Change and stability in the native language of migrants
Despite increasing evidence from psycho- and neurolinguistic investigations that multilinguals use and process all of their languages differently from monolinguals including the native one, there remains a strong bias in research and theory towards L2 development and L1-to-L2 transfer. The prevalent assumption is (still) that the native language, once completely acquired, is immune to change except in extreme situations of long-term non-use. This presentation will discuss to what extent first language attrition is part and parcel of the overall process of multilingual development, to what extent it is shaped and constrained by external factors (such as age at learning or frequency of use), and whether it is possible to distinguish attriters from non-attriters.
