Second language attrition

This chapter examines second language attrition from theoretical and empirical perspectives. It outlines various hypotheses and discusses studies which have tested some of these. It also describes research which examines the rate and nature of the attrition process and assesses the influence of individual and sociolinguistics factors such as motivation and use on retention. Methodological constraints in the area of second language attrition research are also explored. The chapter ends with a brief overview of a longitudinal study on attrition of a second language (Irish) acquired in a school setting and presents findings from emerging data in the latest phase of this project.