【作者】 王湘云；

【导师】 刘振前；

【作者基本信息】 山东大学 ， 英语语言文学， 2010， 博士

【摘要】 外语磨蚀指学习过外语的人中断外语学习后对外语语言技能的丢失。外语磨蚀是个普遍现象,它发生在世界的每一个角落,损耗着或年老或年少的语言使用者的语言技能。直到20世纪80年代,外语教学与习得界的专家才开始系统地调查语言磨蚀的性质、语言磨蚀发生的准确环境条件以及可能影响外语磨蚀的因素。经过30年的发展,国外外语磨蚀研究在今天已经“达到青春期”。然而,尽管语言磨蚀研究在最近取得了重大进展,但是其研究领域还不够广泛,理论亦不够成熟,而且主要以描述性研究为主。在中国直到新千年的开始,少数几个来自心理学界和外语教学界的专业人士才认识到语言磨蚀在外语教学中所起的重要作用,并开始着手将语言磨蚀研究引入中国,然而,他们尚未开始进行任何以中国英语学习者为研究对象的系统的英语磨蚀实证研究。本研究主要研究表现在中国英语专业本科毕业生身上的英语磨蚀现象,力图回答以下四个问题：(1)英语专业大学生作为外国语学得的英语知识在停用一段时间后是否存在着磨蚀现象?如果有,磨蚀到何种程度?磨蚀的模式又如何?(2)不同语言能力的磨蚀程度是否相同?磨蚀模式是否一样?(3)语言磨蚀是否有镜像特征,即磨蚀顺序是否与习得顺序恰好相反?(4)语言磨蚀的速度是否与中国特有的英语语言使用环境以及毕业生对英语的态度相关?如果相关,相关程度又如何?因为横截面研究法经济、省时,而且可以在某一特定时间对一个较大的被试群体进行较多变量的研究,便于获得样本的整体概况,所以本研究采用这种方法作为研究方法。本研究的研究工具有两个：一份英语测试卷和一份调查问卷。鉴于本研究是针对英语专业毕业生的接受性语言能力的研究,即对听力理解能力、词汇知识和阅读理解能力的研究,作者特意设计了一个包括5道题目的听写子测试卷、一个包括40道多项选择题目的词汇子测试卷和一个包括20道多项选择题目的阅读理解子测试卷。词汇和阅读子测试卷均由“非常易题目”、“容易题目”、“困难题目”、“非常难题目”组成。本研究使用的调查问卷主要借用了加德纳的“态度／动机测试量表”,共有42个题目,主要调查被试的语言态度与其语言保持之间的关系。本研究的被试由五组人员组成：A组(刚入校的一年级学生),B组(二年级学生),C组(四年级学生),D组(两年没有使用英语的英语专业毕业生)和E组(四年没有使用英语的英语专业毕业生)。A组(N=240)、B组(N=240)和C组(N=240)被试分别来自经济发达地区和欠发达地区的12所不同类别的大学。D组(N=238)和E组(N=240)被试来源更加多样,他们来自7个不同的省或直辖市,毕业于不同地区的186所大学或学院。其中D组被试有144名女性和94名男性,年龄在22岁和27岁之间,E组被试有154名女性和86名男性,年龄在24岁和30岁之间。由于本研究被试样本中包括了新注册的一年级学生,因此调查分两次进行。第一次调查在2009年5月进行,调查对象为B组、C组、D组和E组被试,第二次调查在2009年10月中旬进行,调查对象为A组新注册的一年级学生。以SPSS 13.0为分析工具,对被试在测试卷和问卷的成绩进行的分析结果表明：(1)毕业生们的整体语言能力受到了系统的磨蚀。(2)毕业生们的具体语言能力(听力理解能力、词汇知识和阅读理解能力)都也受到了严重磨蚀。令人遗憾但对本研究却很有意义的一点是,E组被试的词汇知识的磨蚀甚至已经延展到了他们在高中学习到的知识。(3)英语磨蚀是以这样一种顺序发展的：先学得的知识会保持到最后,后学得的知识会最先忘却。换言之,磨蚀的顺序与习得的顺序相反。(4)被试对语言技能的保持很大程度上受到了他们对语言的整体态度(r=0.713)的影响,具体地说,受到了他们的对中国英语学习和使用状况的看法、对英语语言的态度、对其他英语学习者的态度、对英语语言的兴趣、对英语语言学习的态度(0.705≤r≤0.761)的影响,以及调查问卷中的关于被试对待英语语言态度的任何一个项目(0.313≤r≤0.759)的影响。而且,被试对语言的整体态度影响着他们听力理解能力、词汇知识和阅读理解能力的保持(0.604≤r≤0.872)。作为一个旨在揭示英语作为外语磨蚀的模式和原因的研究,本研究对外语磨蚀研究的贡献是：首先,本研究发现了表现在中国英语专业大学毕业生身上的作为外语学得的英语的磨蚀模式,而且发现磨蚀模式非常符合遗忘曲线理论。其次,磨蚀原因的发现有助于提出遏制磨蚀或至少减缓磨蚀速度的措施。第三,作为国内第一项关于英语磨蚀的系统的实证研究,本研究丰富了国际外语磨蚀研究。最后,本研究尽管不尽完善,但却为未来的国内英语磨蚀研究提供了一个探索性的理论框架。更多还原

