First Language Attrition Seminar Series

这一系列的研讨会将集中在第一语言损耗(FLA)--主要使用另一种语言的人(如移民)的第一语言受到损害并显示出跨语言干扰的迹象，如单词查找困难、外国口音或词汇或语法错误。关于这类经历的个人描述比比皆是，并在网上引起了极大的兴趣，例如，一位在日本录制的加拿大人描述“忘记她的英语”的视频在Youtube(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeBHl1PbhDQ).FLA上的浏览量超过了7万次，这正在成为双语和多语发展这一更广泛的研究领域中一个越来越重要的子话题。人们认识到，对双语者第一语言变化的调查，不仅有助于我们对第二语言习得的研究，也有助于我们对人类语言能力的了解。此外，移民往往觉得需要关于第一语言磨耗过程的良好信息，以及它可能如何影响他们与原籍国的个人关系、他们的认同感或他们在抚养子女时对语言的选择。对于专业语言使用者(外语教师、口译员、导游等)来说，这个问题尤为重要，因为他们的第一语言能力受到侵蚀，可能会威胁到他们的职业生存。人们也越来越认识到，在心理治疗或言语/语言病理学等治疗中，区分使用说话者的所有语言，特别是潜在的磨擦的母语，可能有助于从抑郁症和失语症等各种疾病中恢复过来。尽管如此，关于第二语言习得的研究仍然远远超过关于第二语言习得的研究，这在一定程度上仍然是一个边缘调查话题。由国际和平研究所与一些共同申请者合作领导的国际研究网络，包括2002至2011年间在国际会议上举行的一些会议和小组讨论，大大提高了该领域的知名度。这一系列研讨会将在这些努力的基础上扩大自然减员研究的重点，探索与邻近领域合作的重叠和机会，以便更深入地了解关于人类语言教师的一些基本问题，特别是语言发展在整个生命周期中的性质。与以往的会议一样，将侧重于向博士和职业生涯早期研究人员提供支助和建议，特别是让他们与该领域有经验的研究人员接触，并提供一个平台，介绍和讨论他们的工作以及他们在该领域的高级专家可能遇到的任何问题或问题。

This series of seminars will focus on First Language Attrition (FLA) - the process by which the first language of a speaker who uses another language predominantly (e.g. migrants) becomes compromised and shows signs of crosslinguistic interference, such as word-finding difficulties, a foreign accent, or lexical or grammatical errors. Personal accounts of such experiences abound and spark great interest online, e.g. a video recorded by a Canadian in Japan who describes 'forgetting her English' which had more than 70,000 views on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeBHl1PbhDQ).FLA is becoming an increasingly important subtopic in the wider research area of bilingual and multilingual development, and it is being recognised that investigations of changes in the first language of bilinguals have as much to contribute to our understanding of the human language ability as the study of second language acquisition (SLA). In addition, migrants often feel in need of good information regarding the process of first language attrition and how it may impact, for example, on their personal ties with their country of origin, their sense of identity, or the choices they make with respect to the language in which they bring up their children. For speakers who are professional language users (foreign language teachers, interpreters, tour guides etc.), the problem is particularly important, since an erosion of their first language proficiency may threaten their professional existence. It is also increasingly recognised that the differential use of all of a speaker's languages, in particular the potentially attrited native language, in treatments such as psychotherapy or speech/language pathology may facilitate recovery from conditions as diverse as depression and aphasia. That notwithstanding, studies on SLA still vastly outnumber those on FLA which remains a somewhat marginal topic of investigation. An international research network led by the PI in collaboration with some of the co-applicants and comprising a number of meetings, conferences, and panels at international conferences between 2002 and 2011 has helped raise the visibility of the field considerably. This seminar series will build on these efforts to expand the focus of attrition studies and explore overlaps and opportunities for collaboration and co-operation with neighbouring fields, in order to achieve greater insights into some fundamental questions about the human language faculty and, in particular, the nature of linguistic development across the lifespan. As in the previous meetings, there will be a focus on providing support and advice to PhD and early career researchers in particular through bringing them in contact with experienced researchers in the area and providing a platform for presenting and discussing their work and any problems or questions that they might have with the senior experts in the field.