Language Attrition among Immigrant Teachers of Spanish

Language Attrition among Immigrant Teachers of Spanish is the first book devoted entirely to Spanish language attrition in all language areas and specifically among language professionals. Based on original research awarded the ASELE-Routledge prize in 2022, this volume presents an interdisciplinary and pioneering study on native language attrition among Spanish L1 immigrants in Israel, though its insights can be easily applied in any immigration setting. It focuses on the challenges faced by immigrant foreign-language instructors teaching their L1 (first language). Integrating both quantitative and qualitative data, the study explores Spanish language attrition in a multilingual and multicultural context like Israel, offering innovative insights and suggestions for future research. Language Attrition among Immigrant Teachers of Spanish also contributes to the native/non-native language teacher debate from the unique perspective of attrition, proposing a workshop for teachers alongside its research findings. This volume is an essential resource for researchers and postgraduate students of applied linguistics with a specific interest in language attrition or sociolinguistics. It will also be of interest to foreign language teachers and teacher trainers.

Ivonne Lerner is a Spanish instructor and teacher trainer at the Cervantes Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel, and a researcher.

PART I. Why study language attrition? Introduction 1. Language attrition: what, when, who and why? 2. Israel: a case-study PART II. The research 3. Measuring attrition 4. The study PART III. Insights and implications 5. Discussion of findings 6. Conclusions Epilogue