A Study Of Fossilization In EFL Learning Context

Fossilization has been attracting researchers'and pedagogic practitioners'attention for their belief that fossilization is prevalent in Second Language Acquisition (SLA). However, diverging epistemologies have led to conflicting views about the definition, nature, scope, and research methodology of fossilization. The present study, adopting an emergentist view of language and SLA, approaches fossilization as irrationalities in rational contingency learning, and proposes solutions which are tested in the empirical research of the study.Emergentists view language as a dynamic, perpetually evolving system in which structures come into being spontaneously as a result of long-term interactions between components in the system. Language acquisition is considered as the result of the interactions between innate abilities in learners, which are employed in language acquisition as well as other forms of cognition, and the learners'experiences in the linguistic, cultural, and social environment. As emergentism resorts to connectionism for computational model, emergentist view of SLA employs contingency learning theory to approach language acquisition and considers language acquisition as associative learning driven by frequency. Due to second language (L2) learners'selective attention resulting from overshadowing, blocking, interference, and perceptual learning shaped by first language (L1), there exist fragile features in SLA, which, however available as a result of frequency, recency, or context, fall short of intake. Therefore, fossilization is irrationalities in rational contingency learning as a result of selective attention. Addressing fossilization from an emergentist perspective, on the one hand, offers explanations for emerging phenomena that other theories of fossilization fail to explain; and on the other, it echoes with Noticing Hypothesis (Schmidt, 1990) and the rationale behind the practice of focus on form (Long, 1988, 1991; DeKeyser, 1998; Long and Robinson, 1998; Doughty & Williams, 1998a, 1998b; Doughty, 2001) in SLA, and points to the possibility of defossilization by adjusting selective attention.The empirical research of the present study consists of a questionnaire study, a pseudo-longitudinal study and three quasi-experimental studies. The purpose of the questionnaire study and the pseudo-longitudinal study is to investigate the evidence of fossilization. By means of eliciting L2 learners'self report and L2 teachers'observation, the questionnaire study obtains diachronic information on a larger basis compared with case studies. It solves the problem in fossilization research that is referred to as"assuming rather than demonstrating fossilization"(Long, 2003, p.492). The study proves that fossilization exists in the interlanguage (IL) of Chinese English learners in foreign language learning context for the five features in English (past tense marking, plural marking, third person singular marking, distinguishing'he'and'she', and articles). The pseudo-longitudinal study aims to investigate the existence of fossilization by obtaining diachronic data in a cross-sectional study. The findings of the pseudo-longitudinal study point to the tendency of fossilization in the IL of the science major university students investigated for three features: past tense marking, third person singular, and articles.For the three quasi-experimental studies in this research, stabilization rather than fossilization is chosen as the object of research because theoretically it offers a better explanation and in practice it is easier to be operationalized. In this line of thought, three quasi-experimental studies are carried out to probe into the possibility of destabilization. Experiment 1 is designed to investigate the effects of different types of feedback on L2 learners'errors on L2 learners'noticing and the subsequent development of the three stabilized target features (past tense marking, third person singular marking, and articles) in the learners'IL. As predicted by emergentist fossilization theory, more explicit feedback leads to more noticing, and more noticing in turn results in more development of the stabilized features.Aiming to investigate the possibility of destabilization, experiment 2 and experiment 3 employ input enhancement and enhanced output respectively as consciousness-raising activities. The two experiments study the effects of instructional interventions on the development of stabilized English articles and past tense marking in L2 learners'IL. The findings of the two studies, together with those in experiment 1, jointly point to the possibility of destabilization. By theorizing fossilization and SLA from an emergentist perspective, the present study offers 1) explanations for a myriad of behavioral reflexes under the construct of fossilization, and 2) solutions to defossilization and destabilization. It avoids pitfalls in fossilization research by providing evidence of fossilization through a questionnaire study and a pseudo-longitudinal study. Arguing for choosing stabilization instead of fossilization as the object of empirical studies on the basis of theoretical soundness and pedagogical feasibility, the present study proves the possibility of destabilization through three quasi-experimental studies. It will contribute to the growing body of theory and research that has addressed fossilization and hold significant implications for language pedagogy in China.