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Orientation is defined as the way in which individuals view a task and the means they devise to fulfill it (Appel & Lantolf, 1994; Roebuck, 2000). This study investigated the orientation of twelve learners enrolled in a fourth‐semester Spanish L2 university course through the analysis of their interactions during a collaborative text‐reconstruction task and in their post‐activity reflections on their participation. Viewed through the lens of activity theory (Appel & Lantolf, 1994; Wertsch, 1998), learners' behavior and reflections presented an account of their orientation that was rooted in their motives, needs, and goals and materialized in concrete action during the task. Findings demonstrated that (a) learners' orientation changed at various times during the activity depending on how their individual goals were met by the social setting (e.g., how helpful their partner was in completing the task) and (b) learners' reflections exposed information that was not apparent in activity (e.g., dissatisfaction with the task) but essential for language practitioners who seek to understand learners' goals, needs, and overall orientation toward language learning. Pedagogical implications address the implementation of orientation assessment forms in the L2 classroom.

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This project investigated vocabulary learning from a sociocultural perspective-in particular, the way in which lexical knowledge was mediated in Spanish second language (L2) learners' and native speakers' (NSs') interactions. Nine students who were enrolled in an advanced conversation course completed an oral portfolio assignment consisting of five conversations with an NS. In addition to recording their conversations, learners transcribed and analyzed their interactions. At the end of the semester, each learner was assessed using a tailor-made posttest targeting the lexical language-related episodes from his or her individual portfolio. Findings indicated that NSs provided lexical mediation and that mediated terms were later recalled by learners, thus demonstrating that vocabulary learning had taken place. However, learners' and NSs' behavior varied from dyad to dyad regarding their level of engagement and the quantity and quality of mediation they provided and received, which had an impact on final learning outcomes. Pedagogical implications include the application of the oral portfolio activity for vocabulary learning in L2 classrooms.

Spanish learners engaged in two-way interaction gap tasks where, through social interaction, they identified and defined low-frequency vocabulary. Participants (referred to as actors to differentiate them from task partners) completed two such tasks. Each time, they collaborated with different partners of varying degrees of Spanish proficiency and linguistic background, either an L2 learner or a heritage speaker (HS). The purpose of the study was thus to shed light on if and how features of the collaborating partners in mixed (HS–L2) and matched (L2–L2; HS–HS) partnerships impacted vocabulary learning. Through a mixed methods analysis of the data (perception measures and qualitative responses, plus pre- and post-vocabulary tests), it was deduced that learners’ language proficiency level alone was not associated with differences in vocabulary gains. Rather, the nature of the partnerships among learners was more salient. In particular, learners in mixed partnerships had greater gains than those in matched partnerships. In addition, actors’ perceptions of the experience of working with their partner had no discernible effect on vocabulary, except for HSs who increased less when working with partners’ whose linguistic abilities they had rated as low. Pedagogical implications address learners’ social interaction in mixed language classrooms.