The beneficial aspects of introducing objectives for foreign language teaching based on functional or communicative principles are discussed. Functional objectives make the learner the center of interest and aid in the process of deciding what to include in a syllabus. Functional objectives offer more guidelines for the teacher in the classroom and help teachers and learners to see the relationship between what is being done in the classroom and what is expected of the learner at the end of the course. Functional objectives also demand a greater interest in "communicative" tests. The problem of consistently building up a functional syllabus for beginners is addressed, and it is argued that it is possible to grade material in a functional syllabus by the choice of authentic material and by concentrating on some of the lexis and some of the structures. Caution is advised against focusing on the lists of structures and lexical items instead of considering the philosophy behind the approach. In addition, there is a danger of oversimplifying what one considers the needs and interests of learners. (SW)