| English vocabulary is one of the essential elements of English language, and vocabulary learning is also the"time consuming and inefficient"phenomenon ubiquitously for college students today, especially for non-English majors. However, in the past researches on vocabulary teaching and learning pay more attention to vocabulary acquisition in second language acquisition (SLA) and less to its reversal aspects---lexical attrition. In face of the problems of increasing lexical attrition among non-English college students, its research will play an invaluable role in vocabulary teaching and learning.Until recently, it was first formally recognized at the conference on the Attrition of Language Skills at the University of Pennsylvania in 1980. Since then, the term"language attrition"has commonly been understood to refer to"the loss of any language or any portion of language by an individual or speech community"(Freed, 1982, p1), and the study of language attrition as a field of academic research has been very popular abroad. But in China, where none of scholars has reported any research into language attrition of Chinese students except for the simple review to the theory and research results of westerns.This paper aims to explore the attrition of the productive and receptive vocabulary as well as verbs and nouns of non-English majors within the theoretical framework of lexical attrition and English vocabulary teaching strategy. The present study randomly chose 30 seniors of the subjects who had passed CET4 in Chinese department in Yi Li Normal University by collecting and analyzing the data from the instruments of productive and receptive test papers (containing verbs and nouns). Till then, the author hopes to reduce the amount and slow down the speed of lexical attrition, find out better vocabulary teaching strategy and improve the effectiveness of vocabulary teaching and learning.The results show that: 1) after 3 and 6 months pause of English learning, the amount of vocabulary decreases on the whole and the amount of productive and receptive vocabulary knowledge attrition is significant; moreover, productive vocabulary knowledge is more easily lost than receptive vocabulary knowledge; 2) the attrition of word class is also remarkable after stopping English vocabulary learning and verbs is more easily attrited than nouns comparatively. However, at the end of 6 months, the amount of nouns attrition is more than verbs.Based on the results of the study, the paper proposes the corresponding solutions to the problems in the process of English vocabulary teaching and learning, and makes some suggestions for vocabulary teaching of college teachers and curriculum planning. At the same time, it expects to provide a new perspective for language acquisition research. Finally, some limitations and suggestions for further studies in this field are also pointed out.This thesis covers five chapters. It begins with an introductory chapter setting the background of the research. This chapter also clarifies the significance and the purpose of the study simply. Chapter two literature reviews give a brief account of the field of language attrition, especially in abroad as well as lexical attrition. Chapter three establishes the theoretical framework for the present study. Chapter four explains the ways that data are collected and procedures by which the data are analyzed, and presents the results of data analyses in relation to research questions. Chapter five summarizes the results of study. Then it discusses pedagogical implications of the study. On the basis of an analysis of potential limitations in this study, suggestions for the further study will also be pointed out.
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