The Importance of Exposure in Foreign Language Learning

 When it comes to foreign language learning, exposure is one of the most important aspects to take into account. Many people fail in their attempt to learn a foreign language because they see it as a grammar and vocabulary task, but according to Brown (2007), learning a new language means getting adapted to a new culture,  a new way of thinking, feeling and acting. According to Spratt, Pulvverness, and Williams (2008), exposure is the opportunity a learner has to get in contact with the target language without studying.  It could be by listening, reading or by speaking.

Exposure allows FL students to get in contact with good language; it means good pronunciation, syntax, semantic, and the idiomatic expressions used by the natives of the target language. FL learners usually have difficulty in getting rid of negative transfers or interference; this is because of the lack of exposure. Chomsky (1965) said that not necessarily a well-structured sentence makes sense in a language, that is the reason why some language learners can not have an effective communication in their target language.

               

  Bandura (1984) said in his theory of social learning that people generally learn by observing, and imitating the ones around them. This theory is 100% applied in Fl learning. According to Spratt, Pulvverness, and Williams (2008), people always have a reason to communicate; it could be for apologizing, advising, thanking, greeting, agreeing, interrupting, clarifying, disagreeing, expressing obligation, inviting, refusing, etc. With the exposure, the ones who are learning a language get in contact with the way the natives of the target language use it in different contexts.  

        

 Many Fl students would ask how they could get exposure if they are learning how to speak the language in a context where it is basically limited to the classroom.  But if there is motivation, learners have many choices to be exposed to their target language. They can listen to music, watch movies, I usually recommend my English students to watch sitcoms. They can also join language clubs, and by reading newspapers and books written in the target language.