ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1586722
Interactions Between Attained Proficiency and Length of Exposure to Lexical Attrition of English as a Second Language
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Foreign Languages, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China
- 2Wuluolu Middle School, Wuhan, China
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Compared to the considerable scholarly focus on language acquisition, research into language attrition has not received as much attention. Current studies have tended to emphasize either linguistic or extralinguistic factors impacting language attrition, rather than examining how these various factors might interact with one another. Consequently, it remains unclear whether there are any interactional effects among the different contributing elements of language attrition. This paper explored the relationships between attained proficiency and duration of exposure through a vocabulary assessment conducted with going-to-be sophomores (n=110). The findings indicated that the attained proficiency served as an initial factor, while the lengths of exposure to a foreign language reflected the extent of language attrition. Additionally, different types of exposure were also found to be influential for lexical attrition. These results provide valuable insights for second-language pedagogy and help enhance students' capabilities in acquiring foreign languages.
Keywords: Language attrition, lexical attrition, attained proficiency, length ofexposure, dynamic systems theory
Received: 03 Mar 2025; Accepted: 28 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Feng, Bao and Bai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yanyuan Bai, School of Foreign Languages, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, Hubei Province, China
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