First Language Attrition: What It Is, What It Isn’t, and What It Can Be

TY - JOUR

T1 - First Language Attrition

T2 - What It Is, What It Isn’t, and What It Can Be

AU - Gallo, Federico

AU - Bermudez-Margaretto, Beatriz

AU - Shtyrov, Yury

AU - Abutalebi, Jubin

AU - Kreiner, Hamutal

AU - Chitaya, Tamara

AU - Petrova, Anna

AU - Myachykov, Andriy

PY - 2021/9

Y1 - 2021/9

N2 - This review aims at clarifying the concept of first language attrition by tracing its limits, identifying its phenomenological and contextual constraints, discussing controversies associated with its definition, and suggesting potential directions for future research. We start by reviewing different definitions of attrition as well as associated inconsistencies. We then discuss the underlying mechanisms of first language attrition and review available evidence supporting different background hypotheses. Finally, we attempt to provide the groundwork to build a unified theoretical framework allowing for generalizable results. To this end, we suggest the deployment of a rigorous neuroscientific approach, in search of neural markers of first language attrition in different linguistic domains, putting forward hypothetical experimental ways to identify attrition’s neural traces and formulating predictions for each of the proposed experimental paradigms.

AB - This review aims at clarifying the concept of first language attrition by tracing its limits, identifying its phenomenological and contextual constraints, discussing controversies associated with its definition, and suggesting potential directions for future research. We start by reviewing different definitions of attrition as well as associated inconsistencies. We then discuss the underlying mechanisms of first language attrition and review available evidence supporting different background hypotheses. Finally, we attempt to provide the groundwork to build a unified theoretical framework allowing for generalizable results. To this end, we suggest the deployment of a rigorous neuroscientific approach, in search of neural markers of first language attrition in different linguistic domains, putting forward hypothetical experimental ways to identify attrition’s neural traces and formulating predictions for each of the proposed experimental paradigms.

KW - bilingualism

KW - cross-linguistic interactions

KW - EEG/MEG

KW - first language attrition

KW - fMRI

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85115379799&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3389/fnhum.2021.686388

DO - 10.3389/fnhum.2021.686388

M3 - Review

C2 - 34557079

AN - SCOPUS:85115379799

SN - 1662-5161

VL - 15

JO - Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

JF - Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

M1 - 686388

ER -