Connecting production to judgments: T/V address forms and the L2 identities of intermediate Spanish learners

• Spanish learners’ L2 identities investigated via address forms (T/V).
• Elicited and compared production of T/V and judgments about desired T/V use.
• Learners displayed indexical awareness of T/V's potential to shape identities.
• Strong preference for T in production, causing mismatches with judgments.
• Learners differed in agency: ability to realize desired L2 identities in production.

This study investigates the L2 identities of native English-speaking intermediate-level Spanish learners by combining two methods, production and metapragmatic judgments, and focusing on T/V address forms (tú and usted). Twelve intermediate-level Spanish learners interacted with Spanish speakers in oral role-play scenarios designed to elicit different address forms. Learners answered a questionnaire one week later about desired address form use in various interactional scenarios (which were matched with role-play scenarios). An analysis of questionnaire judgments revealed that these learners were both cognizant of the second-order indexical potential of T/V address forms and determined to utilize this indexical potential to construct notions of their desired L2 identities. Conversely, learners’ address-form production exhibited an overgeneralization of T, a result that starkly contrasts with the overgeneralization of V found in previous studies. Whereas some learners failed to consistently produce their desired address forms, compromising their selfconstructed ideal L2 identities, others showed an adeptness at matching their production to their judgments. I thus suggest that future research on L2 pragmatics and L2 identity move beyond a focus on L2 pragmatic competence and toward a consideration of learners’ indexical awareness and agency.