A Study Of Fossilization Among College English Majors In Oral English

When adults are learning a second language or foreign language, a process showed in their interlanguage:feature of incorrect language (pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, context and pragmatics) permanently stayed in their interlanguage, and become a way they understand or output a language, this is fossilization.Over the past thirty years or so, many foreign researchers have heatedly discussed the phenomenon of fossilization from different aspects, including its concept and causal factors, and have made lots of empirical researches. But in China, researches about fossilization have begun since the last decades. Up to now, researches at home basically stay at the stage of introducing theory studies from abroad, empirical validation and longitudinal studies for long time are quite deficient.In oral English learning process, many teachers and students have found that although language knowledge and abilities are acquiring more and more, still feeling very poor in oral English and very difficult to improve expression ability. There are some mistakes in oral English commit frequently. Oral English ability stays at a certain stage and they can hardly get obvious progresses as much as before in their oral English ability. To a great extent, oral English as one of the major means of output, oral fossilization blocks language learners’proficiency of the target language. Therefore, how to reduce or avoid fossilization is an inevitable problem deserving a good consideration.Most of the past literatures on fossilization conducted to prove the existence of fossilization in English writing. Less attention has been paid to oral English fossilization. Among those limited studies on oral English fossilization, the focus is on the oral English fossilization for non-English majors. In contrast, studies on oral English fossilization for English majors are rare.Inspired and stimulated by the close observation of the frequent errors and the competence plateau in college students’oral English, this thesis attempts to do empirical validation of fossilization among college English majors in oral English. The present empirical validation adopts the research method combining qualitative and quantitative studies, with the analysis of oral English tests and questionnaires being dominant, and interviews being supplementary. This study is designed to answer the following questions.1. Is there oral English fossilization phenomenon exists among English majors in college? What are the features of oral English fossilization among English majors in college?2. What are the causes of the oral English fossilization phenomenon among college English majors?In the first instance, the present empirical research randomly selected15subjects respectively from freshman, sophomore and senior in Yangtze University. And give them two oral English tests. Recorded students’oral tests and transcribed them into written materials for analysis. Then, carrying out interviews among English majors and faculty engaged in teaching Oral English at Yangtze University, their understanding on the English majors’oral English fossilization and also oral English teaching and learning is obtained. Later, make a questionnaire for English majors in Yangtze University. Finally, based on research findings, the present study has analyzing the limitations and put forward implications for further studies.The major findings are shown as follows:1. The collected data confirms the hypothesis of this study that the oral English fossilization exists among English majors. The data of test results of subjects are respectively statistical analysis from the phonetic and lexical levels, tries to finds the regularity of the distribution and frequency of oral English fossilization in each level.2. Based on the results of questionnaire-and the interview, and combined with the results of oral English tests, this study makes an attempt to analyze the causes of oral English fossilization from the aspects of internal and external. The internal factors are the main stream of oral English fossilization which includes negative transfer of native language, lack of the intrinsic motivation, intra-lingual transfer-overgeneralization and lack of quality input. External factors affect it indirectly such as, the impact of teaching methods and lack of effective feedback.3. Based on research findings, some effective teaching strategies are put forward in order to improving the quality of oral English teaching and learning and learners’ oral English communication ability. Mainly including avoiding negative transfer of native language, improving learners’learning motivation, improving the quality of input which including English teaching materials and teachers’teaching language, and teachers providing appropriate feedback.Finally, deeply understanding and analyzing oral English fossilization among college English majors can facilitate the understanding of the theory of foreign language learning and can also provide us with some useful inspirations for oral English teaching and learning. A clear awareness of its causes enables us take active and effective measures to prevent or at least minimize oral English fossilization. At the same time, the research can provide a reference to improve the overall quality of teaching and learning.