaker is to maintain language usage
Previous research showed that attrition happens quickly yet gradually, leaving the speaker with the most basic vocabulary stored somewhere in the brain (Bahrick, 1984). How is this possible? Researchers suggested that this is because attrition is not a failure to remember, but more of a failure to retrieve. This means that instead of having forgotten that language entirely, the brain is now finding it more and more difficult to gain access to the previously learned language!
Attrition due to Interference between Languages
Rather than saying that attrition is a natural decaying process over time, experts suggest that retrieval triggers our languages to compete for resources in our brains. As bilinguals, we might find it easier to recall a word in the language that we are better at and do it often. Over time, we may be worse at recalling the word in our less dominant language. This phenomenon is called retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF). In a study done by Anderson and colleagues (1994), participants were asked to study a number of combinations such as:
FRUIT-APPLE FRUIT-BANANA FURNITURE-CHAIR
Participants then practiced recalling selective combinations of category and item, e.g. FRUIT-APPLE but not FRUIT-BANANA, before they were tested on all the combinations they studied. The results showed that recall was best for category-item combinations that were practised, i.e. FRUIT-APPLE, and worst for combinations where categories were practised but its corresponding items were not, i.e. FRUIT-BANANA.
How does this apply to language use? When a speaker of two languages, e.g. an English-Malay speaker, wants to refer to a “cup”, both “cup” in English and “cawan” in Malay will be activated and compete to be chosen as the word to be used. According to the language interference theory, the more the speaker chooses to use “cup”, the more inhibited the recall for “cawan” will be, making it harder to access in the future.
Is there a difference between words which sound similar versus words which sound completely different? For example, “table” in English and “tafel” in Dutch sound very similar, while the Malay examples I used sound very different. It is unclear, however, whether which type interferes more or less with each other. Sometimes, it might even seem like we may forget words in both languages! Maybe it’s just our brains trying to choose between the word we hear or use more often, instead of the language we use more often. What we do know is that being able to access both languages can be improved via active retrieval and usage of both languages. As they say, all is not lost!
At BLIP Lab, we’re working on some super exciting projects that explore Singapore’s colourful and unique language landscape, and how this might affect the language development of our young Singaporeans! For more information on our ongoing studies and how you can participate, click here!
The original article:
Mickan, A., McQueen, J. M., & Lemhöfer, K. (2019). Bridging the gap between second language acquisition research and memory science: The case of foreign language attrition. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2019.00397
This article was originally crafted by Shaza, with edits by Fei Ting