Dynamic Analysis On Monophthongs Attrition Of English Majors

Dynamic Systems Theory attracted extensive attention since applied in language research by Larsen Freeman in the late 20 th century.The theory combines both view of society and cognition and focuses on actual language process.It holds that language development is a non-linear process that is full of progress and retrogress.Language attrition is the inverse process of language acquirement.Foreign language attrition refers to decline or retrogress of language competence due to the reduction or stop of language use.Dynamic systems theory provides a new perspective for second language attrition research.This thesis adopts the chronological empirical method to research on monophthongs attrition of 50 non-English majors under the guidance of dynamic systems theory.The author participated in the four times recording and selected three times as research material.Praat is adopted to analyze dynamic changes of some parameters of the twelve English monophthongs and the results are reflected in graphs and grams.Spss is used to analyze related data and questionnaire is applied to analyze influencing factors in the attrition process.Besides,feedback is offered to the subjects in time.The result shows: firstly,monophthongs attrition runs through the whole process.For the twelve monophthongs,front vowels suffer the greatest attrition in which /e/ suffers the most while /i:/ suffers the least attrition.Back vowels take the second place in which /u:/ suffers a lot while /(?):/ suffers a bit.Central vowels show in best condition in which /(?)/ and /(?):/ show in progressive tendency,only /(?)/ suffers a small amount.Secondly,from the perspective time span of attrition,the thesis finds that the second time condition is better than the first time,however,attrition still occurs.The result shows both the effectiveness and limitations of phonetic class.Thirdly,the third time's attrition is the most serious which happened after the winter holiday.The result verified that language exposure is critical to reduce attrition.Finally,the thesis found that literacy level is an important factor affecting attrition degree and they show in negative relations.The thesis gives a systematic explanation for the above attrition results under the guidance of dynamic systems theory.The results testify the applicability of the theory in second language development.At last,the thesis provides some accessible suggestions both for second language learning and teaching.