A Study Of Fossilization Among College Non-English Majors In Oral English And Its Application

This empirical study is an exploration of fossilization from the perspective of the teaching of oral English. Since American linguistic Selinker first suggested the definitions of"Interlanguage"and"Fossilization", more attention is focused on them in the world. The study of interlanguage in China is much later, but it also brought a lot of findings. However, most of the present studies on interlanguage, which have contributed to the development of some theories, belong to descriptive studies and there is a lack of empirical research on practical teaching, especially on oral English. Oral English is one of the key skills for language and it is also the output method. Oral English fossilization can block foreign language learners to further improve their target language proficiency. Non-English majors are the main teaching objects in Chinese universities. It is necessary to carry out further studies of fossilization among college non-English majors in oral English.Based on the researches at home and abroad, the present study analyzes qualitatively and quantitatively the fossilization in the oral English production of 120 non-English majored students in Daqing Normal University. The features of fossilization in oral English, and the causes, including the internal causes and the external causes, are illustrated through error analysis. On the basis of the analysis of oral errors, this study proposes some suggestions to defossilize the oral production, develop the English learners'oral competence and English proficiency adequately as well as suggestions for future research.The present study offers an empirical research for the study of fossilization. In addition, it provides empirical evidence for curriculum design and English teaching on the basis of the developmental rules of the English learners'oral competence.