Fossilization In Interlanguage And Its Implication In College Non-English Majors

The term"Interlanguage"proposed by Selinker in 1972 is applied to elaborate the process of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). In the course of research on interlanguage, a phenomenon is always being concerned by researchers—fossilization. Fossilization is widespread in the process of SLA and has been seriously addressed by a number of researchers in the field of applied linguistics nowadays. Though interlanguage fossilization is a popular issue of second language acquisition research, it has not been sufficiently explored on both theoretical and empirical levels in the literature. On the basis of formal research, the thesis not only tracks down the actual reason of fossilization, but also puts forward a series of executable suggestions on strategies preventing fossilization and strategies of de-fossilization.The purposes of the study are: (1) to investigate the L2 learning experience of advanced English learners whose IL tends to be fossilized before reaching proficiency; (2) to find out the cause of fossilization; (3) to advance de-fossilization suggestions. Nevertheless, the first and foremost significance of the study is that it offers the de-fossilization suggestions and presents the implications for FLT, aiming at helping L2 learners'fossilization and promoting communication ability. This study is mainly based on Selinker's theories of interlanguage and fossilization.The investigation follows the descriptive research where case study of error analysis and general survey are carried out. The author collects the persistent errors from the subjects and calculates their frequencies of occurrences. Thus, common errors are analyzed, a classification of fossilization is made and the general tendency of fossilization is revealed. Then, a survey is designed and conducted, attempting to find out the causes of fossilization. Based on the analysis, the thesis proposes some strategies to overcome fossilization: in external aspect, the author suggests the following methods: applying proper instruction, choosing proper textbooks, taking advantage of multi-media and enhancing intrinsic motivation; in internal aspect, the author suggests two methods: the first is to strengthen the L2 knowledge accumulation, and the second is to remove the negative affective interference.