Vagueness in Learner English: Exploring General Extenders and Informal Learning among Italian EFL Students

This study investigates the phenomenon of vague language within the framework of informal English language learning among Italian EFL learners. While recent societal and technological developments have been affecting the boundaries between formal and informal learning, little attention has been paid to how Italian learners, through informal exposure, first acquire and subsequently use pragmatic features (e.g., vague expressions). The research adopts a mixed-methods approach and combines corpus-based analysis from a learner corpus (the Trinity Lancaster Corpus) with data from a student questionnaire to investigate how learners employ general extenders (e.g., and so on, or something like that) and to what extent their usage reflects informal acquisition rather than explicit classroom instruction. Findings indicate that Italian EFL learners are generally aware of vague language but tend to use it in limited ways, overlooking its broader interpersonal and relational functions. Such limitations seem to be connected to the absence of explicit instruction on vague language in institutional educational settings, despite learners’ frequent exposure to such expressions through English-language media and social platforms.