Although texts produced by (very) advanced Dutch learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) may be perfectly grammatical, they often feel distinctly non-native. Dutch, as a verb-second language, makes separate positions available for discourse linking and aboutness-topics. Although the English sentences of these advanced learners conform to the subject-verb-object order of English, the pre-subject adverbial position in English is made to perform the information-structural function of the verb-second discourse-linking position, producing texts that are perceived as non-native, without being ungrammatical. A side-effect of this L1 interference is the underuse of special focusing constructions in English, like the stressed-focus it-cleft. This paper investigates the progress of Dutch writers towards a more native-like use of the pre-subject position and the it-cleft in a longitudinal corpus of 137 writings of Dutch university students of English. We conclude that information-structural differences present the final hurdle for advanced Dutch EFL writers.
2022. Word order and information structure in heritage and L2 Russian: Focus and unaccusativity effects in subject inversion. International Journal of Bilingualism 26:6 ► pp. 749 ff.
Struik, Tara & Ans van Kemenade
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Lozano, Cristóbal & Marcus Callies
2018. Word Order and Information Structure in Advanced SLA. In The Handbook of Advanced Proficiency in Second Language Acquisition, ► pp. 419 ff.
Van Vuuren, Sanne & Janine Berns
2018. Same difference? L1 influence in the use of initial adverbials in English novice writing. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 56:4 ► pp. 427 ff.
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