Foreign Language Annals

Scholars and professional organizations have described participation in target language (TL) communities as one of the primary aims of language learning, but little work has been done to determine how students define those communities or envision their own involvement within them. This exploratory study drew on questionnaire and interview data to investigate the extent to which beginning‐level learners of German (n = 23) valued the goals that are outlined in the World‐Readiness Standards for Language Learning (National Standards Collaborative Board, 2015)—particularly the Communities‐oriented goals—and examined the ways in which these students delineated a TL community and conceived of participation in that community. Findings suggest that, relative to other goal areas, the items representing the Communities standard on the whole were rated as unimportant to these learners; however, there were some specific aspects of Communities that were rated much more favorably. Regardless of their alignment with those goals, learners' definition of what constituted a TL community focused on native speaker status and geographical location and excluded groups that met in local settings (e.g., German classes).