The use of it-clefts in the written production of Spanish advanced learners of English

  1. Susana Doval Suárez 1
  2. Elsa González Álvarez 1
  1. 1 Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. Departamento de Filoloxía Inglesa e Alemana
Book:
Contrastive Discourse Analysis: functional and corpus perspectives
  1. Maite Taboada (coord.)
  2. Susana Doval Suárez (coord.)
  3. Elsa González Álvarez (coord.)

Publisher: Equinox

ISBN: 9781908049759

Year of publication: 2013

Pages: 143-163

Type: Book chapter

Abstract

The present chapter explores the use of it-cleft constructions, a type of focusing device that has been claimed to be over-represented in the written production of advanced learners with different L1 backgrounds. Its objective is threefold: first, it investigates how Spanish advanced EFL learners compare with NSs from the point of view of their use of it-clefts, second, it addresses the issue of how NNSs and NSs compare regarding their use of the different discourse functions of it-clefts, and finally, the chapter investigates whether the differences between the two groups may be attributed to influence of the L1.