Language Attrition Across Fifty Years and Five Languages

• Project/Area Number: 23K25339
• Project/Area Number (Other): 23H00642 (2023)
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund (2024); Single-year Grants (2023)
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02100:Foreign language education-related
• Research Institution: The University of Kitakyushu
• Principal Investigator: ジェニファー ラーソンホール 北九州市立大学, 外国語学部, 教授 (80316827)
• Project Period (FY): 2023-04-01 – 2026-03-31
• Project Status: Granted (Fiscal Year 2024)
• Budget Amount: ¥17,030,000 (Direct Cost: ¥13,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥3,930,000); Fiscal Year 2025: ¥520,000 (Direct Cost: ¥400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥120,000); Fiscal Year 2024: ¥6,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥5,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,500,000); Fiscal Year 2023: ¥10,010,000 (Direct Cost: ¥7,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥2,310,000)
• Keywords: language acquisition / attrition / vocabulary / lexical analysis / individual differences / language attrition / fluency / motivation

Outline of Research at the Start

This research project collects information from former missionaries who spoke one of five languages (Japanese, Korean, Finnish, Spanish and Portuguese) in order to investigate their language abilities when they do not use the language regularly. The length of time between the end of the mission and testing ranges from 2 months to more than 50 years. A total of 135 participants per language, spread out across the attrition period, will be collected. Participants are tested on vocabulary and the ability to speak the language.