VS in dialog

[mohsen shahrokhi]

Dear Jim,
  As an English lecturer I have observed my non-native students reacting to the second construction( "'That's my car', said the Dutchman." ") as somehow strange at the first glance. There is a tendency to accept the construction as a story-telling genre among Persian learners of English as a foreign lg. they prefer ,as you have felt, the first construction"'That's my car', the Dutchman said.' as a more formal and frequent one.
  Mohsen


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