Expanding the horizons of age-related research: a response to the special issue 'complexities and interactions of age in second language learning: broadening the research agenda'

With the recent dramatic increase in global movements for work, leisure, or migration, more people than ever before are learning a language later in life. Together with the general trend towards increased life expectancy and life-long learning, this makes age in language learning a critical research issue. Muñoz and colleagues are therefore very much to be congratulated for putting age back on the applied linguistics table with their Special Issue 'Complexities and Interactions of Age in Second Language Learning: Broadening the Research Agenda'. In this response to the Special Issue, however, we would like to go even further in broadening the agenda for age-related research in SLA by extending the object of inquiry from ultimate attainment to optimal proficiency development, and including research goals that move beyond theoretical questions of maturational constraint to address more directly the practical issues facing older language learners and their teachers.