York Uni study warns Ukrainian children risk losing their native language
Research warns of permanent language loss due to conflict displacement
A study by the University of York warns that Ukrainian refugee children living in the UK may be rapidly losing their native language as they adapt to English-speaking environments, four years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine displaced millions.
Around 230,000 Ukrainians currently reside in the UK, including approximately 34,000 children. The study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the British Academy, reveals that these children are developing strong English skills at the expense of their fluency in Ukrainian.
Research from the project Negotiating Multilingualism in Situations of Conflict involved assessing the language abilities of 100 Ukrainian child refugees in Britain, finding that many struggled to recall basic Ukrainian vocabulary within just 12 months of arriving.
Professor Monika Schmid, from the University of York’s Department of Language and Linguistics, highlighted the vulnerability of children's linguistic knowledge before the age of 12, noting a risk of permanent loss due to insufficient entrenchment compared to adults.
“We know that knowledge of a language becomes astonishingly stable over long periods of time after puberty, compared to other subjects we learn such as maths, history or sciences, but this is likely because of the way language is stored in memory.
“This means that for adults, who have exercised the ‘muscle memory’ of a language for a significant period of time, their recall of another language will be high. In children, however, there is not sufficient entrenchment of the linguistic knowledge, and previous research has shown that it is vulnerable to rapid and permanent loss until about the age of 12.
“We wanted to know whether there would also be such a rapid process of decline in these Ukrainian refugee children, most of whom are in close and regular contact with family and friends, often including a parent, back in Ukraine.”
The study warns of potential consequences extending beyond language acquisition, impacting family communication with relatives in Ukraine who may not speak English. A loss of Ukrainian could limit children’s ability to reconnect with their homeland post-conflict and contribute to rebuilding efforts.
Schmid emphasised the urgency of supporting children in maintaining their native language alongside English, advocating for targeted programmes and increased awareness among families and schools.
With research continuing into its second phase, experts aim to understand language skill changes over the past two years to better inform support efforts.