English Irregular Past Tense Verb Data from Three Korean Returnee Children

Abstract

This study analyzes how three Korean children who returned to Korea from the U.S. use English ir-regular past tense verbs. When children from an English-speaking environment move to a non-English-speaking one, their exposure to English is expected to decrease. As a result, some attrition can be expected. Experimental (judgment and elicitation tasks) and naturalistic data from the children were collected for a year after their return. The results indicate that the children maintained their proficiency during their first year of return. Also, error analysis of naturalistic data shows that their error rates approximate those for na-tive English-speaking children.