The role of late-acquired structures in advanced oral proficiency

The present chapter focuses on one aspect of Byrnes & Ortega's (2008) description of advancedness; it considers the notion of structural command, not merely in terms of accuracy, but also the multifunctional use of late-acquired complex structures, which we assert provides another window through which we should observe interlanguage (IL) development and advanced oral production. It defines late-acquired structures as those that consist of complex (multiple) form-meaning associations and are only learned once IL development has reached a stage in which L2 learners are able to notice, process, and produce target language on a multifunctional level involving multiple linguistic systems. This definition allows us to problematize advanced grammar in terms of how we identify it and how we understand advancedness.