Read an Academic Passage

[1]Language attrition is the gradual weakening of a person's first language after many years of using a second language most of the time. Unlike language death, in which a whole community stops speaking a language, attrition happens to individuals. It can make it harder to find words, use grammar accurately, or pronounce sounds as before. For linguists, attrition is interesting because it challenges the belief that a fully learned native language stays stable for life.

[2]Two factors seem especially important. One is age. People who move to a new country before puberty usually lose more of their first language than those who move as adults, probably because the language is less firmly established in their minds. The other is contact. Immigrants who speak their first language regularly with family or in community groups tend to lose it more slowly than those who use only the second language at home and at work.

[3]Attrition may not be permanent, however. Studies of people who return to their home country after years abroad show that much of their first language can come back once they hear and use it every day again. This suggests that the language had become dormant rather than being lost completely.