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A STUDY ON CHINESE EFL LEARNERS' FOSSILIZATION IN
LISTENING COMPREHENSION
By
Tian Lijing
A Thesis
Submitted to the Graduate School andCollege of English
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
The Degree of Master of Arts
Under the Supervision of Professor Zhao Meijuan
Shanghai International Studies University
December, 2006
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Acknowledgements
This thesis would never have been completed if it hadn't been for the education I have
received while studying at Shanghai International Studies University.
First and foremost, my heartfelt appreciation goes to Prof. Zhao Meijuan for her
patient and expert guidance. Throughout the thesis writing process, her considerate and
insightful comments have been both encouraging and helpful. This paper could never be
possible without her time-consuming and careful correcting.
Also, I am indebted to the following Professors who have taught me during the two
years of study in SISU: Prof. He Zhaoxiong, Prof. Lv Guangdan, Ptof. Mei Deming, Prof.
Shu Dingfang, Professor Xu Yulong, and Prof. Li Ji'an, etc. 'Their dedicative teaching and
.research in linguistics guide me through the study in this field.
Very special thanks also go to my beloved parents, who have given me support
throughout.
ii
Abstract
This M.A. thesis investigates Chinese EFL learners' fossilization in listening
comprehension. After so many years of English listening acquisition, it is still difficult for
Chinese EFL learners to take in oral English input easily and quickly. This investigation
contributes to the research in this area and deepens the general discussion of fossilization
in the past.
Selinker first brought forward the concept of fossilization in 1972. Afterwards, as the
study in this field proliferates, it becomes more specialized as well. Besides the heavily
focused topic of bottleneck in spoken English, English listening comprehension started to
be given the priority.
This thesis, starting the discussion with the theories of fossilization and combining
features of Iistening comprehension, analyzes what is fossilization in listening
comprehension, what may have caused the phenomenon and what are the possible
solutions.
Through the study, this thesis tries to discuss the possible reasons from multiple points
of view, including a questionnaire by an English listening class, analysis of psychology, of.
linguistics and of culture.
Final indications from the study is, Chinese EFL learners can break through their
listening. bottleneck by getting to know more cultural knowledge, field background and
. listening strategy, and adjusting learning mentality. For teachers, they should recognize
mistakes also indicate progress. 'Thus teachers can avoid bringing students psychological
fear of making mistakes and help students to gain better listening comprehension ability.
Key words: fossilization; listening comprehension; wrong form; correct form
iii
中文摘要
本文研究的是英语昕力理解的石化现象，如经过多年来英语昕力的习得，仍无
法达到英语本族语那样的昕力水平，听力内容的输入仍然无法被习得者轻易快速的吸
收，而要被转化为中介语 (interlanguage)加以理解。
SeUnker 第 一 次提 出 了 石化现象这一概念 ， 他指 出 ， 石化现象就是语 言成分 ， 规
则和语言的子系统被二语习得者保存为靠近目标语的中介语，这一现象即使随着习得
者年龄的增长，学习到的目标语增多也不会改变.. .(Selinker, 1972). 随后 随着对这方
面进行研究的学者逐渐增多，石化现象的研究也开始细分化，除了英语口语瓶颈现象
受到广泛关注外，英语昕力的重要地位也开始受到重视。
本研究尝试从二语习得石化现象的理论研究入手，联系英语听力理解的特点，分
别分析了听力理解石化现象的表现，形成的原因以及可能的解决办法。
经研究发现，中国 EFL学生在听力理解上与英语本族语者的差距主要体现在正
确形式的石化和错误形式的石化，这一观点是建立在 Vigil and Oller 在 1 976 年提 出
的正确形式也会导致石化现象的理论上。本文从多个角度探讨可能的原因，包括听力
课堂教学的问卷调查，心理，语言和文化等方面原因的分析。
此次调查的结果对二语习得理论和外语昕力教学实践都有一定的启示作用:宫说
明，昕力理解不是被动的接受，中国英语学习者是可以通过文化，背景，昕力技巧和
心态调整等各方面的努力来突破自己的屏障的，教师也应该认识到，犯错有时也是一
种进步，从而避免给学生带来心理上害怕犯错而裹足不前的障碍，帮助学生多学和多
用，逐步由中介语向目标语靠拢。
关键词:石化现象;听力理解;错误形式;正确形式
IV
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
.ii
Abstract. .. .. . .. .. ... ... .. . . .. . .. . .. ..
