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Abstract
Adolescence is a period characterized by innovative language features. For instance, Andersen (2001), who examined the notoriously teenage discourse marker like in adolescent speech, noted, Adolescents are innovative at different linguistic levels, . . . which contrasts with the relative linguistic stability of the language of adulthood (2001:6-8). One way in which teenage talk is distinct from adult speech is it typically contains more discourse markers, including reformulation markers. Reformulation, as a discourse function, serves as a conversational tool for adolescent speakers due to the nature of their speech, which requires more repairs and elaborations (Buysse 2012). The objective of the present study was to examine how 24 adolescent native Spanish speakers and 24 learners of Spanish as a second language (L2) before and after study abroad in Granada, Spain understood, recognized, and used a set of reformulation markers. Specifically, I observed how the participants selected the markers o sea (I mean), en plan (like), digo (I mean), quiero decir (I mean), de todas formas (anyway), and total (in short), which are traditionally classified as reformulation markers, to complete a cloze test consisting of transcribed Spanish dialogues, demonstrated familiarity with the markers, and used them/or other reformulation strategies in elicited dialogues with a peer. The results of this analysis show that of the six most frequently occurring reformulation markers identified in previous research, the native speaker adolescents preferred the marker o sea, followed by en plan and de todas formas. The learners speech, on the other hand, lacked Spanish discourse markers altogether, and a number of speakers interjected English reformulation markers when speaking Spanish. Nonetheless, some learners gained familiarity with the marker en plan and incorporated non-lexical Spanish markers (eh, em) into their speech by the end of the program. Theoretically, the teenage Granada-Spanish speakers familiarity with and use of en plan provide evidence of an innovative language change attested previously in other varieties of Peninsular Spanish, while learner results suggest that reformulation markers are not readily acquired in short-term immersion programs.