Increasing globalization presents both challenges and opportunities to the higher education sector. This pioneering book shows how interaction between the two fields of foreign language pedagogy and second language acquisition (SLA) can facilitate more effective language development at an advanced level. Establishing a new research agenda to describe, assess, and study high-level language use, it uses mixed-methods analyses within a sociocognitive framework to explore constructs such as second language (L2) identity and critical language awareness as essential components of multilingualism and global citizenship. It approaches L2 advancedness from multiple perspectives, examining the L2 learner and their understanding of advanced language use, highlighting individual differences among foreign-language professionals regarding high-level language use, positing the need for unified departmental missions, and analysing alternative constructs to assess L2 advancedness. Throughout, analyses of quantitative and qualitative data are used to demonstrate the multiple dimensions of advanced second language use in higher education.

‘What happens when we ask L2 students to define 'advancedness'? The response is in Malovrh and Moreno's book, and it's fascinating. Through qualitative and quantitative analyses of learners' beliefs and perceptions of advancedness, the authors capture the way the educational system constrains the relative contribution that linguistic features, critical language awareness, intercultural competence, global citizenship, and learner identity make to the definition of advancedness among undergraduate students in language programs in the US.’

Cristina Sanz - Georgetown University

‘What a great pleasure to read this innovative and thorough treatment of advancedness in second language acquisition. Malovrh and Moreno have pulled together an impressive coverage of the topic from a wide variety of perspectives, building on past research and including their own vision of the construct. Their journey through this topic has an emphasis on sociocognitive aspects of language learning within higher education programs and covers an impressive array of topics that includes identity, cultural studies, beliefs, actual practice, and assessment, to give a small example. This book will be of enormous interest and benefit to anyone interested in L2 advancedness, including researchers and higher education administrators.’

Susan Gass - University Distinguished Professor Emerita, Michigan State University