A Study On The English Language Fossilization Of Non-English Major Freshmen

Many second language learners have experienced a "plateau" period in thecourse of learning when the improvement of the L2proficiency suffers great hardshipby the repetition of many fixed errors. The fossilization phenomenon was proposed bythe American linguist Selinker (1972), who also stated that as much as95percent ofsecond language learners will encounter the fossilization. For the Chinese collegestudents who are learning English as a foreign language, English fossilizationphenomenon is inevitable. The habitual using of the fossilized language expressioncan lead to a fact that their interlanguage proficiency can hardly reach the level of thenative speakers even after a long period of acquisition. Fossilization phenomenon isprevalent within the group of college students, especially for the non-English majorcommunity, and it has become a huge obstacle for their promotion of English skills.Therefore, the development of the strategies to relieve or avoid the Englishfossilization is a valuable and challenging subject in the field of foreign languageteaching.Language is related with physiology since the brain is the carriers of alllanguages and thinking activities. According to neuroscience, learning can change thematerial structure of the brain. In a research carried out by modern neurolinguistics bymeans of fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), people can observe theinformation processing in the brain clearly and this suggests that, in a moregraphically way, the study on fossilization can resort to the research achievements ofthe cerebral activity.Based on one of the research outcomes of Montreal University scientistCollignon and Dr Franco Lepore of the Centre for Research in Neuropsychology andCognition, the author implements an empirical research to explore the influence of thevisual input and auditory input on the fossilized errors. With the application of thequestionnaire survey, error analysis and the contrastive analysis, the fossilized errorsof one Normal Group and two Control Groups’ subjects are classified and analyzed,meanwhile, some possible causes of the fossilization are summarized and thecorresponding recommendations are made. Classroom observation and interviews arealso adopted as supplementary manners to make sure the reliability and feasibility ofthe study. With the analysis of the data from the questionnaire survey and writtenerror, the probable causes of the fossilization for non-English major freshmen are summed up as internal factors and external factors. The former consists of thelearner’s individual differences, participation state and the motivations; and the latterincludes their negative first language transfer, the lack of authentic second languageinput, and the inappropriate input mode and imbalanced input content. Finally, somesuggestions are put forward in terms of relieving fossilization. They are of fouraspects as taking full advantage of the positive L1transfer, reducing the interferenceof the negative L1transfer, promoting the authenticity of L2input, balancing L2inputknowledge structure and cultivating positive and strong motivations.