Abstract
In this cross-sectional study, we analyze the prepositions por and para using a corpus that includes four levels of undergraduate learners of L2 Spanish. The main objective of this analysis is to investigate the accuracy of these prepositions for learners who have only studied in a classroom setting and who have not studied or lived abroad in the target culture. In light of the findings, we then consider current strategies for teaching por and para and note ways in which the most common explanations found in textbooks, especially the tendency to present them in opposition, may not necessarily coincide with the difficulties learners have or with the prepositions' functions in discourse.