HOW SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES DECLINE WITH TIME: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON THE ATTRITION OF ENGLISH INTERROGATIONS

Abstract

The study was designed to identify how time length since onset of attrition (TOA) influenced the attrition of English interrogations. The participants investigated in this study were 243 Chinese graduates who learned English as a foreign language and had graduated for at least one year. The main measurement employed was a questionnaire with 40 items of English interrogative sentences included. In the present study, no significant difference in interrogation attrition is detected among participants with different TOAs, although their performances on interrogative structures decline with increasing TOAs, i.e., lengths of disuse. The findings also shed light on English teaching and learning in China. The group of people, whose acquired language skills are most vulnerable to attrition, was identified as subjects with their TOAs being more than 8 years. Accordingly, it should deserve much more attention that how to retain their acquired language proficiency.

Keywords

• Language Attrition
• English Interrogation
• Time Length since Onset of Attrition (TOA)
• забывание языка
• вопросительные структуры в английском языке
• время неиспользования языка