The linguists collaborating in the VARIAGE project (2022-) investigate the language development of individual speakers across retirement. This includes the entire linguistic spectrum of the individuals' language use, i.e. not only dialects and standard languages but also additional languages such as English as a foreign language (EFL).
In line with Coupland (2009), we consider retirement as a socially determined and linguistically constructed concept that is shaped by changing cultural meanings and individuals' lived experiences. While effects of occupation on cognitive functioning and the association between retirement and mental/physical health are well-documented across the social and behavioral sciences (e.g. Adam et al. 2013; Bonsang et al. 2012; Meng et al. 2017; Mosca & Wright 2018; Roberts et al. 2011; Rohwedder & Willis 2010; Zacher & Schmitt 2016), there are no studies in SLA and sociolinguistics to date that have set out to analyze if and how this socially constructed threshold may impact individuals' language development and use (and vice versa). In order to identify dis/continuity patterns of the entire linguistic spectrum as well as cognitive functioning across retirement, we bring together a range of perspectives regarding (1) original research agendas and (2) innovative methodological approaches, notably from the fields of second language acquisition, psycho-, socio- and neurolinguistics. In this talk, we intend to critically discuss the method and procedure employed in the VARIAGE project.
The study is designed as an observational micro-development study including approx. 30 older L1 German learners of EFL in Switzerland, each of them observed in 30 consecutive waves before and after retirement over a period of 24 months, amounting to 900 data points per task. Participants are tested every three weeks on a range of L1 (Swiss German dialects and standard German), L2 (English), cognitive, socio-affective and electrophysiological parameters, with the aim of identifying pre- and post-retirement activities, critical life events, and emotional, cognitive, linguistic and motivational resources that mediate effects of retirement on language acquisition and use and help explain inter- and intra-individual speaker differences.
From a methodological perspective, this study sets out a new direction of longitudinal SLA and sociolinguistic research (group studies based on intensive data), which it approaches in an innovative way through the use of generalized additive mixed modeling (GAMM, Wood 2006) and timeseries cluster analysis (Peng et al. 2022), combined with qualitative content analyses. In this mixed-methods design, the primary (quantitative) method is used to identify (a) developmental language patterns shared by different individuals and (b) rapid L2 developmental phases and cut-off points (i.e. a potential bend in the age-L1/L2 performance function), while the secondary (qualitative) method is supposed to help identify stimuli for change and capture subjective dis/continuity.
Because the needs of speakers/learners vary, the outcomes from this study should be beneficial for modelling older adults planning and preparing for retirement, facilitate sensitivity to intervention analysis and help refine and tailor future language-based interventions for older individuals.