Chinese Abstract
.
..
.iii
.
.iv
List of Tables
vii
List of Abbreviations.. . . .. . .. . . .. .. .
vii
1. Introduction
1
2. Fossilization and Interlanguage
.4
2.1 General Introduction
4
2.1.1 What is Fossilization?
2.1.2 What·is Interlanguage?
2.2 Research on Fossilization Done by Different Scholars
2.3 Focusing Oft Fossilization of Different Language Learners
.
2.4 Summary
3. Second Language Acquisition of Listening Comprehension - A Close Look
.4
4
5
8
9
10
3.1 General Introduction
10
3.2 Features of listening Comprehension
12
3.2.1 Close link with Other Skills
12
3.2.2 Uniqueness of Its Own
12
3.3 listening Objective vs. listening Strategy
3.4 Obstacles of listening Comprehension
14
! •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
3.5 Summary
4. Fossilization in listening Comprehension
15
16
18
4.1 Some Case Study
18
4.2 Wrong Form of FL
19
4.3 Correct Form of FL
20
4.4 Conclusion
22
5. A Study on Factors Affecting FL.
23
5.1 English Language Research
23
5.2 Listening Class Research
24
5.2.1 A Research Design
24
5.2.2 An Analysis of the Questionnaire
25
5.3 Other Possible Factors Leading to Bottleneck of LC
29
5.3.1 Culture Factor.
29
5.3.2 Custom Factor.
30
v
5.3.3 The Factor of the First Language
:
5.3.4 Learners' Self-Conditions
6. Possible Solutions to rt,
30
.31
34
6.1 Implication Drawn from Krashen's Natural Order Hypothesis
.34
6.2 Pedagogical Implications
35
6.3 Changing the Traditional Way of Measuring Language Learning
35
6.4 Tolerance of Learners' Errors
36
7. Conclusion
7.1 FL Encountered by Chinese EFL Learners
7.2 Implication Drawn from the Findings of EFL Listening Teaching in China
7.3 Limitations of the Investigation
7.4 Direction for Future Study
References
38
.38
39
.40
.40
41
vi
List of Tables
Table 1: English homophones
Table 2: Words with multiple meanings
18
:
20
Table 3: Questionnaire statistics-I
24
Table 4: Questionnaire statistics-2
25
Table 5: Questionnaire statistics-3
26
Table 6: Questionnaire statistics-4
26
Table 7: Questionnaire statistics-5
27
"List of Abbreviations
EFL=English as a foreign Language
ESL=English as a Second Language
SlA=Second Language Acquisition
NS=Native Speaker
NNS=Non-native Speaker
Ll=First Language
L2;::Second Language
FL=Fossilization in listening Comprehension
LC=Listening Comprehension
NL=Native Language
IL=Interlanguage
TL=TargetLanguage
vii
Chapter One: Introduction
"Westerlies blow from the southwest in the Northern Hemisphere and from the northwest
in the Southern Hemisphere. Westerlies and trade winds blow away from the 30 degrees latitude
belt. Over broad regions centered at 30 degrees latitude, surface winds are light or calm, and air
slowly descends. Air warms as it descends, and its relative humidity decreases, making clouds
and precipitation unlikely . As a result, fair, dry weather characterizes much of the 30 degrees
latitude belt. " (NASA weather report, 2006)
This is a normal NASA weather broadcast by a weather reporter. If you are a Chinese
EFL learner, how many times do you feel frustrated or even disappointed by YOUT English
listening comprehension ability, when you hear suell unfamiliar kind of reporting contexts
and cannot figure out what exactly the speaker, has said? For native speakers, weather
forecast is as common as three meals a day, but for non-native speakers, even advanced
English learners, catching up with the speed is already tiring. It seems to have nothing to do
with the training or exercising. But it is just part of the native people's daily life. Similar
examples are:
"Each object allecated to the most likely cluster - but measures calculated of the probability of
membership of other clusters."
"Flash profiling analysis averages matrices of differen,twidth but with the same objects
in the rows"
Thus questions needs to be asked, "Can we Chinese EFt. learners achieve native-like
listening comprehension ability? Do we tend to fossilize and fall short of a native-like
competency?"
. First, we should get to know two import notions before.further discussion---the concept of
Listening Comprehension and the meaning of Fossilization.
