The Analysis of Subjects in the Oral and Written Production of L2 English Learners: Transfer and Language Typology

This study considers the oral and written production of L1 Danish L2 English learners and focuses on the analysis of sentential subjects and the issue of transfer. To deal with (the lack of) transfer in typologically close languages, it analyzes the English subjects produced by 20 primary school students divided in two groups depending on the time of exposure. The results show that the subjects produced are both grammatically correct and pragmatically adequate. Therefore, the analysis of transfer should look into language typology as a primary source for transfer, rather than into amount of exposure when typologically close languages are considered.