Esther de Leeuw (QMUL) and Enkeleida Kapia (Akademia e Studimeve Albanologjike)
The linguistic process known as first language (L1) attrition refers to changes which take place in the native language of speakers who attain dominance in a new language. L1 attrition research is fast becoming an increasingly important subtopic in the research area of bilingual and multilingual language development, but we know little about the permanency of L1 attrition when bilingual immigrants return to their home country after decades abroad. This research will examine Albanian retournés who moved to either the UK or the USA, where they learned English as a second language (L2), and who then return to Albania.
Funded by a BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant 2018
Read about other research from the Phonetics Laboratory in the Department of Linguistics.