A Study On The Fossilization In Interlanguage In College Oral English Teaching

The fossilization phenomena of interlanguage are common in foreign language learning. In recent years, especially, more and more researchers in applied linguistics pay special attention to these phenomena. The seeking for the causes of fossilization and the methods of avoiding or preventing it has been a hot topic in second language acquisition. However, most of the previous researches are theoretical rather than pedagogical, and very few are about oral English teaching. Actually, fossilization in oral English, to a great extent, prevents second language learners from making further progress. Therefore, how to reduce and avoid fossilization phenomena in oral English teaching should be solved urgently.On the basis of previous studies, especially Selinker's five central processes, and through an empirical experiment and questionnaire, this thesis sets out to analyze the errors made by the subjects during the experiment from phonological, lexical, syntactic and pragmatic levels respectively. Based on the analyses, some corresponding measures are also proposed to avoid and reduce the fossilization phenomena in college oral English teaching.The main causes summarized in the thesis are as follows: negative transfer of native language, overgeneralization, communication strategies blockage, lack of learning motivation, lack of authentic input, ineffective instruction and inappropriate feedback to errors. All these causes work together that the fossilization phenomena in second language learners' oral English occur. The corresponding measures are: reducing the chance of first language interference, enhancing the training of learning strategies, increasing the quantity of oral output, enhancing learning motivation, increasing the quantity and improving the quality of second language input and giving learners appropriate feedback.