Complex sentence: Her conversational competence markedly improved during her stay, but the scientists wrote that they found it unsurprising that it remained very low andfound this unsurprising and suggested this provided evidence that the ability to engage in conversation was a separate skill from knowing language.
Split into simpler sentences: Her conversational competence markedly improved during her stay, but the scientists wrote that it remained very low. Linguists found this unsurprising, and suggested this provided evidence that the ability to engage in conversation was a separate skill from knowing language.