In the Introduction, trying to answer the question of what kind of resource language is, Heidi Byrnes explores some central assumptions, insights, and constructs in systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and sociocultural theory (SCT) in order to probe them for their potential to illuminate aspects of L2 advancement in students with advanced linguistic capabilities.

Part I, “Theoretical considerations in advanced instructed learning,” is comprised of three chapters. In “Educating for advanced foreign language capacities: exploring the meaning-making resources of languages systemic-functionally,” Christian Matthiessen analyzes some aspects of the systemic functional conception of language as a resource for creating meaning, highlighting, as appropriate, the special case of the advanced learner. Following Bakhtin’s and Shpet’s approach, James Wertsch focuses on a tradition of scholarship concerning language, thought and culture in “Generalized collective dialogue and advanced foreign language capacities.” James Lantolf, in “Re(de)fining language proficiency in light of the concept of ‘languaculture’,” argues against the language/culture dichotomy as an unfortunate consequence of the attempt to construct linguistics as a science and argues for a unified approach to language/culture grounded in Agar’s (1994) conception of “languaculture.”

Part II, “Description and pedagogy,” comprises seven chapters. Merrill Swain, in “Languaging, agency and collaboration in advanced second language proficiency,” aims to foreground the concept of “languaging” and its importance to the notion of “advancedness” in second language proficiency. Researching the role of grammar for instructed intermediate to advanced adult learners in “Grammar as a resource for the construction of language logic for advanced language learning in Japanese,” Kazuhiro Teruya illustrates this principle in the context of learning Japanese as a second/foreign language. In “The linguistic features of advanced language use: The grammar of exposition,” Mary Schleppegrell examines descriptions of advanced language use. Following Halliday’s notion of grammatical metaphor (GM), Cecilia Colombi discusses three types of GMs as a way of explicating and tracing the development of academic language at the college level in heritage speakers of Spanish in “Grammatical metaphor: Academic language development in Latino students in Spanish.” In “Creating textual worlds in advanced learner writing: The role of complex theme,” Marianna Ryshina-Pankova examines the extent to which the ability to re-create reality textually manifests itself in written secondary discourses produced by foreign-language writers. Focusing on ESL freshman compositions, Susan Strauss, Parastou Feiz, Xuehua Xiang & Dessislava Ivanova present an alternative approach to constructing pedagogy in “The dialogic construction of meaning in advanced L2 writing: Bakhtinian perspectives.” In “Learning Advanced French through SFL: Learning SFL in French,” Alice Caffarel studies how SFL has been applied to advancing the learning of the French language with intermediate to advanced learners.

Part III, “Programmatic and curricular issues,” comprises two articles. Cori Crane, in “Modelling a genre-based foreign language curriculum: Staging advanced L2 learning,” scrutinizes how curriculum and instruction might support the attainment of high levels of L2 abilities, and Nick Moore debates the notions of “advancedness” and of the L2 pedagogies in “Advanced language for intermediate learners: Corpus and register analysis for curriculum specification in English for Academic Purposes.” Dedicated to human cognition and learning in relation to language, the volume is an excellent introduction into the field of advanced language learning.