a-study-of-interlanguage-fossilization-in-college-students’-english-writing--英语专业毕业设计论文.doc

A Study of Interlanguage Fossilization in College Students’ English Writing
Abstract: Interlanguage is also known as interlanguage or transitional language, it is systemic knowledge about the second language established in learners’ brain in the process of second language learning, the systemic knowledge in the learner's mind forms a immobilized thinking, so the concept of "fossilization" is formed. Interlanguage fossilization refers to the stagnant phenomenon of the second language learners after their second language ability reaching a certain level and it is difficult to make progress in that period. Interlanguage fossilization has a serious negative impact on the learner of a second language, but if the problem is solved, the language ability of the second language learners will be greatly improved. Currently, interlanguage fossilization appears mostly in second language writing, the author takes this phenomenon as a background, English as studied language and English major students in Beijing Institute of Disaster Prevention Science and Technology as the goal of investigation then combines with such writing methods as literature material law, case tracking method. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the reasons of the appearance of interlanguage fossilization in the process of English learning and measures of solving the problem.
Key words: interlanguage；fossilization；problem research；countermeasure analysis

Introduction
The concept of "language fossilization" was firstly put up in the United States in 1972, American linguist Selinker thinks that when the rules and the system tend of learners’ own mother tongue retain in the interlanguage related to the second language, and this tendency will not vary according to the learners’ age and learning time. Analysis of petrochemical phenomenon is a prominent subject in second language acquisition research subject, because it helps to find the rules of foreign language learning and provide a theoretical and practical basis for the foreign language learning. The contrastive analysis, prevalent in the 1960s, is based on the theory of behaviorism and structuralism linguistics and it thinks that human language behavior, like other behaviors, is the habit formed through the stimulus response (SR). What performances on the teaching is the correct language habits formed through mechanical work of language form, so the key of learning foreign language lays in whether or not the language learners can imitate the target language properly and form language habits. A more fundamental reason is the interference of mother tongue, namely negative transfer. So the process of learning foreign language involves overcoming the interference of mother tongue and promoting positive transfer of mother tongue.
People formed a new understanding of second language learning process in the 60 s when the cognitive psychology rises. Chomsky’s transformational theory plays a very important role in the field. People found that there are two contrastive analyses: one is that a lot of mistakes are not caused by the mother tongue interference. (Dulay thinks that only three percent of all mistakes are caused by mother tongue interference), Comparative analysis is also unpredictable. The other is that native language acquisition studies show that Language learning is not the stimulus and reactions that contrastive analysts thought. It is a creative hypotheses test process, Learners can use all kinds of knowledge, Such as the knowledge of mother tongue and target language, knowledge of language communication ability, knowledge of human society to consciously carry on hypothesis testing on the use of the target language. This is a process of language building and reconstructing, which has the characteristics of permeability, systemic and variability. The mainstream of this period is error analysis theory that takes cognitive theory as the basis of psychology.
The basic assumption is that the there is a kind of special mechanism in brain has a deal with language knowledge. Analysis of these errors could be used to learn second language learning process. The main goal of error analysis is to reveal to what extent the universal grammar can affect the process of second language acquisition. It says in the learners' learning process there is bound to be mistakes. Observation, analysis and classification of the errors can reveal the learners' intrinsic mechanism. Compared with comparative analysis, their main difference is that there are many causes of mistakes, including not only the mother tongue interference, but the main is the difference between the language learners’ own generated language system and the one they have learnt. Dulay thinks that 85% of all the mistakes belong to this kind of the fault, and it is of great importance to carry research of this kind of mistakes: For teachers, this is a necessary way to know the students' progress; For researchers, This is the means to know what the learners do to master the language; For learners, this is an indispensable means of learning a language. According to the theory of error analysis, we can identify, describe and explain errors. Explaining errors help learn the cause of mistakes and correct them radically.
Therefore, in the initial study of interlanguage fossilization, the cause reasons of interlanguage fossilization inclined to psychological factors. Essentially, interlanguage fossilization is a kind of study problem that can't be eliminated and may appear at every stage in process of second language learning. At the same time, a lot of research indicate that if the phenomenon of language fossilization appears in the process of learning a second language, then learners' second language level will stagnant no matter how long learners have studied the second language and how deep the content of the learning. While practically speaking, this second language fossilization is a universal phenomenon in second language learning .At present, English is the most popular second language in our country, among the whole country's language learning students, English learners occupy more than 70%. Therefore, to analyze the interlanguage fossilization in English learning and to explore the strategy to avoid it has become a key research subject in the current English linguistics field. Especially for the language learners in the phase of university study, their interlanguage fossilization mostly belong to the temporary fossilization and will be solved properly or be avoided effectively as long as guided by reasonable methods. This paper takes this as a background to select topic and combines with the related concepts of interlanguage fossilization for the purpose of exploring the cause reasons of interlanguage fossilization in the process of English writing, it takes the students in English linguistics field of Beijing Institute of Disaster Prevention Science and Technology as respondents, the method of actual survey is adopted to study the solution strategy. It would be better that if the study of this article can provide certain reference to the study of interlanguage fossilization solution and then make certain contribution to the development of professional learning a second language.
