In this study, data gathered by interviewing two groups of adult non-native language learners and a native speaker control group: advanced learners of English in Iran (NNS_IR), advanced learners of English in the US (NNS_US) and a control group of native speakers of English in the US (NS) was analyzed to compare different relations of the responses given by all groups. The overall hypothesis of the present study was that language learners who learn the L2 in a TL environment might gain native-like competence and will have different mental networking compared to learners in a non-native environment and the word production and word association patterns of NNSs in an English speaking environment might be closer to the NS?s responses in comparison with the NNS_IR. Results did not indicate a homogeneous similarity or difference in all categories analyzed. That NNS in the US transitioning from being incompetent in L2 to becoming native-like.
