Inhibiting your native language: The role of retrieval-induced forgetting during second-language acquisition

ABSTRACT—After immersion in a foreign language, speak-ers oftenhavedifficulty retrievingnative-languagewords—a phenomenonknownas first-languageattrition.Wepropose that first-language attrition arises in part from the sup-pression of native-language phonology during second-language use, and thus is a case of phonological retrieval-induced forgetting. In two experiments, we investigated this hypothesis by having native English speakers name visual objects in a language they were learning (Spanish). Repeatedly naming the objects in Spanish reduced the accessibility of the corresponding English words, as measured by an independent-probe test of inhibition. The results establish that the phonology of the words was in-hibited, as access to the concepts underlying the presented objects was facilitated, not impaired. More asymmetr