This study aimed to investigate how Dutch natives with a different exposure to English as a second language process Dutch sentences with a preposition stranding structure. It reacts on an earlier...Show moreThis study aimed to investigate how Dutch natives with a different exposure to English as a second language process Dutch sentences with a preposition stranding structure. It reacts on an earlier study by Koopman (2010), who reported that P-stranding is only grammatical with r-pronouns and not with non-r DPs. Preposition stranding with non-r DPs is grammatical in English, and English is becoming more and more present as a second language in the Netherlands. Therefore, the present study tested whether preposition stranding in Dutch could be undergoing a shift towards the English structure, and whether we could see this reflected in the processing strategies of on the one hand, a group of students with a high exposure to English and on the other hand, a group of student with a low exposure to English. Two groups of students were tested in a word-by-word self-paced reading task, and the results showed a clear difference between the two groups. Even if at first the obtained results seemed contradictory with the hypothesized results, as the high proficient group showed a bigger slowdown after the stranded P than the low proficient group, after critical reflection on the stimuli and the data, evidence was found that the high proficient group uses an English processing mode while reading Dutch sentences with a seemingly English structure.Show less