Overviewing how the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) conceptualizes 'communication' is a complex task. First, researchers differ in their interpretations of the nature of the object of inquiry and the goals of their research, based on different philosophical assumptions about the nature of language and the processes involved in language learning. Second, the concept 'communication' is generally taken as widelyunderstood and is seldom defined. This paper uses the definitions of SLA in three paradigms within the field to explore how each paradigm conceptualizes 'communication' and its role in the development of the linguistic system of the second language.