Table of Contents

Introduction: What kind of resource is language and why does it matter for advanced language learning? Part I: Theoretical considerations in advanced instructed learning 1. Educating for advanced foreign language capacities, Christian M I M Matthiessen (Macquarie University, Australia) 2. Generalised collective dialogue and advanced foreign language capacities, James V. Wertsch (Washington University, USA) 3. Re(de)fining langauge proficiency in light of the concept of "languaculture", James P. Lantolf (Pennsylvania State University, USA) Part II: Description and Pedagogy 4. Languaging, agency and collaboration in advanced language proficiency, Merrill Swain (University of Toronto, Canada) 5. Grammar as a resource for constructing language logic for advanced language learning, Kazuhiro Teruya (Macquarie University, Australia) 6. The linguistic features of advanced language use: the grammar of exposition, Mary Schleppegrell (The University of Michigan, USA) 7. Grammatical metaphor: academic language development in Latino students in Spanish, M. Cecilia Colombi (The University of California, USA) 8. Creating textual worlds in advanced L2 writing, Marianna Ryshina-Pankova (George Mason University, Australia) 9. The dialogic constuction of meaning in advanced L2 writing, Susan Strass, Parastou Feiz, Xuehua Xian, Dessislava Ivanova (all at Pennsylvania State University, USA) 10. Learning advanced French through SF, Alice Caffarel (The University of Sydney, Australia) Part III: Programmatic and curricular issues 11. Modeling a gerne-based foreign language curriculum, Cori Crane (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, USA) 12. Advanced Language for intermediate learners, Nick Moore (Etisalat University College, UAE) Index

Promotional Information

Examines the need for advanced levels of language learning from socio-cultural and linguistic perspectives.

About the Author

Heidi Byrnes is Professor of German at Georgetown University.

Reviews

mention- Book News Inc./ August 2007
"With this edited volume, Byrnes has added one more publication to the growing body of literature (of her authorship and that of others) on advanced language learning (ALL). In this collection, the notion of advancedness in language learning and instruction is explored through a very special lens: the illuminating potential of Halliday's systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and Vygotskyan sociocultural theory (SCT)...This is an excellent volume. The chapters are all well written and rich in stimulating ideas. The book balances adequately the theoretical with the practical, offering support for a new approach to L2 classrooms that truly places meaning at the center of instruction and makes ALL both a possible and desirable goal...serves wonderfully as a point of departure for exploration of aspects of meaning, context, and use in advanced language teaching and learning from an integrated SFL and SCT perspective." -Maria C. M. De Guerreo, MLJ Reviews, (Modern Language Journal), Vol. 92 No. 2, 2008 -- Maria C. M. De Guerreo
"The book, however, is not as well balanced in terms of the two perspectives used as theoretical bases, with the majority of the papers taking an SFL outlook rather than an SCT one. In addition, although the compatibility of Hallidayan and Vygotskyan theories is alluded to in several contributions, there is no thorough or extended treatment of how the two theories can complement each other in approaches to advanced language teaching." -Maria C. M. De Guerreo, MLJ Reviews, (Modern Language Journal), Vol. 92 No. 2, 2008