Topic and Subject Prominence in Interlanguage Development

Most previous studies on topic prominence in second language (L2) acquisition have investigated interlanguage from the direction either of topic prominence to subject prominence or subject prominence to subject prominence. The role of topic/subject prominence typology in L2 acquisition cannot be fully explained until additional studies are conducted in the direction of subject prominence to topic prominence. The current study examined topic‐prominent interlanguage of subject‐prominent first language (L1) speakers. The results did not support the early universal stage of topic prominence in L2 acquisition but showed that learners transferred their subject‐prominent L1 features in topic‐prominent L2 learning. With increasing L2 proficiency, learners gradually became sensitive to the characteristics of the target language, approximating its norms.