| This study addresses the problem of how one's first language (L1) is lost over time in a second language (L2) environment. It is the first attempt to utilize an analytical model which integrates both sociological and psycholinguistic techniques to examine and interpret language loss.; Hesitation frequency levels and length of stay are correlated for immigrants from different economic strata who are undergoing language loss. By using hesitation frequency as an index of the degree of difficulty speakers have in communicating in their native language, it is possible to monitor various degrees of difficulty in planning and recalling linguistic elements from memory, a subtle but highly important aspect of language attrition which is largely impervious to structural, lexical and phonemic analysis.; The study examines the frequency and distribution of hesitation pauses, primarily silent pauses, filled pauses such as the interjection "uh" (and its variants "eh", "mm", etc.) and the unusual lengthening of vowels and consonants in words, in Arabic in a semi-spontaneous interview setting. This was accomplished by recording interviews, in Arabic, with an adult emigre group--Palestinian Christians from the West Bank town of Ramallah--whose members have lived in the US for a period of six months to forty-two years. Simple regression tests are used to identify correlations between hesitation frequency, length of stay (length of exposure to L2) and socioeconomic/educational background.; It was found that changing levels of L1 fluency often varied with socioeconomic/educational level and with length of stay/exposure to L2. Using silent hesitation frequency as an index of language attrition, it was expected that fluency in L1 would begin at a high level--at six months of stay in the US--then gradually fall until the forty-second year of stay. Rather than this linear, negative relationship between L1 fluency and length of stay/exposure to L2, however, a 'V'-shaped correlation was found, whereby silent pause frequency fell over the first 14 years of stay in the US and rose again over the course of the last 21 years of stay. |
