This thesis first introduced the definition of language attrition and teaching strategy as well as the development of language attrition as a research area。 Then it made a synthetic review of the theories about language attrition including three hypothesis and some factors which play a role in language attrition。 According to the aforementioned theories, the author summed up some enlightenment to English teaching strategies in the hope that language attrition in English study can be reduced and English study can be of high-efficiency。

2。 Literature Review

2。1 The definition of language attrition

Language attrition refers to the phenomenon that languages suffer from degeneration gradually i。e。 the inverse process of language acquisition。 It mainly occurs when language learners reduce or even stop using the second language。 The symptom is that learners’ ability to use the target language is partially or completely lost。

2。2 The development of language attrition as a research area

As a burgeoning sub-area of linguistics, language attrition originated in 1980 when The Conference on the Attrition of Language Skills was held in The university of Pennsylvania of USA。 In the year of 1995, de Bot and Wethens made a comprehensive review of foreign language attrition for the first time。 Later on, language attrition has established itself as a new discipline。 Researchers mainly adopted the longitudinal case method。 Among the various experiments, the most noticeable is the experiment named “The Contrastive Empirical Research on the Second Language Attrition and Acquisition of Three Turkey Children” conducted by Kuhberg in 1992。 Currently, those empirical researches we now see are mainly concerned with vocabulary, syntax and fluency。 China’s research on language attrition started late and until the beginning of this century did some researchers (Zhong Shuneng, 2003&Cai Hansong, 2004) begin to keep a watchful eye on it。 Besides, most of their works are the inductive descriptions of foreign research findings。

2。3 The definition of teaching strategy

In terms of the definition of teaching strategy, many scholars have discussed。 Some elaborate the definition from the perspective of teaching procedures; some from the perspective of teaching aims。 Wu Meina (1994:156) argues that teaching strategy is the overall consideration of such factors as teaching procedures, methods, forms and media for the accomplishment of a particular teaching aim。 Shi Liangfang(1996:142) holds that teaching strategy is a set of particular methods adopted by teachers to reach the curriculum objective。 Thus, it can be summarized that teaching strategy is the relatively systematic behavior adopted to arrive at some amount of particular teaching objectives after taking into account comprehensively the teaching procedures, teaching methods, teaching organizational forms and teaching media。

In view of the aforementioned definitions, the author concludes that teaching strategy is based on teaching theories and optimization of teaching elements。 Teaching strategy is flexible and instructive。

Generally, there are four principles in the choice of teaching strategy。

　(1)Learners are the center of the teaching process: students are the active participant　in the learning process and constructors of language knowledge while teachers are collaborators of students。

(2)Teaching environment should be optimized: given the current situation of English　　teaching in a non-native environment, teachers should create a relaxed and natural atmosphere。

(3)Information should be sent to students in a multi-dimensional way: multi-sensory language input should be available to students。

(4)Interactive principle: there should be man-machine interaction, teacher-student interaction and student-student interaction in classroom teaching。