English Language Attrition of EFL Tertiary Students in China Over a Two-Month Break

This study aims primarily to identify if participants experience attrition in speaking, speed and in-depth reading comprehension, short conversation and passage listening comprehension and writing abilities over a two-month holiday. Another research objective is to identify the attrition in vocabulary knowledge. Taking into consideration research practicability and efficiency, different numbers of participants took different tests. Three hundred and forty tertiary students from Nanjing University of Posts & Telecommunications (NUPT) were randomly selected to participate in the reading and listening tests before and after the holiday, 50 participants took part in the tests of writing, and 121 participated in the vocabulary tests. A questionnaire was administered to 340 tertiary students and it included numerous variables in relation to language attrition such as self-assessment of speaking skills, motivation and social activities. The data collected from the tests and questionnaire were analyzed via nonparametric and parametric tests using SPSS. Cranach’s alpha coefficient and MFRM (Multi Facets Rasch Model) were used to validate the reliabilities. The results of the tests indicated that participants’ short conversation listening comprehension scores gained significantly (p=.05) over the holiday period, showing improvement. However, no statistical significance was found in the passage listening comprehension scores, thus indicating no presence of significant attrition or improvement. In addition, the results did not indicate any statistically significant attrition in both modes of reading comprehension though a slight increase was found in speed reading comprehension scores and evidence of slight attrition was obtained in in-depth reading comprehension. No significant gender differences were found in speed and in-depth reading, short conversation listening and passage listening conversation scores. The results also showed that participants experienced a statistically significant level of attrition in not only overall writing skills but also specific writing skills such as pertinence, coherence, clarity and grammar over the holiday period. Females suffered a higher level of attrition than males in all tested specific writing skills except for grammar. Significant attrition was also found in vocabulary knowledge. The results of the questionnaire showed that participants believed that their overall English proficiency (including speaking skills) attrited over the holiday period although the listening and reading test results did not reveal any statistically significant attrition. Participants showed a lower level of positive motivation and fewer social activities for studying English language during the holiday than before the holiday and this could have contributed to the attrition in some of the linguistic abilities. The findings suggested that attrition was not an overall phenomenon affecting all language skills. Thus, it might point to students having different threshold levels in learning and maintaining the language skills learnt. Institutions would need to initiate measures that address attrition in order that the problem be minimized. A low level of attrition would lead to graduates having a better language ability to serve the China economy that is fast expanding. More proficient graduates in English would help to realize the economic goals and to participate more efficiently both locally and globally

Approximation of Sums of Locally Dependent Random Variables via Perturbation of Stein Operator

Let $(X_i, i\in J)$ be a family of locally dependent non-negative integer-valued random variables, and consider the sum $W=\sum_{i\in J}X_i$. We establish general error upper bounds for $d_{TV}(W, M)$ using the three-parametric perturbation form of Stein operator, where the target variable $M$ is either the mixture of Poisson distribution and binomial or negative binomial distribution, and the three parameters are delicately determined by guaranteeing $M$ and $W$ are identical in the first three factorial cumulants. As applications, we discuss in detail the classic local dependence structure examples like $(1, 1)$-runs, ($k_{1},k_{2}$)-runs and $k$-runs, and attain $O(|J|^{-1})$ error bounds under some special cases by exactly figuring out the smoothness of the conditional distributions of $W$ upon partial sums. The obtained result is to some extent a significant improvement of Pek\"{o}z [Bernoulli, 19 (2013)] and Upadhye, et al. [Bernoulli, 23 (2017)]

English language attrition in short conversation and passage listening comprehension.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether language attrition in both short conversation and passage listening comprehension occurs among tertiary students. The number of the participants is 359, who are all from Nanjing University of Posts & Telecommunications. A test paper, adapted from China’s College English Test Band Six, was used as the instrument to measure participants’ short conversation and passage listening comprehension before and after the two-month holiday. The result indicates that participants’ short conversation listening comprehension improved significantly and obviously over the holiday. However, no statistical significance was found in passage listening comprehension. The reasons for the results were also analyzed and discussed

Tail Bounds on the Spectral Norm of Sub-Exponential Random Matrices

Let $X$ be an $n\times n$ symmetric random matrix with independent but non-identically distributed entries. The deviation inequalities of the spectral norm of $X$ with Gaussian entries have been obtained by using the standard concentration of Gaussian measure results. This paper establishes an upper tail bound of the spectral norm of $X$ with sub-Exponential entries. Our method relies upon a crucial ingredient of a novel chaining argument that essentially involves both the particular structure of the sets used for the chaining and the distribution of coordinates of a point on the unit sphere.Comment: 18page

Deviation Inequalities on the Spectral Norm of Products of Random and Deterministic Matrices

We study the spectral norm of matrices $BA$, where $A$ is a random matrix with independent mean zero subexponential entries, and $B$ is a fixed matrix. We show that the spectral norm of such an $m\times n$ matrix $BA$ exceeds $\sqrt{n}+\sqrt{m}$ with an exponential decay probability. Applying this result, we prove an estimate of the smallest singular value of a random subexponential matrix using an argument in the previous work of Rudelson and Vershynin.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0812.2432, arXiv:0802.3956 by other author

Mandarin attrition among tertiary students

This study aimed at determining whether Mandarin language attrition occurs in terms of Chinese character recognition, word order, and writing ability after a two-month holiday. The methodology of the study is mainly quantitative, and the data were obtained through pre- and post- tests. Pre- and post- Mandarin tests were conducted among 65 participants. The results showed that slight attrition was found in Chinese character recognition, while serious attrition occurred in word order and writing ability. The reasons for the attrition were also discussed. The study suggested that more attention be paid to learning Chinese word order and writing and less to Chinese character recognition for Mandarin learners, especially in Malaysia

Linguistic representation of English vocabulary attrition

This study aimed to identify vocabulary attrition and the linguistic representation of English vocabulary attrition. One hundred and twenty-one participants were randomly selected to participate in the vocabulary tests. The results of vocabulary attrition tests were measured through non-parametric 2-related samples tests and linguistic analyses in terms of phonology, morphology, and semantics. The authors identified a statistically significant vocabulary attrition during a two-month holiday. In the field of phonology, the authors reached the conclusion that medial segments of words are easily attrited, while words with similar onsets are easily attrited and the words with similar general rhythms are easily attrited. Furthermore, in the morphological area, it was argued that suffixes are subject to attrition, while words with similar onsets and general rhythms are easily attrited. As far as semantic representation of lexical attrition is concerned, the authors purport that the participants tend to mix synonyms, antonyms, and the words coordinately associated, superordinately related, or affectively connected. The affective factors, including active, passive and associative imagination, may cause lexical attrition as well