"Warum klingt das nicht deutsch?"

One of the challenges for second language learners isto acquire the ability to use well formed sentencesin different contexts in an adequate way. This studyinvestigates discourse pragmatics in the two V2languages, Swedish and German. In written productiondata Swedish learners of German (beginners,intermediate, advanced) are compared to nativecontrols. Although sentences are targetlike regardingsyntax, learners organize information in a way thatdisturbs native Germans. It is hypothesized thatlearners transfer their language-specific informationstructure to the new language. Since the initialposition of the sentence is of special importance inestablishing textual coherence by anchoring theclause in discourse, the study focuses on the'prefield' in declarative main clauses and the use oftheme-rheme progression in the L2. Analyses of thedata are provided and the results are evaluated inlight of current theories of language acquisition andinformation structure. Language-specific ways oforganizing information and thematic progression inL2-productions seem to be neglected in teachingmaterials. Implications of the research findings forlanguage teaching are discussed.

Autorentext

Christina Rosén was born in 1960 and educated at Växjö University and at the Teacher Training College in Malmö (Sweden). Since 1992 she teaches German linguistics and didactics at Växjö University. In 2006, she finished her PhD at Lund University and is now a senior lecturer at Växjö University. Her research focuses on second language acquisition.

Klappentext
One of the challenges for second language learners is to acquire the ability to use well formed sentences in different contexts in an adequate way. This study investigates discourse pragmatics in the two V2 languages, Swedish and German. In written production data Swedish learners of German (beginners, intermediate, advanced) are compared to native controls. Although sentences are targetlike regarding syntax, learners organize information in a way that disturbs native Germans. It is hypothesized that learners transfer their language-specific information structure to the new language. Since the initial position of the sentence is of special importance in establishing textual coherence by anchoring the clause in discourse, the study focuses on the 'prefield' in declarative main clauses and the use of theme-rheme progression in the L2. Analyses of the data are provided and the results are evaluated in light of current theories of language acquisition and information structure. Language-specific ways of organizing information and thematic progression in L2-productions seem to be neglected in teaching materials. Implications of the research findings for language teaching are discussed.