The Study Of Grammatical Fossilization Errors In English Writing

The term fossilization was first proposed by Selinker in his book “interlanguage” 1970. Interlanguage fossilization is kind of phenomenon that when the learners study language at a certain stage, their English level would not improve any further but in stabilized state. This kind of phenomenon is very common in adult learners and become an obstacle for them. In the past 30 years, lots of research was made by experts at home and abroad, they made much analysis and explanation of this phenomenon and did empirical study.After literature reviews of previous studies of interlanguage and fossilization in recent years, the author tries to make a research about vocational college students? English composition analyzing the grammatical errors in order to find out the case of fossilization. There are two research questions:(1) Is there grammatical fossilization in most vocational college students? written English? If there is, what are the grammatical fossilization errors in the students? composition?(2)What reasons cause these grammatical fossilization errors? The author uses the questionnaire survey and empirical research. Firstly, the author hands out 100 pieces of questionnaires which are used to get the information of the students? current learning state in Vocational College of Gan Su Radio & TV University and the students? realization about English fossilization. Secondly, the experimental study, The experimental study lasts for about four months and contains four stages: pre-test, intensive training, post-test and contrast analysis. The students are asked to write 3 English compositions two times, during the pre-test period they write the 3 compositions, after they hand out their compositions the teacher will correct, count, analyze, categorize the errors and find the causes of these errors. And after that the teacher will use effective teaching strategies during their teaching and do some intensive training according to the students? error. And then the post-test is carried out, the students are asked to write these 3 compositions again with the same tile, and the teacher correct, mark and categorize the errors, and then make some comparisons with the former results, to see if there are errors that students make again and again. These grammatical errors can be identified as fossilized errors. Based on the results of research, the author finds out some effective ways to decrease the fossilization in students? writing. The teachers should adapt a proper teaching method to arouse students? motivation, to increase the TL input, to reduce the NL interference and give an appropriate and effective feedback to the students? composition. As students, during English learning, they must be self-confident and form a good habit of English learning. The author hopes that this research will give some help to the future research and help the teachers and students in English teaching and learning.