As in the Marriott study, the role of input is a crucial one in the
acquisition of sociolinguistic competence. The performance of Speaker 1
in this study was directly related to input. She had a difficulty often experienced
by learners in a study abroad situation. They are confronted with
different kinds of conversational forms which do not appear in the input
they have had in the classroom, are not aware of the different meanings
these forms have in the speech community, and therefore have pragmatic
difficulties in interaction with natives.