An Empirical Study Of Vocational School English Teachers’ Language Attrition-from The Perspective Of Dynamic System Theory

Dynamic system theory takes the view that the process of second language acquisition isnot a simple linear process but affected by various factors. The language elements are notisolated but correlate with each other. The process is full of repetition, movements and setbacks.Language attrition, as the reverse process of language acquisition means that due to reduce orcease of a certain language, or the interference by other languages, the ability and the skills oflanguage uses tend to decline. It is an inevitable phenomenon of language acquisition withmany similarities.Many linguists have explained the reason of language attrition from forgetting curvetheory. The findings of their studies put a solid foundation for the future language forgettingtheory from the perspective of psychology. However, it should be pointed out that languageattrition is not a process of forgetting, but filled with various factors. Similar to languageacquisition, language attrition is also a dynamic system influenced by various factors. It has aclose connection with language attrition. For example, dynamic system theory holds the viewthat the initial state is of great importance to the development of the system, which correspondswith the critical threshold hypothesis in language attrition. Besides, dynamic system theorybelieves that the system always go into a kind of “attractor state” which makes the systeminterrupted. From certain perspective, this is language attrition. In order to breakthrough thisstate, language learners should take measures to adjust their learning strategies to alleviate thissituation. Dynamic system theory takes an overview of both social factors and cognitive ones,therefore, different from psychological theory, dynamic system theory provides a newperspective and research paradigm for language attrition. This paper, taking in-serviceVocational School English teachers as the research subject, tries to analyze the internal andexternal factors of foreign language attrition and the relationship between language attrition anddynamic systems theory. The thesis hopes to put forward the corresponding suggestions toalleviate teachers’language attrition.This thesis studied118vocational school English teachers in Shandong Xiehe College andLai Wu Vocational School as research subjects and carried out the research by some methods such as English diagnostic tests, questionnaire and interview with an aim to analyze thelanguage attrition existed in those research subjects. First, the research aimed to explore thedegree and the order of teachers’ language attrition through diagnostic tests with a comparisonwith that of college students. Next, in order to figure out that whether those research subjectshave realized the existence of language attrition through the use of questionnaire and interview.At last, based on those research results, the thesis aimed to carry out may effective strategies forteachers to avoid language attrition and consolidate the language level of teachers. The majorresults of this study are as follows:(1) there appears an obvious attrition of those subjects afterthe reduce or cease of language use;(2) the attrition of different language skills’ attrition isconnected with their teaching experience, and the threshold (i.e. the initial state of the system)plays an important part in the language attrition process;(3) most of the participants admit thatthey have experienced language attrition and the main reasons for language attrition are theirown internal factors, for example, they may be different in the original language level andlearning habits after work. As to the external factors, it may involve teaching environment andin-service training program.The above research findings correspond with the forgetting curve theory and the thresholdhypothesis. Besides, the study also proves that the threshold equals to TEM-4level. Based onDST, the author analyze the reason of language attrition from internal and external factors inorder that it will make the teachers be aware of the existence of language attrition, change theunreasonable habit or attitude towards learning and try to surpass the critical threshold in orderto alleviate their language attrition. So the teachers should also increase their learningmotivation and enhance the chances and frequency of using English both in class and after class.Besides, vocational school should provide some in-service training programs for teachers,which is of realistic significance for teachers’professional development.