In practice, both CLT and the natural approach can lead to similar meaning-focused activities and for this reason they have often been confused. The resemblance, however, is superficial, for their underlying rationales are deeply opposed. The focus of CLT was primarily and necessarily social, concerned as it was with the goal of successful communication. In contrast, the natural approach was essentially psychological, based upon the idea, derived from first-language acquisition studies, that attention to meaning would somehow trigger the natural cognitive development of the language system.