What Is the Best Predictor for L2 Attrition?

Abstract

This study examines the decline of L2 knowledge over time among Korean returnee children. The purpose of the study is to examine what changes commonly occur in English grammatical morphemes and decide what the most predictive factor is for L2 attrition/retention. The data of this study revealed that while the subjects amintained English grammatical morphemes well throughout two years' stay in an L1 environment, they made increased errors in irregular past tense and plural and they begain to omit a regular past tense morpheme -ed in Test 2. The data have also demonstrated that it is not one factor but a combination of factors that predict L2 attrition/retention: age and L2 proficiency at the onset of attrition were found to be good predictors of L2 attriton/retention.