View article

One of the most salient linguistic characteristics of immigrant populations across the world is that first-language skills are often affected in language contact situations. After reaching some degree of proficiency in both languages, bilingual speakers in these situations might become more dominant in the second language, they might gradually reduce their first-language use, and eventually exhibit changes or lose some of their abilities in this language. This chapter addresses two main variables that affect the degree and structure of first-language attrition and loss: age of acquisition and availability of input.(PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)