Uso de vale en la interacción entre hablantes nativos y hablantes no nativos de español lengua extranjera

The focus of this paper is on the use of the particle vale in interactions between Spanish students and Spanish native speakers. Our analysis shows that non-native speakers (NNS), when speaking with native speakers (NS), use this particle much more frequently that SN. However, the way NNS employ this particle do not always match those of NS. Besides the uses in contexts of information acceptance, agreement, request for confirmation, closure of topic and alignment –similar to those of NSs,-, the NNS discourse shows many uses “outside the norm”. The objective of our work is to describe and explain how the NNSs use this particle, both inside and outside the norm, in order to understand what didactic strategies should be put in place to promote an awareness of its value and functions that will avoid such pragmatic failures.