【Abstract】 Foreign language attrition refers to the loss of language skills by those who have studied and then discontinued the use of a foreign language. As a very common phenomenon, foreign language attrition is an important issue because it occurs in every corner of the world, taking its toll among young and old alike. It was not until the 1980s that experts in circles of foreign language teaching and acquisition began to systematically investigate the nature of attrition, the precise conditions under which it occurs, and the factors that might affect foreign language attrition. After thirty years of research, foreign language attrition study abroad is now "reaching puberty". Notwithstanding recent significant developments, language attrition study is not yet extensive or theoretically sophisticated enough, and it is mainly descriptively oriented. In China, a handful of professionals from psychology and foreign language circles, aware of the importance of attrition study in foreign language teaching and learning, began to introduce language attrition study into China at the beginning of the new millennium. However, they have not begun any systematic empirical study of English language attrition with Chinese English learners as subjects.This dissertation, aimed at studying English attrition exhibited in Chinese college English major graduates, endeavors to answer the following four questions:(1) Does attrition occur in English majors after certain period of disuse, and, if so, to what degree and in what kind of pattern? (2) Are different language skills affected by attrition to the same degree, and if so, do they exhibit the same pattern of development over time? (3) Is there a mirror effect in language attrition, or is the order of attrition in opposition to the order of acquisition? (4) Is the rate of attrition related to the English language use situation in China and/or to the graduates’attitudes towards the English language, and, if so, to what degree?A cross-sectional method is employed in this study because it is economical and time-saving and can be conducted with more variables on a larger number of participants to produce a general profile of a population at a given time.Two instruments were used in this study:an English language test and a questionnaire. Since this research is mainly limited to the measurement of the participants’ receptive skills, namely, their listening comprehension skills, lexical knowledge, and reading comprehension skills, the language test is composed of a five-item dictation subtest, a forty-item multiple-choice vocabulary subtest, and a twenty-item multiple-choice reading comprehension subtest. Both the vocabulary and the reading comprehension subtests are composed of "Very Easy Items", "Easy Items", "Difficult Items", and "Very Difficult Items". The questionnaire, mainly adapted from Gardner’s classic Attitude/Motivation Test Battery, is composed of 42 items and was used to investigate the relationship between the participants’ language attitudes and their language maintenance.The participants of this study were divided into five groups:Group A (newly-enrolled first-year students), Group B (second-year students), Group C (fourth-year students), Group D (English major graduates with two years of disuse of English), and Group E (English major graduates with four years of disuse of English). The participants of Groups A (N=240), B (N =240) and C (N=240) are from 12 universities or colleges of different tiers in both economically developed and underdeveloped areas. The participants of Groups D (N=238) and E (N=240) are even more diverse in nature. They are from 7 provinces or municipalities. They graduated from 186 universities or colleges of different tiers in different areas. Among the participants of Group D,144 are females and 94 are males, aged between 22 and 27, and among those of Group E,154 are females and 86 are males, aged between 24 and 30.Because of the inclusion of the newly-enrolled first-year students in the sample, the investigations were conducted in two sessions:the first on the participants of Groups B, C, D and E in May 2009 and the second on the newly-enrolled first-year students in the middle of October 2009.The analysis of the participants’scores on both the test and the questionnaire, with SPSS 13.0 as the analytical tool, indicates the following:(1) The graduates’general language skills have suffered systematic attrition. (2) The graduates’specific language skills (listening comprehension skills, lexical knowledge and reading comprehension skills) have been seriously eroded by the time of disuse. What is regretfully significant is that the lexical knowledge attrition of the participants of Group E has even regressed to what they had learned in their high school days. (3) English attrition develops in the following order:What is learned first will be retained last and what is learned last will be lost first. In other words, the order of attrition is in opposition to the order of acquisition. (4) The participants’language maintenance is substantially influenced by their overall language attitudes (r=0.713), and, specifically, by their attitudes towards English language learning and use in China, their attitudes towards the English language, their attitudes towards other English language learners, their interest in the English language, their attitudes towards English language learning (0.705≤r≤0.761), and any item of the questionnaire about the participants’English language attitudes (0.313≤r≤0.759). Furthermore, the participants’overall language attitudes influence their maintenance of listening comprehension skills, lexical knowledge and reading comprehension skills (0.604≤r≤0.872).This study, aimed at revealing the pattern and causes of attrition of English as a foreign language, contributes a lot to the study of foreign language attrition. First, this study has found a pattern of attrition of English learned as a foreign language by Chinese college students, and that the pattern is fairly consistent with the "Forgetting Curve Theory". Second, the findings of the causes of attrition might help produce measures to curb attrition or at least to slow down its rate. Third, this study, as the first systematic empirical study of English attrition done in China, has enriched the international studies of foreign language attrition. Finally, this study, though far from perfect, has put forward a tentative theoretical framework for future English attrition study in China.更多还原