A Research On The Affecting Factors Of English Vocabulary Attrition Of The Mongolian Non-english Majors

English vocabulary attrition refers to English vocabularies lost byEnglish learners after stopping learning or using them. Nowadays, languageattrition has become a modern linguistic research concern, which attracts theattention of linguists and FL educators both at home and abroad. There aremany variables proven to be the influencing factors of FL attrition. Such asthe FL proficiency level prior to attrition, period of attrition, contact with theFL, modes of FLA/ELT, social emotional factors, literacy, age at onset of FLattrition, gender, etc. The reflection and exploration of FL teaching based onthe studies of affecting factors of FL attrition is a hot issue in the field oflanguage attrition research.This study adopts a combination of quantitative and qualitativeapproach to investigate the affecting factors of English vocabulary attritionby134Mongolian non-English major seniors6months after they havefinished the systematical college English courses, aiming at getting someenlightenment for English learning and teaching from the research, andhelping Mongolian students who learn English as L3resist English attritionand promote their English maintenance.The research questions are as follows:(1) To what degree does English vocabulary attrition occur whenMongolian senior students (in Inner Mongolia Normal University)discontinue the courses of English?(2) What main factors (individual and social) affect the Mongolianstudents‘English vocabulary attrition? How dothese factorsaffect them?(3) What enlightenment (from the aspects of English learning andteaching) can we get from those factors to help Mongolian students reducethe English attrition and enhance their English maintenance?Three major instruments are applied in this research:(1) An English vocabulary test is used to measure the vocabulary attrition of the subjects;(2)a questionnaire is applied to investigate the students‘attitudes towardsEnglish learning;(3) a semi-structured interview is planned to find out howthe students‘contact of English, language environment and the Englishlearning&teaching models affect their English vocabulary attrition. Thefinal analysis of those dada is taken with the help of SPSS19.0(Chineseversion).The major findings are addressed as:(1) English vocabulary attrition indeed occurs6months after theMongolian students discontinue the English courses. The extent to theirEnglish vocabulary attrition is12.22%higher than that of6months before.The attrition extent for the students from the adjustment class (theSlow-Class) is much greater (95.31%higher) than that from the advancedclass (the Fast-Class).(2) The main affecting factors include: the proficiency level of English isnegatively correlated with the degree of the vocabulary attrition. Thediscontinuity period of one‘s English learning is a crucial affecting factor ofEnglish vocabulary attrition. The attitude towards English learning is a veryimportant effecting factor. Learners who hold positive attitude towardsEnglish learning have less English attrition. It is found that the social factorsof English attrition are correlated with the individual factors. The lack ofcommunicative context and contact of English in the L1&L2-centeredenvironment adds many problems to existing English teaching and learningmethods. The students‘negative attitudes towards English learning makethem lack intrinsic motivation and contact of English, and make them short ofautonomous―lifelong‖learning awareness. With time passing, these factorsmay influence their initial proficiency level, and lead to their decline ofEnglish skills when they discontinue learning English.(3) Some enlightenment for English learning and teaching is drawnfrom researching the factors of Mongolian students‘English attrition. Theyare enhancing the learners‘autonomous―lifelong‖learning to cultivate English maintenance consciousness and appropriate English learningattitudes, enhancing students‘comprehensible input in English teaching, anddeveloping the―output-oriented English teaching‖.Finally, the author puts forward some limitations and suggestions forthe research of English attrition.