ABSTRACT
The previous chapter concluded that L2 instruction can be benefi cial, but it did not explore in detail the question of ‘benefi cial for what?’ The current chapter considers the goal of L2 instruction. What is it that learners ought to know as a result of instructed L2 learning? In earlier and more traditional views, the goal of L2 instruction has often been seen as the acquisition of linguistic knowledge, especially about the morphosyntactic and lexical components of the language. As a result, numerous L2 students have spent countless hours memorizing linguistic information, such as Spanish verb conjugations or Russian noun declensions. However, not everyone views explicit linguistic knowledge as the primary goal of L2 instruction. Many L2 researchers, teachers and learners feel that the ability to use the L2 to communicate with other speakers of the language is just as important, if not more important, than knowing a set of grammatical rules (e.g., DeKeyser, 2007a; Littlewood, 2011). In general, teachers want their students to possess the ability to use the language to communicate (Scheffl er & Cincała, 2010), and learners also often place a high priority on using the L2 in real-life contexts.