Listening Comprehension (hereafter LC), literally viewed, is composed of two procedures
in process: listening, a~d comprehension. We listen to the utterance of other people and get to
understand what they i aJ.etiyingt6
.
"
sa~/ Bt way of doing so, communication
can be kept going
1 1{
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forward. Good Listening Comprehension ability can smooth people's conversation, make each
side happy and even lead to sparkles of thoughts, whereas poor Listening Comprehension
usually plays the opposite role. As the saying goes, "To be a great speaker, first to be a good
listener." But given English as the target language, it may never be so easy for the Chinese EFL
1
learners to be a good listener as the native English-speaking people.
For Chinese EFL learners, listening comprehension is an indispensable and vital part of the
five basics of English mastery, yet its role has always been downplayed or even ignored. In
recent years, as we can see, there has been more study done on fossilization of Second Language
Acquisition, but an in-depth look into differently classified fossilizations is still lacking. So this
paper is aimed at providing a detailed analysis on fossilization of LC, for its important role in
English learning and the lack of attention it deserves to be placed upon.
Chinese EFL learners are usually confronted with the problem that every single word of the
target language just said is heard clearly, but they have no idea what on earth the overall
meaning the speaker is trying to get across; or Chinese EFL learners may find it difficult to
follow the native speakers because native speakers' normal speaking speed surpasses the level
that the internalized second language system of those non-native learners allows to be; or
Chinese EFL learners get frostrated,quite often by the similar pronunciation of different words
and can easily make LC mjstates when they cannot quickly come up with the right word in a
certain context, for instance, flower and flour can easily confuse a nos-native listener, etc.
The argument is that no non-native learner can hope to ever achieve a listening
comprehension ability of a second language to such a level that slhe is indistinguishable from
native learners of that language. EFL learners tend to stop short of native-like proficiency
because they are normally exposed to a non-target language environment and lack sufficient
listening input of native language information.
Krashen's theory has provided some valuable explanation to the problems in SLA.
Though it invokes some criticism, this theory does have shed light on the discussion of the
phenomenon that non-native speakers form certain internalized language system which could
never be the same as the target language. So this dissertation, drawing upon the inspiration given
.
.
by Krashen's theory, is about to analyze the fossilization of LC from the perspective of the
wrong form of fossilization and of the correct form of fossilization.
Actually, some domestic linguists, SLA researchers and teaching staff have applied
Krashen's theory to the listening teaching classes in China, and they have come up with many
useful suggestions for domestic English listening classes and proved its correctness to some
extent. In this dissertation, these results will also be discussed.
A listening classroom questionnaire is to be used in this dissertation. A class of twenty
Chinese EFL learners aged between 20 and 30 will be asked to do a questionnaire, which covers
questions about what they are thinking during the listening test and how they practise their
2
listening comprehension during their daily study. All this information and data can help with
this analysis on fossilization of LC.
This dissertation is composed of seven chapters.
Chapter one makes an introduction to the issue addressed in this dissertation, that is, "Are
advanced Chinese EFL learners in a state of LC fossilization in their process of acquiring
English mastery and how do we solve the problem". The purpose of the research and the
methodology has also been presented.
Chapter two focuses on one important netion-fossilizaticn. What is fossilization? What
study and research have been done over fossilization? We will see a literature review of
international scholars' fossilization tesearch. Meanwhile, concerning Chinese EFL learners,
different learners tendte fossilize differently.
Chapter three focuses on another important topic, listening comprehension. What are the
changes in people's concept of listening comprehension? listening comprehension, on the one
hand, has a lot in common with other language abilities. On the other hand, it is unique in some
way. We will see a detailed explanation of the difference between spoken language and written
language. Due to its uniqueness, listening comprehension requires strategies. On the contrary,
we wilt also see what the major obstacles are.
Chapter four is a combination of the
rust two notions. We will see specified examples of
fossilization in listening comprehension. The discussion in this chapter is divided into the wrong
form of fossilization and correct form of fossilization. In each part, we will see the problem from
three layers of language---English words, English phrases and English sentences.
Chapter five follows the three chapters before and elaborates on the reasons why Chinese
EFL learners cannot escape the problem of stopping short of a native-like listening competency.
The reasons are well founded by covering the aspect of linguistic reason and non-linguistic
reason. A classroom questionnaire research is also included.
Chapter six comes to a discussion of possible solutions to fossilization in listening
comprehension, including the implication jhat Krashen's. theory may offer, pedagogical
implications drawn from the reasons mentioned in the chapter before, and some necessary
changes of traditional concept. All these are believed to be helpful for Chinese EFL learners.
