• Organisation

The main purpose of this study is to contribute to the understanding of a particular language learning problem encountered by Turkish students learning German as a third language after English. More specifically, this study aims to investigate the difficulties that Turkish learners of German experience in positioning the finite element in subordinate clauses. To this end, data have been collected from both pre-intermediate and upper-intermediate level learners studying German as their third language in a Turkish educational setting. In order to study the acquisition patterns of the finite elements, data were gathered in the form of free writings. The findings indicate that the major difficulties that the students face concerns positioning the finite element in the sentence-final position in subordinate clauses. Regarding this finding, this present study intends to provide an explanation for learner mistakes within the Functional Pragmatic framework.