A STUDY OF ENGLISH RETENTION BY JAPANESE COLLEGE STUDENTS OVER SUMMER VACATION

Abstract

Remarkable research efforts have been made to the studies of second language acquisition. Consequently, we know fairly well about how people acquire languages. Based on the obtained data and findings, enormous amounts of time, energy, and also funding have been invested to develop second language learning in terms of curriculum, teaching materials, methodology and so on. At present, with the analogy of first language acquisition, we tend to regard the process of second language learning solely as the cumulative one. Considering that language learning is a process of going back and forth, we should see what is lost as well as what is acquired. However, very little attention seems to have been paid to the maintenance of second language skills once attained and also the probable process of retention and forgetting of the functional command of second language skills once they are no longer used or when no language instruction is given. The study of the language skill attrition, in other words, loss of proficiency in one or more skills in one's native or second language, is relatively new in the field of applied linguistics and began to gain greater attention quite recently. Very little systematic research has been done yet: the period of time for each skill to begin to decline, the order of loss in specific linguistic features, and also the avoiding loss or restoring the lost skills. The present paper concerns with the retention of English by Japanese college students over summer vacation. As Smythe et al. (1973: 400) mention, the beginning of each school term the foreign language teacher, like all teachers whose subject matter is of cumulative characters, is faced with the possibility that students may have forgotten part of what they have learned in previous courses. The idea of this sort is generally accepted but little research evidence seems to assure if all features of foreign language skills are lost at the same rate or which sets of knowledge and skills are more likely to be retained o~ lost after instruction. The research findings concerned with these areas would be able to suggest a great deal about how to teach after summer vacation. In this paper, my discussion will be organized: (1) a brief review of language attrition studies over summer vacation, (2) a small research on forgetting and retaining of some knowledge and skills (listening comprehension, structure, vocabulary, and reading comprehension) involving college level population, and (3) a consideration of the relevance of language attrition research for various aspects of teaching and learn: ing English_