Interlanguage Fossilization in Chinese EFL Writing—An Empirical Research of 20 English Major Students

Abstract

This research is designed to investigate interlanguage fossilization in Chinese college students' written output.Twelve common linguistic errors from 20 Chinese EFL (English as a foreign language) learners' writing assignments are observed. Results show that among 12 typical errors, five types of errors are declining while the rest are increasing, indicating a tendency towards fossilization. Analysis shows that negative/corrective feedback has played a key role in reducing fossilization of some errors, but it does not work in every case. Some errors tend to be fossilized for several reasons. First, language items that do not have a direct form-function relationship are likely to be fossilized. Second, advanced learners create their own language system and neglect the basic rules of grammar. Third, task difficulty takes learners' attention away from form to meaning. Fourth, ingrained thinking patterns have a great impact on how learners organize their thoughts in writing. It is true that many Chinese EFL advanced learners reach a plateau in the process of acquiring English. However, attention, consciousness, and training of self-monitoring ability will help destabilize their interlanguage system.

A Study on the Fossilization of Oral English and English Writing in Second Language Acquisition

“…The first is the singular-plural problem of nouns. The singular-plural problem often occurs in the writing process [12].…”

Interlanguage syntactic temporary, permanent, and fossilized errors in second language writing

“…One of the challenges second language learners face in learning is the linguistic phenomena, including syntactic features, which are part of second language grammar as a set of rules for creating a coherent and grammatically correct sentence (Zhang & Xie 2014). This challenge may emerge as the result of the prior linguistics capacity of the learners in developing a second language.…”

“…In addition to speaking practice, Zimmerman and Valva (2016) postulated that fossilization errors commonly happen in the speaking practice of the second language learner due to inappropriate input from the instructor in the classroom. Then in the area of grammar and writing, Benati (2018), Butler-Tanaka (2000), Fauziati (2011), Nozadze (2012), Nurhayati (2015), and Zhang and Xie (2014) revealed that grammatical errors such as omission, addition, misinformation, and misordering might happen in the process of writing as a result of systematicity, permeability of language transfer, strategy of second language learning, and overgeneralization. Therefore, fossilization errors could not only exist in learning pronunciation, speaking, and grammar but also in writing by several influential factors.…”

“…The result of the research indicated that the fossilization errors have happened as the result of the inappropriate input of the instructors while they practiced the skill in the classroom. However, Zhang and Xie (2014) discussed the fossilization errors in terms of grammatical issues.…”

“…The previous studies are limited to examining the factors that influence errors in the area of writing, speaking, and pronunciation (Darmirezen & Topal, 2015;Zhang & Xie, 2014;Zimmerman & Vavla, 2016). In addition, the previous studies were only concerned with the level of the secondary school (Aziez, 2016;Benati, 2018;Butler-Tanaka, 2000;Demirezen & Topal, 2015;Fauziati, 2011;Mossop, 1996;Nurhayati, 2015;Smaoui & Rahal, 2015;Zimmerman & Valva, 2016).…”