Assessing the type and quantity of out-of-class foreign language (L2) interaction that learners engage in is crucial in study abroad research. This assessment has commonly been performed with the Language Contact Profile (LCP). This article critically appraises the LCP as a measure for providing reliable data to correlate language interaction with language gains. Information about the L2 use of U.S. university students studying in Argentina was obtained using quantitative (LCP) and qualitative (interview, authentic interaction, and observation) measures. The results suggest that some LCP items were ambiguous and limited in their ability to capture fluctuations in students’ local engagement throughout the semester. The LCP also provided internally inconsistent participant reports of out-of-class L2 use. Notably, the results highlight the importance of considering discourse quality when comparing hours of interaction reported by different students, suggesting that numerical comparisons across participants cannot be interpreted to necessarily lead to comparable language gains.

Research has described the key role of formulaic language use in both written and spoken communication (Schmitt, 2004;Wray, 2002), as well as in relation to L2 learning (Ellis, Simpson-Vlach, & Maynard, 2008). Relatively few studies have examined related fixed and semifixed multi-word units (MWUs), which comprise fixed parts with the potential for flexible slots in L2 learners' language use over time. Building upon the corpus linguistic methodology of concgramming and usage-based linguistic research on a construction-based developmental sequence in language acquisition, this article describes learners' multi-word inventories through the analysis of a learner corpus of out-of-class instant messaging and blog use in a U.S. high school advanced placement Spanish language course. We examined this corpus using concgram analysis of phraseological tendencies to document related MWUs used in fixed and schematic fashion. Patterns in student language use are described in terms of meaningful permutations of constituency variation over time. Related patterns used by different learners are analyzed and discussed in light of methodological considerations in tracking second language use and the pedagogical implications of the concgramming approach to MWUs. OVER THE PAST FEW DECADES, LEARNERcorpus research has become an increasingly interdisciplinary area located at the confluence of corpus linguistics, linguistic theory, language acquisition, and second language teaching 1

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This article examines vague lexical features in unplanned, naturally occurring spoken discourse among speakers of Peninsular Spanish. It focuses on vague multi-word expressions that are part of a larger category of General Extenders (GEs, Overstreet 1999). Drawing on a subset of data from the Corpus Oral de Referencia del Español Contemporáneo (COREC), the article describes GEs in terms of form and frequency, and illustrates the use of the three most frequent GEs vis-à-vis discursive and pragmatic functions in spoken discourse. Based on GEs' many and pivotal interactional functions as well as their frequency in attested interactions, this article proposes that language learners' metapragmatic awareness of GE use in L2 Spanish be promoted through corpus-informed instruction.Este artículo examina el uso de "locuciones vagas" en el discurso oral y espontáneo de hablantes de español peninsular. En particular, se analiza el uso de unidades fraseológicas que son parte de una categoría más amplia, conocida como Apéndices Generalizadores (General Extenders [GEs, Overstreet 1999]). El presente trabajo describe este tipo particular de locuciones en relación con su forma y frecuencia. También se ilustran algunas de las funciones discursivas y pragmáticas de los tres GEs que ocurren con mayor frecuencia en una porción del Corpus Oral de Referencia del Español Contemporáneo (COREC). Dadas las múltiples e importantes funciones de los GEs en contextos de interacción oral, al igual que su frecuencia en conversaciones auténticas, se propone promover el conocimiento metapragmático sobre los usos del "lenguaje vago" mediante la enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera (ELE) basada en el uso de corpus.

This article provides a case study account of the language functions of tipo, which is a pragmatic feature of Argentine Spanish vernacular, as used by 10 young adult native speakers of the language (ages 18-25), in the context of oral face-to-face and synchronous technology-mediated written interactions with young adult Spanish L2 learners. An examination of naturally occurring and selfreported language awareness data suggests that tipo has acquired a wide array of pragmatic functions-it is a marker of hesitation, exemplification, reformulation, vagueness, and quoted speech. In its non-pragmatic marking uses, it can refer to an unspecified man, preface a hyponym, and be used to make a comparison. Participants' usage patterns, in conjunction with their understanding of sociopragmatic variability in the use of tipo, are discussed as a direction for research in colloquial features of youth vernacular.