First Language Attrition: A study

of lexical attrition among BS

English students at SBBU SBA
Ayaz Ahmed 134 Supervised By:
BS English Linguistics Mr. Waseem Lakmir
 Introduction
• Language is a tool to communicate the ideas feelings and emotions. As stated
by Edward Sapir, “Language is a purely human and Non-instinctive method of
communicating ideas, emotions, and desires by means of means of a system of
voluntarily produced symbols”.
• There are about 74 languages spoken in Pakistan since its independence in
1947
• Language attrition can be defined as the (Complete or partial) ignorance of a
language by a fluent speaker (Schmid, 2011)
• Language attrition can be seen as related to various disciplines i.e. Linguistics,
psycholinguistics as well as sociolinguistics etc.
• language attrition, language regression, language loss, language shift,
code-switching or code mixing and language death.
 Introduction
• Language attrition has been studied by various fields such as linguistics,
sociolinguistics, neurolinguistics, and psycholinguistics
• Bilingualism is one of the most significant context in which language loss
has been discussed
• One of the most frequent attrition in language is attrition of lexical items
• The Sindh province of Pakistan, despite of being an under-developed area,
accommodates people belonging to different cultures and speaking
different languages.
• Due to frequent use of other languages, people are unintentionally
ignoring their native languages.
• Especially, frequent use of English is compelling students to ignore native
languages.
 Research Objectives

• To evaluate the extent of first language lexical

attrition among English students at SBBU SBA
• To explain the causes of lexical attrition among
students of English students at SBBU SBA
Research Questions

• At what extent lexical attrition prevails

among SBBU SBA students?
• What are main causes of lexical attrition
among SBBU SBA students?
 Literature Review
Main topics covered
• Language
• Language Attrition
• Lexico-semantic and Phonological
attrition
• Review of previous studies
List of studies reviewed
• Langauge Shift: Journey of third generation Sindhi &
Gujrati speakers in Karchi (M Hassan, Dr. Sajida)
• Language Attrition and its impacts on culture: A case
study of Saraiki in DG khan region (M. Riaz, Anila Gill &
Sara Shehbaz)
• Language shift or maintenance: A case of Sindhi
language in Pakistan (M K David, Mumtaz Ali, & Gul
Baloch)
• Political & socio-cultural factors in language loss: A
study of language Shift in North Pakistan (Fauzia
Janjua)
• language Shift: A case study of Punjabi language in
Sahiwal Du=istt. (Shoukat Lohar, Atia Rabani)
Research Methodology

Setting & Data

Theoretical Research Design
Participants collection &
Framework
analysis

Paradis’s (2004) A questionnaire Final Year Data was

Activated consisting of 10 students of BS collected Simple
Threshold simple and 10 English (Male & Random sampling
Hypothesis special English Female) at SBBU & analyzed
words SBA though SPSS 21
for statistical
Quantitative calculations
method
Questionnaire

List of commonly used words List of special words

Words Meaning Words Meanings
Normal Campus
Anxiety Management
Regular Reference
Punctual Institution
Urgent Sessional
Fluency Assignment
Repairing Presentation
Routine Scholarship
Discuss Definition
Confidence Remarks
 Results
• The over-all results shows that:
• Means of 6 out of 20 items was towards incorrect
response
• Mean of 8 items towards unattempt category
• Whereas; mean of rest of 6 words inclined toward
slightly correct value.
• It means there was no lexical item which was found
with 100% correct responses.
 Graph of simple words
Result of simple words
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Normal Anxiety Regular Punctual Urgent Fluency Repairing Routine Discuss Confidence
correct almost correct U/A almost incorrect incorrect
 Graph of special words
Result of special words
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

correct almost correct U/A Almost incorrect Incorrect

 Discussion
• The results show very miserable situation in which more than 63%
of the responses are inaccurate.
• It shows that the excess use of English language in daily life by
students of BS English at SBBU SBA has caused them attrite lexical
items from their native language
• It’s the moment to think that loss of language means loss of
identity.
• If identity is lost, there would be nothing left behind in life.
• Therefore; the results of current study are a caution for readers that
draws their attention towards an alarming situation that can come
next if lexical attrition is not reversed back to retrieve the exact
native words that have been attrited.
 Conclusion
• The findings of current study have indicated that the English
students at SBBU SBA have undergone significant attrition of simple
as well special words from their native language.
• The proof of attrition in English students favors the researcher’s
expectation.
• The amount of attrition might turn out to be significant in a long run
and displayed a trend of attrition of various words at the stages.
• In previous studies such as from Bahrick (1984) and Olshtain
(1989), it was shown that the advanced students were more
resistant to attrition in comparison to the low-proficiency students.
But in this study, the advanced students experienced attrition, as
well.
 Recommendation
• No doubt that second languages in bilingual or
multilingual communities are indispensable.
• Especially, the importance of English can’t be denied
• However; the native language is the source of identity
and it should never be supposed to ignore
• The second language learners should be motivated to use
their native language on daily basis.
• There should native language vocabulary test on regular
basis to prevent the attrition of first language,
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• David, M., Ali, M., & Baloch, G. (2017). Language
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10.1075/llp.41.1.02dav
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