ABSTRACT
Globalisation and transnational migration has pointed to the vulnerability of the L1 in migration settings. While foreign accentedness (FA) rating has been used widely in SLA studies conducted on adult language learners (e.g., Piske et al. 2001), it has less frequently been explored in the context of L1 attrition (but see Schmid 2016 for an overview). This chapter aims to address the problem of L1 foreign accentedness in Polish migrants in the UK, taking into account the linguistic and social dimensions. It is intended as an overview of research findings and a discussion of methodological issues involved. In an attempt to pursue a holistic approach, we propose a research design for a forthcoming project involving a) oral narratives, showing disfluency and lexical instability, to use as data for further analysis, b) accent ratings as auditory assessment of cross-linguistic influence between language systems, c) semi-structured sociolinguistic interviews to reveal perceptions of foreign accentedness and attitude thereto. We thus wish to highlight the significance of such research for local language policies and the well-being and cultural capital of heritage speakers.