Chapter seven concludes the dissertation with a discussion about limitations of this
research, and the directions it may offer for future study.
3
Chapter Two: Fossilization and Interlanguage
2.1 General Introduction
What is fossilization? Most non-native speakers would agree that it is sometimes
frustrating to communicate in another language. Many have embarrassing stories about how
they have been misunderstood or have not been able to convey their intended messages at all. In
the field of second language acquisition (SlA), there is little doubt that native-like mastery of a
second language (L2) by non-native speakers is hard to attain. Failure in some aspects of the
language is to be expected, and this is the reason why the nature of this failure has to be
investigated thoroughly.
2.1.1 What is Fossili~tion?
Selinker coinedthe term 'Fossilization' to refer to this phenomenon - 'non-target forms
become fixed in the interlanguage, Many examples can be found - Mukkatesh, losking at the
written producti0n of 80 $t\ldents at a Jordanian .university, discovered that after 11 years'
instruction in learning English, they continued making errors such as the use of simple past
instead of simple present - no amount of grammatical explanation er of error correction 'had any
effect. Fossilization may simply affect certain structures. As Selinker says:
Fossilizable linguistic phenomena are linguistic items, rules and subsystems which speakers of a
particular NL will tend to keep in their It relative to a particular TL, no matter what the age of the learner or
amount of explanation and instruction he receives in the TL. (Selinser, 1972: 209)
As this implies, a student may continue to make progress in certain areas, and yet return
again and again to the same error. Thus, for example, we find advanced students who
.communicate with great skill and who make very few errors, but still do not master the past
perfect tenseof the English verbs.
2.1.2 What is.Interlanguage?
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The idea of .interlariguage .is founded upon the assumption that an L2 leamer, at any
particular moment in his learning sequence, is using a language system which is neither the :L1,
nor the 12. It is 'a third language, with its' own grammar, its own lexicon and so on. The rules
used by the learner are to be found in neither his own mother tongue, nor in the Target Language.
Interlanguage sees learners as constructing their own grammatical systems. These systems are
4
learner-driven rather than teacher-driven. The learner progresses through employing a number
of different strategies, some of which are based upon his/her L1, some of which are based upon
his/her desire to communicate, and some of which may be rooted in the Universal
Grammar. (Selinker, L & J. Lamendella, 1978)
2.2 Research on ¥ossilization Done by Different Scholars
One of the most enduring and fascinating problems confronting researchers of second
language acquisition (SLA) is whether this is an accomplishment reserved for children who start
learning at a relatively early age (Kellerman, 1995: 219)
For most of us tae acquisition of second language is less spectacular. If we are past the age
of around 7-10 years, the acquisition of an L2, in marked contrast to the way we acquiredour
first language (Lt), cantumoot to be rather slow, laborious and tends to stop short of native-litre
proficiency, even for taleated I2 learners.
This "stopping short" phenomenon has been referred to as fossilization (Selinker, 1972) or
incompleteness (Schachter, 1990). It is one of the noticeable characteristics of second language
acquisition. (Towell &Hawkins, 1994)
Fossilization actually has been studied by scholars long ago. The very early schola. to
define it is Selinker, According to his study (Selinker, 1972: 215), "Fossilizable linguistic
phenomena are linguistic items, rules, and sub-systems which speakers of a particular L1 tend to
keep in their IL relative to a particular 'FL, no matter what the age of the learner or amount of
explanation and instl'uCtion he receives in the TL...." In Selinker's opinion, fossilization is a
mechanism that underlies surface linguistic material which speakers will tend to keep in their IL
productive performance, no matter what the age of the learner or the amount of instruction he
receives in the TL.
Since Selinker started the study of Fossilization, more scholars got into the research of
fossilization. Vigil & Oller (1976) later extend the notion of fossilization to any case where
grammatical rules, construed in the broadest sense, become relatively permanently incorporated
into a psychologically real grammar. In their opinion, an adequate explanation must account for
the incorporation of rules into developing grammars in relatively permanent form regardless of
whether those rules conform or do not conform to the norms of the language which is being
learned. It is not only the fossilization of so-called 'errors' that must be explained, but also the
fossilization of correct forms that conform to the target language norms. Their study actually
5
brings forward a crucial notion that we can use to analyze the fossilization of listening
comprehension later in this dissertation. This brand-new notion of correct-form fossilization
also boldly implies that our traditional way of looking at the reasons of fossilization is probably
wrong. In other words, fossilization doesn't necessarily mean errorsj.sometimes the correct
'
,
'
.. f-
language form that we are used to hear and see may get inour~ay of learning other new
language forms.
