Problematizing the notion of “stabilization”: From description to prediction in returnee research

Kubota, Maki

doi:10.1075/lab.25066.kub

Commentary published In: Epistemological issue: What returnee bilinguals may teach us about language attrition, language stabilization, and individual variation
Edited by Matthew T. Carlson and Jorge González Alonso
[Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 16:1] 2026
► pp. 41–45

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Commentary

Problematizing the notion of “stabilization”

From description to prediction in returnee research

Maki Kubota | University of Minho | University of Bergen

Published online: 28 November 2025

https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.25066.kub

References (4)

References

Flores, C. (2010). The effect of age on language attrition: Evidence from bilingual returnees. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 13(4): 533–546.

Flores, C., & Snape, N. (2025). What returnee bilinguals may teach us about language attrition, language stabilization, and individual variation. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism.

Kuhberg, H. (1992). Longitudinal L2-attrition versus L2-acquisition in three Turkish children: Empirical findings. Interlanguage Studies Bulletin, 8(2), 138–154.

Laméris, T., Kubota, M., Kupisch, T., Cabrelli, J., Snape, N. & Rothman, J. (2025). Language change in Japanese–English bilingual returnee children over the course of five years: Evidence from accent-rating. Second Language Research, 41(1), 191–216.