Exploring achievement goal theory, ACTFL's 5 Cs, and the L2 classroom: What goals do students set?

This study used achievement goal theory (AGT) in the Spanish second language (L2) classroom to determine what students' self-selected goals are and how those goals relate to the ACTFL World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages (National Standards Collaborative Board, 2015). AGT is built on the concept of goal orientation, which is the natural tendency toward achievement-seeking behavior. The four goal orientations are mastery approach, mastery avoidance, performance approach, and performance avoidance. The results of this mixed-methods study show that the majority of students have mastery approach goals, but all four goal orientations were present across the sample population (N = 165). Results also indicate that 67.1% of students said that a top goal was communication and speaking, and 41.8% of students stated that grammar was a main goal. The findings that Communication (67.1%) and Cultures (2%) were the only two standards of the ACTFL 5 Cs (National Standards Collaborative Board, 2015) that were mentioned in students' goal statements and that Connections, Comparisons, and Communities were not mentioned at all indicate a disparity between what language learning entails and L2 learners' perceptions. Pedagogical implications are discussed.