TheEnglishandNon—EnglishMajors’DifferenceinForeign LanguageAttrition：ACaseStudyofStudentsatHainanUniversities

1. Introduction

Most Chinese students begin to learn English from primary school， and English is of importance as a domain subject until high school， during which students and teachers spend their much energy and time on English teaching and learning. But in college， because students choose different majors， basically in addition to English majors， English is required as a required course， other professional students have not put too much energy as before in English learning， foreign language attrition is becoming more and more obvious. In the context of globalization， it is of great practical significance to master a foreign language for both English and non-English majors， mastering a foreign language can have a great help to their employment and development. Moreover， this study will enlighten the College English educators and the educated， especially for non English majors to find a more appropriate way to learn foreign languages， thus reducing their language attrition.

Most of the existing research study the first language attrition on objects who are adopted by families speaking another language from an early age， or the situation of foreign language loss caused by immigration， and achieved remarkable results. At present， there are few studies on foreign language attrition have been carried out in China， and researches objects oriented to English majors and non-English majors are also seldom. Therefore， the originality of this paper is to help English and non-English major students to find the causes of foreign language attrition so as to improve， reduce and slow the rate of foreign language loss.

This study plan to solve three questions：

（1）After a summer vacation， among English and non-English majors whether foreign language attrition happened in the four aspects：vocabulary， spelling， grammar and pronunciation？If happen， how about the attrition degree？

（2）How the personal factors （student learning motivation， influence of English frequency use） and external factors （influence of first language on second language） influence students foreign language attrition？

（3）If foreign language attrition happen， what are the differences between English majors and non-English majors？

2. Methodology

2.1 Participants

All participants are the first year of college students in Hainan University， including 120 （100female， 20 male）English major students from Foreign Languages Institute， and 120 （66female， 54male） non-English major students from three different majors—tourism management （23female， 17male）， mathematics （11female， 29male ） and Chinese literature （32female， 8male） . All together there are 240 students including 166 female and 74 male students， the average age of the students is 19 years old. 89% students have learned English for more than 12years， till now， non of the students have taken the College English Test Band 4 and none of them have ever been abroad.

2.2 Instruments

2.2.1 Language Background Survey

The answers to some questions about the participants language background can be estimated roughly the frequency of the subject contact with English vocabulary in order to make sure all the subjects enjoy approximately the same language background and exclude those who taking English classes or would be exposed to English intensively during the summer vocation.

2.2.2 Choosing the Test Words

In this thesis， all the words are selected from New Horizon College English （1） （2015）， which can at least guarantee that the participant have studied these words.

There are 90 English vocabularies， 20 sentence structures are adopted in the test. These words are selected randomly from the book of New Horizon College English （1） . The test includes four tasks， the first one being a translation task from English to Chinese； the second one being a spelling task from Chinese to English ；the third one being a multiple choice of pronunciation； the fourth one being multiple a choice of the right grammar. With the aim of measuring lexical attrition and syntax attrition over a period of disuse， the subjects are required to write down its meaning accordingly in Chinese in the first two parts and in the second two parts， the participants are required to tick the right answer of pronunciation and the right grammar. In order to get a true picture of subjects vocabulary level， they are asked to take the test anonymously.

2.2.3 Constructing the Test

Word-translation， word-spelling， pronunciation-recognition， and grammar—recognition are identified as the task adopted in the test. The first two parts are a kind of lexical recall task， the second part is a lexical recognition task， and the third part is a syntax recognition task， all of which are the most frequent type of task adopted in existing attrition studies. Although it cannot test the participants overall lexical and syntax knowledge， it is at least an indication that subjects acquisition and attrition of the words and sentences tested.

In order to reduce their fear of exposure their weak English knowledge and ensure a better results， the participants are required not to write down their names on the test paper and told that the English vocabulary test is only for research purpose and it is not a part of their final term examination.

2.2.4 Data Analysis Methods

After the test papers collected， the subjects performance in two times are all inputted into computer and were left to a statistical analysis on computer using the software SPSS 17.0 to run the analysis. Any blank answers would be regarded as wrong ones. Paired Samples t-test is used to determine the significance of the difference between vocabulary scores at two times.

3. Results

The results show that there are foreign language attrition happen in the four aspects： vocabulary， spelling， grammar and pronunciation both among English and non-English majors， and students suffer the most attrition in spelling， and the least in grammar. Furthermore， the attrition degree is more serious among non-English major than English majors. Finally， students of non-English majors seem to be influenced by both personal and external factors， while， students of English majors tend to be more affected by learning motivation. The results also present that no matter what majors， boys generally suffer from more serious attrition than girls.

In conclusion， in order to reduce students foreign language attrition， we should take actions in two aspects： 1. to raise students learning motivation， and， at the same time， teachers and school should put more efforts to provide good learning environment to reduce the impact of external factors as much as possible.

【作者簡介】李躍（1994.04.18- ），女，漢族，四川雅安人，海南大學，在讀研究生，研究方向：外國語言學及應用語言學。