Mere exposure to the target language does not automatically lead to native-like communicative competence in adult learners¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · qualitative r2 · q1
Currency · newest study 1990 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q1 i? An advanced adult learner living in English-speaking environments still encountered communication breakdowns, so exposure alone does not produce native-like communicative competence. → Yu Liming 1990

Evidence¶

Yu Liming 1990¶

Yu Liming. (1990). The Comprehensible Output Hypothesis and Self-directed Learning: A Learner's Perspective. TESL Canada Journal/Revue TESL du Canada, Vol. 8, No. 1. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ420159 doi:10.18806/tesl.v8i1.575

q1 · i? · qualitative · r2

Diary-based self-study: the author, an advanced learner with 1.5 years in English-speaking countries, records breakdowns such as the bus "exchange" and bookstore "invoice" incidents and concludes that "mere exposure to the target language does not automatically lead to native-like communicative competence".

"This means that so far as adult learners (even an advanced learner like myself) are concerned, mere exposure to the target language does not automatically lead to native-like communicative competence."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

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• Comprehensible input alone is insufficient for acquisition of high levels of grammatical proficiency — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it

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