An Empirical Study On Language Attrition Of Non-English Major College Students

As the inverse process of language acquisition,language attrition is an important part of language learning.With the improvement of China's international statues and deeper open to the outside world,English has become more and more important.In China,students begin to learn English from 3rd grade in the primary school all the way up to college.A lot of effort and money were spent on the English learning.However,after a period of finishing formal English learning,the learners find the decrease of their English proficiency,with forgetting some vocabulary and grammar,which is called language attrition.Since 1980s when language attrition was recognized as a field in linguistics,it has gained a lot of achievements aboard.However,in China,the studies in this field is not so much,which doesn't get enough attention.The process of language attrition was influenced by a lot of factors.The paper investigated the non-English majors who have completed systematic English learning for 16 months to know the situation of their English attrition,and the factors affecting language attrition.The research questions are as followed:(1)Do non-English major students suffer English attrition after they finish College English course?If English attrition occurs,how are different language skills attrited?(2)Does pre-attrition English proficiency influence English attrition?If pre-attrition English proficiency influences English language attrition,how does it influence English attrition?(3)Does the amount of exposure to English will affect English attrition after subjects complete college English course?If it influences English language attrition,how does the amount of exposure to English affect English language attrition?(4)Are there any gender differences in language attrition of those non-English major college students?The paper investigated the situations of language attrition of 74 college students coming from Hubei University after they finish systematic English courses.The subjects took part in CET-6 in June 2016,which is the pre-test in the research.And another English proficiency test taken by them in November 2017 was the post-test of the research.The same examination paper was used in two tests to keep the same reliability and validity.Meanwhile,questionnaire and interview were used as well,aiming to collect quantitative and qualitative data.The results are(1)after completing systematic English for 16 months,the subjects suffer English attrition,and the productive skills are more vulnerable to attrition than perceptive skills;(2)the pre-attrition English proficiency will influence language attrition,and the higher the pre-attrition English proficiency,the lower the attrition rate is;(3)there exists a negative correlation between the amount of exposure to English and English attrition,meaning the more the amount of exposure to English,the less attrition the language learners suffer.(4)there is no gender difference in neither overall English proficiency nor sub-skills including listening,reading,and writing and translating.