A Study Of Second Language Function Words Acquisition Based On Attention Theory

English function words, fewer than400, this small amount accounts for over halfof the words used in daily speech. Despite the high frequency of their use, they arethe hardest to master when learning a new language. Even learners with higherlanguage proficiency still have somewhat problems in the proper use of functionwords, since learners’ attention resource capacity is limited, thus it is quite hard forlearners to direct their attention to both form and meaning simultaneously. Thus incommunication practice, in which meaning is more stressed than form, learnersusually neglect the little or no meaning function words. For the significance offunction words, how to direct learners’ attention to function words should beconcerned.Attention, the cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one thing whiledeliberately ignoring the other things, is an important information processingmechanism throughout all human cognitive and psychological activities, which isconsidered the prerequisite for careful observation, good memories, creativeimagination and correct thinking. To date, many researchers have applied attention toexplore the cognitive process of language learning theoretically, however there arevery few empirical studies conducted to explore the role of attention in secondlanguage function words acquisition. Therefore, the author carried out an empiricalstudy of attention strategy.This study reports a study involving65non-English major sophomores fromSichuan International Studies University, which lasts for about15weeks. By meansof theoretical research, questionnaire, interview and experiment based on secondlanguage acquisition and attention theory, this study attempts to explore the role ofattention strategy facilitating students’ acquisition of second language function words.Such exploration is devoted to serving the English teaching and learning inChina.This thesis mainly addresses the following questions: (1) Do college non-English majors have a strong consciousness of functionwords study?(2) Is attention strategy instruction effective for college non-English majors’acquisition of function words?All the data in the thesis are processed by SPSS16.0. employing independentSample T-test and Paired Sample T-test. The result shows that attention strategyinstruction is able to improve students’ consciousness of function words study and tofacilitate their acquisition of function words, but students need to review timely afterclass so as to achieve the goal of long-term memory.