An Empirical Study On The Attrition Of English Verbal Morphological Categories In Chinese Context

Language attrition, extensively regarded as the reversal of language acquisition, refers to the loss of any language or any portion of a language by an individual or a speech community with time due to the cease or reduction of use. Language attrition may fall into first language attrition and second language attrition. Most foreign researchers have been devoting to the study of foreign language attrition both theoretically and empirically while it is in China still a relatively unexplored field as only a handful of researchers are engaged in its theory-building and implication-hunting with few empirical explorations.In terms of describing the nature of the attrition process, one widely used and the most well-known theory is the Regression Hypothesis, suggesting that "attrition is the mirror image of acquisition", also simply expressed as "Last Learned, First Forgotten". The present study investigates the attrition sequence of English verbal morphological categories to justify Jakobson’s Regression Hypothesis based on a questionnaire and a test paper among147subjects who had finished their college study and worked at least for more than one year and had little contact with English or exposure to it after the termination of instruction and now are living and working in small cities and towns. Although a large number of studies have been conducted to explore the factors related to language attrition, different findings exist in different studies. So the further exploration of four of all factors affecting attrition process is also included in the study. Accordingly the study raises two research questions:(1) How are English verbal morphological categories attrited in Chinese context?(2) How do such four factors as proficiency level prior to attrition, time since the onset of attrition, gender and cross-linguistic interference affect the attrition of English verbal morphological categories in Chinese context? After data-analysis, the results suggest that:(1) The attrition sequence of English verbal morphological categories roughly reflects the inversed pattern of acquisition sequence in Chinese context, which is in accordance to Jakobson’s Regression Hypothesis.(2) The proficiency level prior to attrition is in inverse relation to the amount or/and rate of language attrition; participants with different time length since onset of attrition don’t show significant difference in English verbal morphological categories attrition in the present study, yet their performance declines with increasing time length since onset of attrition; there is no significant difference between male and female participants; cross-linguistic interference benefits the English verbal morphological categories retention in the study.These findings shed light on foreign language teaching and learning in Chinese context. First, linguistic items prone to attrition should be repeatedly emphasized and trained and learners are expected to timely and regularly review their acquired language knowledge. Second, a higher proficiency level of foreign language is advocated to be achieved before graduation. Third, a properly earlier onset of foreign language acquisition and expanding the exposure amount are beneficial for Chinese learners to retain foreign language skills. Fourth, learning of a second foreign language contributes to foreign language retention.