ABSTRACT
Lexical patterns are combinations of recurring words in a language. This recurrence is explained because words tend to combine with specific elements of the lexicon, or with certain classes of words, which shows the relationship between the lexicon and the grammar of a language. These patterns are not always necessarily noticeable at first sight. The emergence of electronic corpora and interfaces for their exploitation has greatly facilitated the detection of existing regular patterns in languages. This chapter reviews the concept of lexical pattern and how the most important available corpora for Spanish can be used as a source of information for the extraction of said patterns. In addition, we will evaluate the role corpora have played thus far in the teaching of lexical patterns in the classroom of Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL). In the world of teaching SFL, as is the case in the 358teaching of other languages such as English, there has been a growing interest in approaches more focused on the lexicon and its grammatical properties, which is visible in the evolution of SFL manuals. In addition, an emerging tendency to use corpora in class to present lexical items contextualized has been observed. We will also review some proposals for future improvement.
