An Empirical Study On Attrition Of English Negation Among Engltisehac Lhienagr Niners In China

Language attrition, the adverse process of language learning and acquisition, is defined as the loss of a language by either a speech community or an individual. Language attrition can be divided into first language attrition and second language attrition. Gardner (1985) defined foreign language attrition as the loss of foreign language ability resulting from stop of use for a long time. The study of foreign language attrition abroad has achieved a lot after it became an independent subject, while it is still in its infancy in China. The present study is of great significance for foreign language learners in China to keep their English knowledge and skills.Foreign language attrition has three levels: phonology attrition, vocabulary attrition and grammar attrition. Based on the achievements of the previous scholars, the author in the thesis chose negation as the object of the study, investigated the Chinese college students attrition of English knowledge and skills after their systematic English learning ended. On the base of the study of four-stage of negation acquisition by Kay Ahmad and according to the situation of English learning in China, the author added the fifth stage of English negation, explored and answered the following questions: 1. Does negation attrition of English learners in China support Jakobson s Regression Hypothesis? 2. As for English attrition, is there a critical threshold for English learners in China? 3. When is a better time for Chinese students to start learning English?In order to answer the above three questions, first, the author chose 51 sophomores of non-English majors randomly as the subjects in the pre-test, and tested the reliability of the 30 items in the questionnaire. The result indicates that the Cronbach Alpha of the items in all the five stages is over 0.7, which suggests that these items have internal consistency. Then, the author handed out 220 copies of the questionnaire and collected 220 copies. Finally, the author selected 143 applicable copies as the subjects, and input all the data into computer to process them by applying software SAS 6.12. The findings indicate that Chinese college students do undergo attrition after they stop systematic English learning. The study also tests and proves Jakobson s Regression Hypothesis. That is, First learned, last forgotten; Last learned, first forgotten . The English knowledge and skills of the students who have a high proficiency of English when their systematic English learning ends are more resistant to attrition, which shows that for Chinese students, there exists critical threshold when studying English. The students who start learning English from Grade 4 in Primary School do not retain English better than those who start learning English during their junior middle school years. Therefore, for some areas with good conditions, students can start learning English from Grade one in Primary School. For some areas with poor conditions, students can start learning English from Grade one in Junior Middle School.