Fossilization in language learning
九班程莉20201238020078 Fossilization is defined as (in second and foreign language teaching)a process occurring from time to time in which incorrect linguistic features become a permanent part of the way a person speaks or writes a language. Aspects of pronunciation, vocabulary usage, and grammar may become fixed or fossilized in second or foreign language learning.
For me, what is most hard for me to overcome is grammar. For example, I can not tell what the difference between” no less than” and “not more than” is. More often than not, I know neither. But, if my teacher emphasis the difference on purpose, I can remember it for a few days. But as time goes by, I will forget, because it has become aporia in my second language learning. For most cases, I misused the two phrases, that is to say, in my opinion, “no more than” means not equal to, while “not more than” means “just”, finally I got a big red cross from my English teacher.
Then, vocabulary usage is difficult for me either. Whenever my English teacher asked me to right an easy, once it was related to” go, move” or something, what came to my brain in the first place is “walk”. “walk” has become a stereotype in my mind when writing som ething of “moving from one place to another”. Gradually, I there are various words
we have to describe walking, such as marching, pacing, patrolling, stalking and so on. I know these words in my daily study. But I always pass them by.
These are the two major fossilizations in my language learning. Fossilization may occur at any time and any level. So many causes contribute to these, such as lack of acculturation, lack of control, quality of input, lack of input, native language influences and inappropriate target language instruction etc.
Then, how to face with fossilization in second language learning? The first thing is increasing the quantity of second language input. The accumulation of the second language knowledge should also involve the relevant cultural knowledge input. The study on language transfer indi cates that the learners are sensitive to the marked features of language, so the common characters of language other than the distinguishable propert ies are easier to lead to fossilization. Thus in order to avoid fossilization, l anguage learners need to compare the culture of the native language with that of their target language and find out the similarities and differences e xisting in the structural expressions of the two languages to reduce native language transfer. And then is enhancing the motivation. There is little doubt that individual differences exist and they play a signif icant role in language learning. For the teacher, the challenge must be ho w to teach each learner according to his or her individual characteristics a
nd cultural background. It may be a question of flexibility in materials de sign, or variety in skill working or classroom interaction. The last is exposing to Target Language Culture. Since the lack of acculturation may lead to fossilization, it is really important for the English learners to access to the target language culture. When learning a foreign or second language, we should not only learn the mere imitation of the pronunciation, grammar, words and idioms, but also learn to see the world as native speakers do, that is to say, learn the ways in which the foreign language reflects the ideas, customs, and behavior of that society, learn to understand their “language of the mind”, or acculturation.
Fossilization is now gaining increasing attention and scholars are doing their best to explain why. To some extent，learners are short of native-like proficiency in their L2 learning. Yet as to how to account for the backsliding in learning at different levels and how to destabilize or defossilize the fossilized items remain to be further explored.。