1st Edition
The Longitudinal Study of Advanced L2 Capacities
Researchers and educators routinely call for longitudinal research on language learning and teaching. The present volume explores the connection between longitudinal study and advanced language capacities, two under-researched areas, and proposes an agenda for future research. Five chapters probe theoretical and methodological reflections about the longitudinal study of advanced L2 capacities, followed by eight chapters that report on empirical longitudinal investigations spanning descriptive, quasi-experimental, qualitative, and quantitative longitudinal methodologies. In addition, the co-editors offer a detailed introduction to the volume and a coda chapter in which they explore what it would take to design systematic research programs for the longitudinal investigation of advanced L2 capacities. The scholars in this volume collectively make the argument that second language acquisition research will be the richer, theoretically and empirically, if a trajectory toward advancedness is part of its conceptualization right from the beginning and, in reverse, that advancedness is a particularly interesting acquisitional level at which to probe contemporary theories associated with the longitudinal study of language development. Acknowledging that advancedness is increasingly important in our multicultural societies and globalized world, the central question explored in the present collection is: How does learning over time evolve toward advanced capacities in a second language?
Introduction
Chapter 1. The longitudinal study of advanced L2 capacities: An introduction
Lourdes Ortega & Heidi Byrnes
Part I- Theoretical and methodological explorations
Chapter 2. Developing qualitative longitudinal case studies of advanced language learners
Linda Harklau
Chapter 3. Systemic Functional Linguistic explorations into the longitudinal study of the advanced capacities: The case of Spanish heritage language learners
Mariana Achugar & M. Cecilia Colombi
Chapter 4. Investigating learner language development with electronic longitudinal corpora: Theoretical and methodological issues
Florence Myles
Chapter 5. Planning, collecting, exploring, and archiving longitudinal L2 data: Experiences from the P-MoLL Project
Romuald Skiba, Norbert Dittmar, & Jana Bressem
Chapter 6. Issues in the quantitative longitudinal measurement of second language progress in the study abroad context
Jonathan Rees & John Klapper
Part II- Empirical investigations
Chapter 7. Advancedness and the development of relativization in L2 German: A curriculum-based study
Heidi Byrnes & Castle Sinicrope
Chapter 8. Advanced learners’ development of systematic vocabulary knowledge: Learning German vocabulary with inseparable prefixes
Katherine A. Sprang
Chapter 9. Teaching grammatical meaning to advanced learners: A cognitive-semantic perspective
Olga Liamkina
Chapter 10. L1-L2 Translation vs. No Translation: A longitudinal study of Focus-on-FormS within a meaning-focused curriculum
Marie Källkvist
Chapter 11. Longitudinal gain of higher-order inferential abilities in L2 English: Accuracy, speed, and conventionality
Naoko Taguchi
Chapter 12. Histories of engagement and sociolinguistic awareness in study abroad: Colloquial French
Celeste Kinginger & Géraldine Blattner
Chapter 13. Acquiring oral language skills over the course of a high school year abroad: What’s in it for absolute beginners?
Allison J. Spenader
Chapter 14. An ethnographic longitudinal approach to the development of assessment for advanced competencies of medical interpreters
Claudia V. Angelelli
Coda
Chapter 15. Theorizing advancedness, setting up the longitudinal research agenda
Lourdes Ortega & Heidi Byrnes
Biography
Lourdes Ortega is Associate Professor of Second Language Studies at the University of Hawai‘i. Her research interests include second language acquisition, second language writing, and research methods. Recent publications are Synthesizing Research on Language Learning and Teaching (co-edited with John Norris, Benjamins) and Understanding Second Language Acquisition (Arnold).
Heidi Byrnes is George M. Roth Distinguished Professor of German at Georgetown University. Her research focus is the acquisition of L2 academic literacy by adult instructed learners. Recent publications include Educating for Advanced Foreign Language Capacities: Constructs, Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment (co-edited with Heather Weger-Guntharp and Katherine A. Sprang, Georgetown University Press); and Advanced Language Learning: The Contribution of Halliday and Vygotsky (Continuum).