Megan Solon

While much discussion has focused on what researchers do and should do in second language proficiency assessment, less attention has been given to why persistent trends continue. This study investigated second language acquisition (SLA) researchers’ beliefs, reported practices, and decision-making rationales regarding proficiency assessment. Using an online survey, we collected responses from 111 SLA researchers. Findings revealed that while researchers generally endorsed recommended methodological standards, practical constraints—such as time, accessibility, and ease of administration—frequently influenced their reported practices. A consistent belief–practice gap emerged across several key areas. Notably, reduced redundancy tests were rated favorably for both validity and practicality, reflecting a growing shift toward efficient, validated tools. These findings suggest that although methodological awareness is high, practical barriers continue to challenge the adoption of more rigorous proficiency assessment practices in SLA research.

This study explored filled pauses in second language (L2) Spanish from a sociolinguistic perspective. Eighty-two L2 learners and seven native Spanish speakers were recorded during three brief monologic tasks. Filled pauses (K = 2,707) were identified, labeled as lexical or phonological, and coded for several linguistic factors. Measurements for duration and formant values were taken from phonological filled pauses. The data underwent two stages of analysis: (1) examining the choice between phonological and lexical pauses and (2) analyses for each type. Results indicated an increase in lexical filled pauses and a shift in the vocalic quality of phonological filled pauses at higher learner proficiency levels. This research contributes new information to our overall understanding of L2 sociolinguistic variation and its development.

Sociophonetic competence—a component of sociolinguistic and, thus, communicative competence—has been explored in both learner production and perception. Still, little is known about the relationship between learners’ ability to account for sociophonetic variability in the input and their likelihood to produce such variation in output. The present study explores 21 learners’ preference for a specific sociophonetic variant on an aural preference task and the same learners’ patterns of production of the variant in semi-spontaneous speech. The sociolinguistic variable considered is Spanish intervocalic /d/, variably realized as approximant [ð] or deleted based on numerous (extra)linguistic factors, including the speaker’s gender, the vowel that precedes /d/, and the grammatical category and lexical frequency of the word containing /d/. Results reveal that preference for and production of a deleted variant increased with learner proficiency. Moreover, regardless of proficiency, learners generally selected deleted /d/ more than they produced it, suggesting that sociophonetic awareness precedes reliable production. Learners’ production of a deleted variant was influenced by the preceding vowel, the grammatical category of the word containing /d/, and the word’s lexical frequency, and sensitivity to these predictors was especially observed as proficiency increased. Learners produced the deleted variant more after /o/, in adjectives and nouns, and in frequent words.

Empirical research has reported differential effects of proficiency level on acquisition in the study-abroad (SA) context. We tested whether pre-SA proficiency influences learners’ acquisition of variable structures during SA, analyzing Spanish future-time expression, a structure conveyed through multiple forms with distributions that differ regionally. We surveyed English-speaking learners of Spanish who participated in 7-week programs in Valencia, Spain and Mérida, Mexico, whom we compared with local native speakers of Spanish. Before and after SA, learners completed a contextualized preference task created to examine variable future forms. Mixed-effects regressions revealed that, although learners generally approximated local targets, development according to proficiency level was not uniform, indicating the complex role of proficiency across grammatical structures and geographic regions.

The present chapter provides a historical overview of the notion of communicative competence, including a detailed account of early publications in the field of second language acquisition that argued for the importance of the construct and debated what it should include. The chapter explains important constructs in the study of communicative competence, including the sub-competences of grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence. We then shift to more recent discussions of communicative competence. We examine revisions to early models of communicative competence and review recent work that assesses to what extent the field has progressed in its consideration of communicative competence and in what areas the field is still lacking. Finally, we describe the contents of the volume, organized around sub-sections of theory, method, and applications, and we summarize the main content of the component chapters within each sub-section.

Communicative competence is an essential language skill, the ability to adjust language use according to specific contexts and to employ knowledge and strategies for successful communication. This unique text offers a multidisciplinary, critical, state-of-the-art research overview for this skill in second language learners. Expert contributors from around the world lay out the history of the field, then explore a variety of theoretical perspectives, methodologies, and empirical findings, and authoritatively set the agenda for future work. With a variety of helpful features like discussion questions, recommended further reading, and suggestions for practice, this book will be an invaluable resource to students and researchers of applied linguistics, education, psychology, and beyond.

This concluding chapter provides a brief review of the history of the construct of communicative competence as well as of the volume’s component chapters. This chapter then synthesizes the contents of the volume, focusing on four overarching takeaway messages: the utility of communicative competence for (re)framing longstanding questions, the prevalence of strategic competence in various forms, the importance of centering learners’ identity and agency in research on L2 communicative competence, and, finally, communicative competence as a matter of social justice. Within these areas, common ground among theoretical and methodological perspectives are highlighted as well as points of divergent thinking. The chapter concludes by looking ahead to future directions in research on communicative competence, emphasizing the need to expand current definitions of communicative competence to account for the multi- and translingual reality of our world and of many communicative situations, the importance of considering communicative competence as something that is co-constructed among interlocutors, and the relevance of related constructs such as functional adequacy.