An Empirical Study On The Attrition Sequence Of English Negation In Chinese Context

Language attrition is the inverse process of language learning. It means that for the bilingual or multilingual, his ability of using one specific language regresses with time due to the cease or reduction of use. After over 50 years' development, the study of language attrition became a formal discipline in the 1980s, marked by the holding of inaugural conference on "Attrition of Language Skills" at the University of Pennsylvania in 1980. In the following years, its rapid development led to fruitful achievements. Generally speaking, language attrition can be classified into two kinds—first language attrition and second language attrition or foreign language attrition which has always been the heated topic among foreign researchers before and after its building-up as a discipline. However, few domestic researches on foreign language attrition are found. The present paper aimed to provide with necessary evidence for the theory building of language attrition through analyzing the attrition features of English negation in Chinese context.Based on the literature review of previous researches, the present study has chosen to test "Regression Hypothesis" as major objective so as to analyze the attrition sequence of English negation for Chinese learners. Negation structure in English is the target element in the present study because initially it has been tested in Japanese context and in the field of second language acquisition. Questionnaire was used to collect research data and compared the data in the cross-sectional paradigm. The result had met the previous expectation and supported the "Regression Hypothesis".After analyzing the research data, the present study had come to the final conclusions: (1) For the Chinese adult learners, their English negation attrition sequence does follow the "First acquired, last attrited; last acquired, first attrited" pattern as predicted by the "Regression Hypothesis"; (2) The existence of "Critical Threshold" was supported in the present study, while its accurate value or range still needs to be assessed in further research; (3) No defined relation between English attrition as first language and as second language has been verified in this present study while the idea that certain correlation between the two types of attrition sequences is supported.