The Perception Of Modal Particles In Dutch As a Second Language

Dutch is a language with numerous modal particles, such as zeker in "Jij bent zeker Jan?" (Tou must be Jan'). The colouring that these unaccented modal particles add to the utterance is very hard to describe. The prediction that the acquisition of modal particles is difficult for learners of Dutch as a second language (DSL-speakers) has been tested in a perception experiment, contrasting unaccented modal particles and their accented - adverbial - counterparts. The results reveal that the group of DSL-speakers indeed have problems selecting the best fitting stimulus (on average 43% incorrect responses) in comparison to the native controls. We are inclined to interpret the results of our experiment to imply that Dutch particles and their interaction with prosody merit more attention in didactic materials aimed at DSL-speakers.