An Empirical Study On Fossilization In The Output Of High-Frequency Words In College English Writing

Vocabulary is a necessary step to learn language, without which we can’ttalk about any relevant questions of linguistics. High-frequency words appearmore in all kinds of texts, therefore, they play an importance part in languagelearning. Vocabulary is also the most significant characteristic of Englishwriting. According to some researchers, the larger amount of the vocabularystudents have, the higher of the grades students get in English writing (MangGuanghui, Wen Qiufang,1999). However, in the practical English teaching,college students attach much importance to difficult words and ignore thestudy of high-frequency words in order to enlarge their vocabulary and gethigh grade in the test. Because of the shift of college students’ attention onvocabulary, their high-frequency words become fossilization.This thesis’ major questions include: firstly, to investigate thefossilization of the high-frequency words output in college English writing;secondly, to explore the factors that affect the fossilization in the output of high-frequency words on college English writing; thirdly, to find out thecorrelation between the diversity of high-frequency words output and thedistribution of students’ noticing on different words.In this thesis, the research is based on noticing theory of cognitivepsychology and both qualitative and quantitative methods are employed. Thesubjects in this study are fifty non-English majors who are sophomore from atraining center of Tai Yuan. The author makes a research and instruments arequestionnaire, test and interview. All the data collected were processed bySPSS17.0. Major findings indicate that: firstly, the fossilization exists in theoutput of high-frequency words on college English writing. Secondly, thefactors that affect the fossilization of high-frequency words include thatstudents have not enough input and cognition of high-frequency words.Thirdly, the correlation is significant at the0.1level between the diversity ofhigh-frequency words output and the distribution of students’ noticing ondifferent words.This thesis has the following implications both in teaching and learning.First and foremost, teachers should put more emphasis on high-frequency words among students during in-class vocabulary teaching. Secondly, studentsare supposed to pay much attention to develop an ability to use thehigh-frequency words. At last, teachers should attach importance to thedevelopment of thiscognitive basis of vocabulary ability.