A Study On The Dynamic Systems Features Of Lexical Attrition Among College English Learners

Language attrition can be classified into two categories: first language attrition and foreign language attrition considering the attrited language.Foreign language attrition gains more attention of many researchers due to the universality of the phenomenon and the importance of research on it.The decline in the foreign language learners’ language skills is partly because they are not aware of the existence of language attrition and the importance of language retention.Therefore,studies on foreign language attrition based on the research background of language attrition is extremely important.A number of studies have indicated that language attrition is selective.The most obvious and earliest decline in language competence among the foreign language learners was found in lexical knowledge.Lexical knowledge is more prone to attrition than other aspects of language system after the termination of foreign language learning.The reason is that lexical knowledge is usually isolated information compared with grammatical knowledge and syntactic content.With the in-depth study of language attrition,attrition research on lexical knowledge has received extensive attention of researchers because of the importance of lexical knowledge in language development.Dynamic Systems Theory provides a new perspective for language attrition research since Larsen Freeman introduced it to applied linguistics in 1997.Within the context of Dynamic Systems Theory,language development as a dynamic system is characterized by non-linearity,sensitive dependence on initial conditions,complete interconnectednesss,etc.Language development is a process full of progress and regression from the perspective of the non-linear development,and lexical attrition is a reflection of the non-linear feature.Language proficiency level prior to attrition is taken as an initial state,the process of foreign language attrition has sensitive dependence on language proficiency level prior to attrition.The interconnectedness feature of Dynamic Systems highlights the interconnected relation of influencing factors,the process of foreign language attrition is affected by many factors.As for the studies of lexical attrition,some researchers mainly focus on the linguistic features of the attrited vocabulary,few studies about the Dynamic Systems features are conducted.Therefore,an empirical study on non-English major college students with the vocabulary tests and questionnaires is conducted for the purpose of investigating the phenomenon of lexical attrition after a four-month termination of formal English instruction.Besides,considering the feature of being sensitive to initial conditions,how foreign language learners’ proficiency level prior to attrition being taken as an initial condition affects lexical attrition is studied.Finally,based on the interconnectedness feature of Dynamic Systems,how factors such as foreign language learners’ proficiency level prior to attrition and exposure to foreign language affect the process of lexical attrition is illustrated.Therefore,the present study is guided by three principal research questions:(1)Will the foreign language learners suffer lexical attrition after a four-month termination of formal English instruction? What is the specific performance of lexical attrition?(2)Does language proficiency level prior to attrition as an initial state affect lexical attrition if there is lexical attrition phenomenon among the foreign language learners?(3)Will factors such as language proficiency level prior to attrition and exposure to foreign language co-determine the process of lexical attrition considering interconnectedness of Dynamic Systems?The results obtained in this study suggest:(1)There exists lexical attrition among the subjects after a four-month termination of formal English instruction,indicating that language development as a dynamic system is a non-linear process.(2)Language proficiency level prior to attrition as an initial state has a significant influence on lexical attrition.Learners with high proficiency level suffer less attrition than the learners with mid and low proficiency level.Furthermore,the difference in the degree of attrition among foreign language learners with different initial proficiency levels indicates that the process of lexical attrition has sensitive dependence on foreign language learners’ proficiency level prior to attrition.(3)Factors such as foreign language learners’ proficiency level prior to attrition and exposure to foreign language co-determine the process of lexical attrition.Based on the findings above,the implications and suggestions for foreign language learners and foreign language teaching are presented.Foreign language learners should have contact with foreign language and keep continuous foreign language learning after the termination of formal foreign language instruction.Teachers are expected to pay more attention to the instruction of lexical knowledge and introduce more efficient strategies so as to improve students’ foreign languageproficiency level and delay the speed of lexical attrition.