Aspect in L2 English: A longitudinal study of four Japanese child returnees

Our study reports on data collected on three separate occasions over a period of 12 months from four Japanese child returnees who had lived in the U.S. between 8 and 12 years before returning to Japan. Their English proficiency was assessed by TOEIC and C-test scores, and they were each asked to complete an Acceptability Judgment Task (AJT). Results show very little change across Test sessions 1, 2 and 3. Initially, we expected to find differences over the course of 12 months as the returnees’ exposure and daily use of English decreased since returning to Japan. Some slight L2 attrition of English was found in the domain of aspect for one returnee. We believe our results overall indicate that rather than L2 language loss, the returnees have managed to maintain their competence in the L2 aspectual domain.