Language attrition is a complex phenomenon that can be explained as a loss of fluency in one’s mother tongue due to a variety of factors. So far, research on the process of language attrition has predominantly been conducted on internal and external emigrants. Nevertheless, native language attrition has also been observed in international schools where English is used as a medium of instruction. This paper discusses the impact of education level on the development of the attrition of the mother tongue. For the purpose of the current investigation, the given case study was conducted on ten secondary school students in Azerbaijan who switched from the national curriculum to international after completing primary school, thus receiving more quantity and quality second language input and being less academically exposed to their native language. The data for the case study was collected through one-on-one, semi-structured interviews with the subjects. The interviews were transcribed and coded with MAXQDA and manually to mark similar concepts with a code label to retrieve the data for further analysis. Each code was named to provide an indication of the relevant concept and/or idea, divided into sub-categories, and transferred into maps. The results demonstrate that the academic context as well as the interruption of formal education in the mother tongue in primary education contribute to the degradation of the first language performance and competence. Finally, the study discusses some limitations of the study and provides some recommendations for first language protection.

Authors:
Rena Alasgarova, The Modern Educational Complex Named in Honour of Heydar Aliyev, Azerbaijan

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Rena Alasgarova is a School Administrator at The Modern Educational Complex Named in Honour of Heydar Aliyev in Azerbaijan

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rena-alasgarova-192085297

Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rena-Alasgarova

See this presentation on the full schedule – On Demand Schedule

Bookmark