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3 unusual facts about Merrill Swain


Comprehensible output

Developed by Merrill Swain, the comprehensible output (CO) hypothesis states that learning takes place when a learner encounters a gap in his or her linguistic knowledge of the second language (L2).

Theories of second-language acquisition

The 1990s saw a host of new theories introduced to the field, such as Michael Long's interaction hypothesis, Merrill Swain's output hypothesis, and Richard Schmidt's noticing hypothesis.

In the 1980s, Canadian SLA researcher Merrill Swain advanced the output hypothesis, that meaningful output is as necessary to language learning as meaningful input.



see also