Gender Differences Of Language Attrition Among Non-English Majors

Language attrition is identified as the inverse facet of language acquisition. It refers to theloss of any language or any portion of language by an individual or speech community. Theconference on the attrition of language skills was held at the University of Pennsylvania in1980.On this conference Richard Lambert used the word “attrition” first, which made languageattrition as a new area of academic language research established. After this, many scholarsabroad devoted themselves to the research of the theory and the practice of the languageattrition, and established a systematic framework of language attrition. Compared with theprosperity of the related research abroad, only few studies in China investigated the Englishattrition of Chinese students besides a limited number of compositions introducing the theory oflanguage attrition. The present study aims to explore the influence of gender on English attritionafter the subjects completed their systematic English learning for three months. The study alsoaims to guide the English teaching and learning in China.The quantitative study was conducted among154second-year non-English majors fromWuhan Technical College of Communications, who have completed one-year-and-a-halfsystematic English learning. English proficiency tests (English Band Three) were conductedtwo times during the three months, mainly discussing the following two questions:(1) As for the participants, have their English competence attrited after their systematicEnglish learning? Which kinds of language skills, listening, reading and writing are more likelyto suffer from attrition?(2) Are there any gender differences of language attrition on Listening,Grammar, Reading and Writing? If there are any, what are the differences?The data collected are analyzed through SPSS17.0. The major findings of the research canbe summarized as follows:(1) All the participants suffered English attrition more or less after three months ofnon-English learning. The writing skills are more vulnerable to suffer attrition than listeningand reading skills.(2) There are no significant gender differences among the subjects in termsof listening and reading skills.(3) Gender as a factor has a great effect on the English attritionof the subjects. Females have suffered more attrition than males in all writing skills (content,structure and the total writing) except for grammar.To conclude, the present study verified the opinion that productive skills are morevulnerable to suffer attrition than receptive skills. Meanwhile, the present study provided someimplications for English teaching and learning in China.