SEGMENTATION MARKERS IN L21 Running head: SEGMENTATION MARKERS IN L2 Use of Temporal Adverbials as Segmentation Discourse Markers by Second Language Learners (L'emploi des adverbiaux temporels comme marqueurs de la segmentation par des apprenants d'une langue étrangère)

Corresponding author: Yves Bestgen, PSP/PSOR Place du Cardinal Mercier, 10 B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve Belgique Tel: (+32) 10 473005 Fax: (+32) 10 473774 [email protected] ABSTRACT Signaling the structure of a discourse using linguistic devices is at least as important in second language production as in one’s mother tongue. Still, very little is known about the difficulties second language learners might encounter in managing these devices. In order to compare non-native and native speakers’ use of temporal adverbials to signal the structure of their discourse, 120 native French speakers related a narrative, half in their mother tongue and half in Dutch. Analyses indicated that second language learners used temporal adverbials to highlight the structure of their narrative less often and less efficiently despite the fact that these devices have identical functions in French and Dutch and are used efficiently in the mother tongue by much younger pupils.