As the researeh of fossilization deepens, scholars start to put their efforts together. In a
study done by Selinker and Lamendella (1978: 187) together, fossilization is defined as a
permanent cessation of IL learning before the learner has attained TL norms at all levels of
linguistic structure and in all discourse domains in spite of the learner's positive ability,
opportunity, and motivation to learn and acculturate into target society.
In 1996, as Selinker's research went on, he revised his understanding of Fossilization that it
is the process whereby the learner creates a cessation of interlanguage learning, thus stopping
the interlanguage from developing; it is hypothesized, in a permanent way .... The argument is
that no adult can hope to ever speak a second language in such a way that s/he is
indistinguishable from native speakers of that language. (Selinker, 1996)
In 1983, Lowther pointed out that "Fossilization, as presented in much of the literature, is
understood to be the Inability of a person to attain native-like ability in the target language.
(Lowther, 1983: 127)
Fossilized structures can be realized as errors or as incorrect target language forms.
If, when fossilization occurs; the learner has reached a stage of development in which
feature x in his interlanguage has assumed the same form as in the target language, then
fossilization of the correct form will occur. If, however, the learner has reached a stage in which
feature y still does not have the same form as the target language, the fossilization will manifest
itself as error, as Ellis said in his book published in 1985.
However, some scholars say that, Fossilization -- according to observations -- is a process
that may occur in the second language acquisition context as opposed to first language
acquisition. Thus, the learner has stopped learning or has reverted to earlier stages of acquisition,
(Hyltenstam, 1988:68)
It has long been noted that foreign language learners reach a certain stage of learning - a
stage short of success - and that learners then permanently stabilize at this stage. Development
ceases, and even serious conscious efforts to change are often fruitless. Brief changes are
sometimes observed, but they do not 'take'. The learner backslides to the stable state.
6
(Bley-Vroman, 1989:47-49)
In 1994) Tarone pointed out that a central characteristic of any interlanguage is that it
fossilizes -- that is, it ceases to develop at some point short of full identity with the target
language. This saying makes clear the idea that fossilization doesn't happen to one single kind
of interlanguage.
In 1998, Han further divided the study of fossilization into two levels, cognitive level and
empirical level. COGNITIVE LEVEL: Fossilization involves those cognitive processes, or
underlying mechanisms that produce permanently stabilized IL forms. EMPIRICAL LEVEL:
Fossilization involves those stabilized interlanguage forms that remain in learner speech or
writing over time, no matter what the input or what the learner does.
It is generally known thattanguage learners achieve very different degrees of language
mastery. Few, it seems, achieve native-like proficiency. Some stop (or, to use Selinker's 1972
term, 'fossilize') at a very elementary level. Others come between the two extremes.
(Bley-Vroman, 1989:8) We will .elaborate on this notion in the next part of this chapter,
analyzing EFL learners of verified English levels encountering different degrees of
fossilization.
Research of recent years shows sintple notion that, the ultimate attainment of individual U
learners varies enormously in its approximation to native-like proficiency, although some
individuals may reach very high levels of proficiency ... (Hyltenstam and Abrahamsson,
2002:164) While interlanguages of speakers of various first language learning English as a
foreign language have much in common, they also are distinctive, each .constrained by the
strange attractors of their LIs, which may be greater than the force of the strange auractor of
English. English pronunciation of a native speaker of Spanish will differ from that of a native
speaker of Chinese. Many other fundamental differences mark the challenges present for
learners from one native language background as for another. Besides the obvious
linguistically-based differences are the leamer's cultural backgrounds and reasons for learning
(not learning) a second or foreign language in the first place. {Larsen-Freeman, 1997:159)
In spite of the intense interest in fossilization, there is still much disagreement as to its
nature. A number of researchers have proposed models to account for the characteristic features
of fossilization. Several of these models are discussed in the following section.
One area of scientific inquiry which seems to have been little utilized in the investigation of
fossilization is that of neurolinguistics. In recent years, neurolinguistic methods have begun to
shed light on the nature of language processing at the neurocognitive level. Most of this research
7