The present study quantitatively identifies undergraduate L2 Spanish learners’ beliefs regarding advanced-language use to determine if they influence how they perceive advanced Spanish, how they differentiate between different levels of intercultural competence, and how they rate overall language use of advanced L2 speakers. We found a disparity between L2 beliefs and behaviors, in terms of what they consider the most important, compared to what they are most sensitive to when evaluating the Spanish of advanced L2 speakers. We associate the disparity with constraints imposed institutionally by higher education and called for a reevaluation of societal and professional demands for advanced-language use, as well as academia’s institutionalized conceptualization of it, in order to generate greater synergy between students, language programs in higher education, and society at large. Doing so requires the implementation of assessment metrics measuring multiple dimensions of language use, and will ultimately facilitate the transformation of curricula and outcomes to more effectively meet the demands of the globalized landscape.

The present chapter uses a mixed-methods analysis to examine if L2 learners associate their learning with developing intercultural competence, and if these associations vary according to individual differences. It compares how L2 learners view language proficiency and sophisticated language use, and explores how they associate global citizenship with multilingualism. Responses to a survey were collected from N=67 L2 learners enrolled in either Tier I (basic language) or II (linguistics or culture) courses. Quantitative analyses revealed that age and instructional tier had a main effect on their level of intercultural awareness. Qualitative data showed that learners do not conceptualize language proficiency differently than sophisticated language use. Their definitions of global citizenship showed that they see multilingualism as the gateway to being a global citizen and language learning as the means to network with and learn from a global community. Agency and their roles as global citizens were only minimally mentioned; they self-identified primarily as L2 learners, not as L2 users with the ability to be agents of change on a global stage.