Marriott’s study shows the importance of input in relation to the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence as regards politeness forms.
Because the learners did not get any negative feedback from natives, they
concluded that they were acting appropriately. In addition, this area got
limited attention in instruction. Marriott suggests in relation to future
strategies for classroom instruction in Japanese that exchange students
cannot acquire addressee honorifics unless they receive and utilize corrective
feedback, whether this comes from interlocutors or as part of some
form of instruction. She suggests there is also need for practice, that is,
output. This was not available in Japan, and so deviations persisted. She
proposes the need to look at the use of these forms by the learners when
they get back to Australia, and ultimately to provide explicit instruction.
She refers to a longitudinal case study by Hashimoto (1993), who found
that the speaker on her return to Australia (who had used only the plain
form in Japan), had switched back to the polite form as a result of negative
feedback from her teacher.