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

Abstract

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.