It-­extraposition constructions in Italian EFL academic writing: A longitudinal study based on the Italian component of the LONGDALE project

The paper explores the use of it-extraposition constructions in a longitudinal database of texts written by Italian undergraduate language students as part of the LONGDALE project. The first part of the study investigates the types of patterns produced by the learners and the types of constituents they extraposed. The analysis reveals that the use of the “it (mod) be V-ed” pattern and of extraposed that-clauses increases over the years, while that of the “it (mod) be (adv) adj” pattern and of extraposed to-clauses decreases. The second part focuses on the learners’ erroneous or non-standard uses of these constructions, e.g. the incorrect extraposition of noun phrases, and seeks to find explanations for them, also using inferential statistics.