The Influence Of Learning Motivation And English Proficiency On The Attributive Clause Attrition Of Senior High School Students

Language attrition,regarded as the inverse process of language acquisition,refers to the phenomenon that a bilingual or multilingual person gradually loses language ability because of the reduction in usage or exposure to a particular language.It was not until 1980 when the language attrition seminar was held at Pennsylvania State University that the research on language attrition attracted scholars’ attention.The following decades have witnessed numerous research on language attrition from theoretical and empirical aspects.However,compared with the profusion of research abroad,language attrition has attracted limited attention in China.Besides,most language attrition research focuses on vocabulary instead of grammar,and few studies investigated the relationship between learning motivation and grammar attrition.The present study investigates the relationship between motivation type,motivation intensity,proficiency level before attrition and senior high school students’ attributive clause attrition.The research questions are listed below:(1)Which motivation type is better in resisting attrition? Are there differences in the English attributive clause attrition among students with instrumental,situational and cultural motivation?(2)What is the relationship between students’ learning motivation intensity and the English attributive clause attrition degree? Is there a difference in the attributive clause attrition between students with strong and weak motivation?(3)What is the relationship between students’ language proficiency and the English attributive clause attrition degree? Is there a difference in the attributive clause attrition between students with high proficiency and low proficiency levels?A quantitative study was conducted among 184 grade ten students who learn English as a foreign language.Two research tools,the attributive clause tests and the motivation questionnaire,were used in this study.The attributive clause tests consisted of three types of tasks: multiple-choice questions,filling the blanks and sentence combination.The motivation questionnaire was adapted from Gao(2003).The pre-test and the motivation questionnaire investigation were carried out after students acquired the knowledge about the attributive clause immediately,and the post-test was carried out three months later.There was no review of attributive clause knowledge during the attrition period.The data are analyzed by the SPSS 22.0,and the major findings are as follows:(1)The subjects with cultural motivation perform best in maintaining the knowledge of the attributive clause.However,the attributive clause attrition of students with instrumental and situational motivation is evident.In addition,there is no significant difference between the attrition of students with instrumental motivation and students with situational motivation.However,there is a significant difference between the attrition of students with instrumental motivation and students with cultural motivation.There is a significant difference between the attrition of students with situational motivation and students with cultural motivation.(2)There is a negative correlation between students’ learning motivation intensity and their attrition of the English attributive clause.There is a difference in the attributive clause attrition between students with strong and weak motivation.Students with strong learning motivation tend to perform better than students with weak learning motivation.(3)There is a negative correlation between students’ language proficiency level prior to attrition and their attrition of the English attributive clause.There is a difference in the attributive clause attrition between students with high and low proficiency levels.Students with high English proficiency level have a better performance in maintaining the attributive clause knowledge than those with low English proficiency level.The present study verifies the Inverse Hypothesis.Meanwhile,the study tries to put forward some practical pedagogical suggestions for English attributive clause teaching and learning.Firstly,teachers and students need to realize that revision is an important step in learning.Secondly,teachers should attach great importance to the cultivation of students’ deep motivation,especially cultural motivation.Thirdly,teaching design should focus on helping students reach the critical threshold.