A Study On Attrition Of English Writing Among College English Learners

Foreign language attrition,as a type of language attrition,has gradually attracted the attention of many scholars.In the field of foreign language attrition,the researches on foreign language attrition are conducted by different scholars from different perspectives,including the researches on the attrition of language skills of foreign language learners.Language skills include receptive skills(listening and reading)and productive skills(speaking and writing).The selectivity hypothesis suggests that productive skills are more sensitive to attrition than receptive skills.However,compared with the extensive studies on the attrition of receptive skills of foreign language learners,the studies on the attrition of productive skills are relatively few.Writing is one of the significant productive skills.When exploring the attrition of writing among foreign language learners,the studies on receptive skills along with the skill of writing are concerned.As for the attrition of writing,the overall language quality is mainly focused on,while writing complexity is rarely associated with the attrition of writing.This study,taking non-English major students as the research subjects,the English writing tests and questionnaires as the research instruments,explores the attrition of English writing of college English learners after finishing systematic English courses for six months from the perspectives of overall language quality and complexity of writing(syntactic complexity and lexical complexity)and investigates the influence of the factors of language proficiency level prior to attrition and English learning attitude on the attrition of English writing.The research questions are as follows:(1)After finishing systematic English courses for 6 months,what is the degree of the attrition of English writing among the college English learners?(2)What are the changes of the writing complexity(syntactic complexity and lexical complexity)?(3)What is the influence of the factors,such as language proficiency level prior to attrition and learning attitude on the attrition of English writing?The results indicate that(1)after finishing systematic English courses for 6months,college English learners suffer attrition of English writing.(2)Both syntactic complexity and lexical complexity of writing show a downward trend.(3)There is a significantly negative correlation between language proficiency level prior to attrition and the degree of the attrition of writing.Meanwhile,language proficiency level prior to attrition affects the changes of lexical complexity of writing.The learners with higher language proficiency level prior to attrition have lower degree of attrition of writing and lexical complexity;the learners with lower language proficiency level prior to attrition have higher degree of attrition of writing and lexical complexity.(4)The learners’ English learning attitude is significantly negatively correlated with the degree of the attrition of writing,and different English learning attitudes have different influence on the changes of lexical complexity of writing.The learners with positive English learning attitude have lower degree of attrition of writing and lexical complexity;the learners with negative English learning attitude have higher degree of attrition of writing and lexical complexity.Based on the results,the suggestions are provided for learning and teaching of English writing.Learners should not only focus more on the attrition of English writing,but also improve the frequency of exposure to English so as to enhance English writing proficiency to resist the attrition of writing.Teachers need to cultivate learners’ positive attitude towards English learning,create opportunities for learners to have more contact with English and strengthen English writing training to help learners reduce the attrition of writing.