The Study Of Interlanguage Fossilization In English Writing Of Non-English Majors

Fossilization refers to the phenomenon that second language learners(SLLs) start to stagnate, leading to kind of mistakes fixed as a language habit, even the further study cannot make it change.For second language learners, fossilization may appear at any stage of their learning. Linguistically, fossilizational errors may be found at any level of SLLs are learning, for example, errors in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. They become the focus of language instructors and researchers because once fossilization happens to SLLs they have slim chance to further improve their learning. Therefore, the importance of this study is to make it clear that what are the fossilizational errors often made by college students, what are the reasons and what should be done to prevent the occurrence of interlanguage fossilization.This research conducts the investigation of the advanced learners as the subject and adopts both the research methods of questionnaire and testing to find the typical mistakes.The thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter One is the introduction to the current research, including the background, purpose, significance and the overview of this study.Chapter Two is the literature review of the relevant research results that are related to concepts of interlanguage and fossilization both at home and abroad.Chapter Three describes research design of this paper. The research questions and hypothesis, the participants, research instruments and data collection are included. This research combines questionnaire with collection of English composition by testing100college freshmen and sophomores in Yangtze University of Liberal Arts.Chapter Four analyzes and discusses fossilization in college English writings. According to the collected compositions and questionnaires of100non-major English college students, two types of interlanguage fossilization are found:vocabulary and grammar fossilization. Then possible causes of interlanguage fossilization are pointed as follows:1) Negative transfer;2) Inadequate target language input;3) Lack of learner’s learning motivation;4) Instructor’s unfruitful feedback5) Inappropriate learners’ learning strategies;6) Cultural background effect.Chapter Five is the conclusion section. At last, this article not only discourses upon the research of interlanguage fossilization about some contributions and shortcomings, but also gives later generation helpful inspiration to future study. In addition, this research also provides reasonable suggestions and effective measures on the basis of English learning and teaching so far.This thesis is the cornerstone of a great many domestic and foreign linguistic researchers. The final results will exert an important impact on English learners in the Chinese context through analysis of authentic material.