Professor Monika Schmid.

The University of Essex’s Colchester Campus will this week be the venue for the third International Conference on Language Attrition.

Language attrition is a change or set of changes to the native language of someone who has spent extended time abroad.

Over time, someone experiencing language attrition may struggle to remember certain words from their native language as that word becomes ‘blocked’ by the word from their new language. They may become hesitant or disfluent, begin to use odd expressions and / or develop a new accent.

This can often lead to people feeling like a stranger to their mother tongue which can be both unexpected and upsetting.

Speaking ahead of the Conference, organiser Professor Monika Schmid from our Department of Language and Linguistics, and our Centre for Research in Language Development throughout the Lifespan, said, “I am very excited to have the international community of language attrition researchers come to Essex. We are looking forward to ground-breaking presentations on all aspects of first language attrition, including how it affects children and adults differently, how it can change the neural representation of the language in the brain, and what its social implications are.”

For further information on language attrition and the Conference please visit Language Attrition.org.

To follow events at the Conference please use the hashtag #languageattritionessex.