Dominance shift during the stay-abroad experience: a tip-of-the-tongue experiment
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2022/13/0023/000565Keywords:
Attrition, Tip-of-the-tongue experiment, Lexical retrieval, Language dominanceAbstract
Previous research has found that changes in the linguistic and sociolinguistic environment of bilinguals can provoke language dominance shifts. Investigating vocabulary loss makes it possible to identify differences in the quality and quantity of linguistic knowledge that deteriorates through attrition processes. This longitudinal study evaluated the effects of study-abroad programmes on L1 cognate and non-cognate word retrieval. Participants were French-English bilinguals spending one to two semesters in an English-speaking country. Results from a picture-naming task showed that the participants experienced fewer tip-of-the-tongue states in their L1 than in their L2 and retrieved cognates more easily than non-cognates. Profiling questionnaires helped evaluate the correlation between these results and participants’ monthly exposure to English.
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