An Empirical Research On Attrition Of English Reading And Writing Abilities Of Non-English Majors

Language attrition,as the reverse process of language acquisition,plays an important role on foreign language learning.The first foreign language of most Chinese learners is English.But in the process of learning English,learners find that once they stop formal English learning,their English level will decline.This is the concrete manifestation of language attrition.Since the first conference on attrition of language skills was held at the University of Pennsylvania in 1980,researchers have paid more and more attention to language attrition.Up to now,many foreign scholars have made great achievements in this field,but only a few domestic scholars focus on this field,which has not attracted enough attention.Language attrition is influenced by many factors.By investigating the phenomenon of language attrition of non-English majors who ended their formal English classroom learning 20 months ago,this paper mainly studies the attrition of students’ reading and writing abilities,aiming to answer the following questions:(1)Have their English reading and writing attrition occurred after the non-English majors finish their college English courses? If they occur,which language ability is more vulnerable to attrition?(2)Does the initial English reading and writing proficiency of non-English majors influence the English reading and writing attrition?(3)After non-English majors complete the college English course,will the amount of exposure of English reading and writing affect English reading and writing attrition of English reading and writing abilities?(4)Are there any gender differences in English reading and writing attrition of non-English majors?This paper investigates the specific situation of foreign language attrition of 64 college students from a comprehensive university in Hubei Province after they completed systematic English courses.The 64 students took part in CET-4 held by the Ministry of Education in December 2017,which is the pretest in this study.And they took the English proficiency test in February 2020,which was the posttest in this study.The test papers of the two tests are the same CET-4 paper of the Ministry of Education to ensure the consistency of reliability and validity.At the same time,the data collected from questionnaire and interview are analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively by Excel and SPSS 25.0.The results are as follows:(1)20 months after the completion of systematic English learning,these subjects’ English reading and writing abilities have suffered from attrition,and with more writing attrition than reading attrition;(2)The initial English proficiency of non-English major studentswill affect English attrition,and the higher the initial English proficiency,the lower the English reading and writing attrition rate is;(3)There exists a negative correlation between the amount of exposure to English and English reading and writing attrition,meaning the more the amount of exposure to English,the less attrition the language learners suffer.(4)There is no apparent significant gender difference in the students’ English reading and writing proficiency.