Literature Review
Since the phenomenon of "interlanguage fossilization" is put forward, many experts and scholars at home and abroad have studied it. Firstly is the research of the cause of interlanguage fossilization: Selinker (2000) explains the phenomenon of interlanguage fossilization from the angle of psychology and puts forward three causes: the training transfer, learning strategy and communication strategy. In the subsequent research, he puts forward the cause factors of interlanguage fossilization, including the two kinds of factors, that is, external factors and internal factors. The internal factors include age and learning desire, while external factors include: pressure, learning opportunities and so on. Lamendella (2005) thinks that there is a "subsystem" to talk in second language learning from the perspective of physiological mechanism, that is, it is a dynamic process for language learners to study from the native language to second language learning. When the language learners begin to study a second language, the language system of a second language has not yet formed, so most of the learners build a second language system on the basis of their native language system, the building process will lead to the production of the interlanguage as well as the phenomenon of interlanguage fossilization. The second is the research of countermeasures of interlanguage fossilization.
Krashen (2007) thinks that as a common phenomenon in the process of second language learning, the solution strategy to the interlanguage fossilization will take its cause of production into consideration. So we will have to analyze the cause of formation of interlanguage fossilization of language learners before the address in order to solve the problem. Only in this way can we think about the highly individualized solution. Analyzing from its origin, we can start with the external cause and internal cause; therefore, solving strategies also need to be divided into two gradients, that is, external strategy and its own strategy. Ellis (2009) thinks that the theory of interaction can explain the generation of interlanguage fossilization phenomenon. In the process of learners’ second language acquisition, the content that is not correct in classroom channels plays a role in language input to some extent and leads to the learners’ incorrect precipitation then the phenomenon of interlanguage fossilization is formed .At the same time, in the study of the origin of the interlanguage fossilization, he also believes that origination of interlanguage fossilization is from the pragmatic process, rather than the process of syntactic use. The excessive certain cognitive feedback is easy to lead to interlanguage fossilization, while negative cognitive feedback can prevent interlanguage fossilization.
Lim (2009) analyzes the interlanguage fossilization phenomenon through empirical investigation and studies English major students in an Indian university , the results of the study shows that culture, mother tongue, education and other factors are the main reasons for the formation of interlanguage fossilization, thus we should put forward the solution in terms of these directions.
To sum up, in the current research content about interlanguage fossilization, there are a lot of research concerning causes and countermeasures of interlanguage fossilization. This paper draws on the experience of the existing research foundation and Combines with the actual survey way to explore the causes and countermeasures of interlanguage fossilization
2 Theoretical Basis
2.1 The Concept of Interlanguage Fossilization
Firstly, we give a definition of the interlanguage, which is a unique language system, and generally has three features: First, openness: the permeability of the intermediary language stems from its openness. Foreign language learners' interlanguage is not a fixed and closed system, but a language system that is constantly penetrated by new knowledge and gradually gets close to the target language in the process of modifying the original knowledge system. Second, dynamic nature：in the process of foreign language learning, interlanguage is in the process of constantly developing, changing and restructuring, from low to high, from simplicity to complexity. It gradually moves closer to the target language. Third, systemic nature: although the intermediary language is continuously developing and changing, but it is also a relatively independent language system, it has a unique set of language vocabulary, grammar, and completed system.
The so called Interlanguage fossilization phenomenon refers to the situation where learners get stuck in the stagnant state when the intermediary language has not reach the target language in the process of learning, this kind of situation will lead to errors in learners' second language acquisition, and this kind of mistakes will always stay, also cannot change in the process of further study. Relevant academic research points out that in the process of learning, the fossilized language, grammar rules and the characteristics of system related to the target language and tend to be reserved by interlanguage won't be affected by the learners' age and education level.
At the same time, the fossilization phenomenon may exist in the form of latent, when learners think that the surface problems have been eliminated, petrochemical phenomenon will still appear in the later study. Related research conclusion points out that the realization phenomenon of the intermediary language will appear at any stage in the process of second language learning, and the way of performance is not only reflected on a particular aspect, but also can exist in several aspects such as grammar, language, vocabulary, syntax. For example, language learners’ pronunciation of second language always stays on the original voice tones, which is a sign of a interlanguage fossilization.
2.2 Classification of Interlanguage Fossilization
Interlanguage fossilization phenomenon may show an illusion that the learner go too far to use all kinds of communication strategies to make up for lack of language knowledge. They may think that it is not necessary to learn the new knowledge of the target language, thus appears the tendency of fossilization phenomenon. According to the nature, the interlanguage fossilization can be classified into two types: the temporary fossilization and the Permanent fossilization. The study shows that most of the fossilizations belong to temporary fossilization. The characteristics of the temporary fossilization are as follows: at the stage of beginning, the learners’ foreign language ability will be stable or even rapidly increased, their listening and speaking skills will progress quickly. After the improvement, the learner's ability will stay in a relatively stable state, which is the "stability" in the language learning process, and some researches also call it as "stagnant period", in the process of stagnation, language learners' language ability will be stagnant, which means they enter into a state of fossilization. In essence, this kind of fossilizations is temporary fossilization in most cases and we also can say it is a precursor of permanent fossilization. In this state, the learners' foreign language ability and knowledge will not improve, while he state of temporary fossilization will be lift by corresponding education and methods, the learner's level will enter into another stage of development.
3. The Reasons of the Interlanguage Fossilization in College Students' English Writing
3.1 Mother Tongue Transfer
American linguist Robert Laredo put forward the conce