A Study On Linguistic Features Of Vocabulary Attrition On Non-English Major Students

Language attrition,as the reverse process of language acquisition,has gradually become a new research field since the seminar on language skills attrition was held in the university of Pennsylvania in 1980.Language attrition refers to the process in which language skills and linguistic knowledge gradually are easy to be forgotten after a long period of not being exposed to a foreign language.Foreign studies on language attrition are not only abundant in theory,but also full of empirical study.In China,scholars' attention is paid late to language attrition,and it has experienced a process from foreign theories to empirical studies.But compared with plentiful empirical studies abroad,empirical studies on language attrition in China are relatively scarce.Language attrition is reflected in all aspects of language skills and knowledge,but one of the most concerned aspects is vocabulary attrition.However,most of the research subjects on vocabulary attrition in China are college students who have graduated for many years.In addition,the research focuses on the causes and change's characteristic of vocabulary attrition.There is still a lack of research on current college students and on the linguistic characteristics of vocabulary attrition.Therefore,to fill in the research gap,this study adopts the method of vocabulary test to study the linguistic characteristics of vocabulary attrition so as to solve the following research questions:(1)After the completion of college English courses,will non-English majors suffer from vocabulary attrition?(2)What's the linguistic features(word class,word length and word frequency)of vocabulary attrition?(3)What are the linguistic features of vocabulary attrition of high level and low level students respectively?In this paper,215 junior and senior year of non-English majors in Jiangxi Normal University are selected as subjects to take vocabulary test in October 2018.After data collection,SPSS 17.0 is used to conduct descriptive statistics and independent sample T test on the data,and the following conclusions are drawn:(1)After the completion of English courses,non-English major senior studentshave suffered from vocabulary attrition.(2)In terms of linguistic features: word class,word length and word frequency show different degrees of attrition.For the four parts of speech(noun,verb,adjective and adverb),the verb are attrited most.Among short length words,intermediate length words and long length words,long length words are the easiest to be forgotten,while intermediate length words and short words are relatively hard to be eroded.For high,intermediate and low frequency words,intermediate frequency words are the most difficult to be remembered.(3)High and low level students also have different degrees of attrition in terms of word class,word length and word frequency.High level students are more likely to have attrition in adjectives,long length words and intermediate frequency words,while low level students are more likely to have attrition in verbs,intermediate length words and intermediate frequency words.According to the above results,some suggestions on English teaching and learning for non-English majors are put forward to alleviate the phenomenon of vocabulary attrition.For instance,First of all,teachers should help and guide students to establish a correct learning motivation,making everyone understand the fact that English learning ought to be a process of active mastery.Secondly,for the most easily attrited word class,word length and word frequency vocabulary,teachers are supposed to increase efforts in teaching through more interesting teaching methods to help students to remember them.Finally,English learning is a continuous and progressive process.The study of college English should not end in the sophomore year.Schools can set up follow-up elective courses to help students continue to consolidate the words they have learned.