An important aspect of preparing learners for the globalized "knowledge society" is the development of (cognitive) academic language proficiency (CALP) in an L2 for use in postgraduate and/or professional environments.This small-scale study sought trends in acquisition and usage of English as an L2 amongst Latin American L1 Spanish-users.Among other findings, although stronger informal conversational skills (BICS) correlated with early exposure/instruction, many participants who came to English relatively late in life for use in postgraduate/professional situations had been able to develop sufficient CALP for success, although reporting significant challenges in L2 CALP development perceived as related to underdeveloped L1 CALP, despite L1 tertiary educational experience.Further investigation is vital, but there is a clear need to consider the non-linguistic (as well as linguistic) elements that play a role in the development of CALP for different purposes and at different levels, in both the L1 and any L2, amongst learners in different contexts.