How to set your English language goals

Do you have a dream about how well you can understand and use English? Understand your favourite movies in the original, present your ideas at business meetings, speak with confidence on the phone or at a job interview, arrange a family trip via email, help tourists in your town, make friends with people from different countries, travel the world maybe? Do you have one like that? 

 So you need a dream and you need a deadline. What else do you need?

You need to be as specific as possible with your dream. “I want to speak better English” won´t do. And you need somebody to share it with. Ideally someone who´ll be checking up on you once in a while and maybe tease you a bit. Social support is very important and can have enormous impact on your performance. And finally you need a pen and paper. Don´t type it. The whole brain – hand connection, it works, you know. If you can mind-map it, even better.

Goal-setting is one of the key tools for staying motivated. And you need to stay motivated, learning a language isn´t a short journey.

So these are the simple steps we should take to fulfill our dreams.

SHORT-TERM & LONG-TERM GOALS

Short-term goals are timebound by 6-12 months. What would you like to accomplish in this time? How well will you be able to do it, in what situations, who with? And who can be your “buddy” to share your goals with –  your language teacher, your boyfriend, your schoolmate, your best friend?

Long-term goals are timebound by 3+ years. Same questions but this area is more tricky as you need to be aware that this might change on your journey to accomplish your short-term goals. There might be a few realizations on the way about what you actually want and don´t want.

SPEAKING, LISTENING, READING, WRITING

If you don´t know where to start, you can download a worksheet here. You will see all the four skills, you need to fill in all the categories. You might protest that you don´t need writing or reading so much. Ehm, you do. Please, think again. In today´s world you need all the four skills if you want to consider yourself a confident English speaker. Speaking is not just about speaking, it is supported by all the remaining skills – writing, reading and listening. If you improve one skill, it will help your other skills too.

Always answer the following questions:

• What – what is it you want to be able to talk about/understand/read/write (apply to approapriate skill)?
• Which level – at which level will you be? or how often do you want to be correct? how deep will you be able to go?
• Who with – who do you want to be able to to speak to/understand/write with? a guy you like or the English Queen?
• Which situations/where – in which situations/what kinds of conversations/texts, where? pub, business meeting, airport?

It´s enough to have 1-3 goals in each category (=skill).

Always start with “I will be able to…” (some people like the present tense of “I am able to…”)

EXAMPLE GOALS

Here are some poorly written goals:

✘I will be able to speak better English with everyone.

✘I will be able to understand movies and books.

✘I will be able to write business email.

And here are some well-written goals:

✓I will be able to understand and speak on the phone with my foreign colleagues (Austrian, English, American) about work (reports, taxes), use small talk and  correct tenses at Intermediate level 65 – 70% (now 50%). I will be able to use correctly: simple forms of present, past, future and prepositions – place, time, basic phrases (go to bed, I am at work).  

✓I will be able to understand recipes in English cook books / blogs and only check 15% of new words.

✓I will be able to write my lessons in Power Point without another teacher proof-reading my English text.

STUDY PLAN

The next step is to write a Study plan for each of the categories.

Here are some examples of activities your students can include in their Study plans:

• I will email and chat online with my colleagues both formally and informally about work.
• I will write my professional texts directly in English, every month.
• I will start to write my diary  in English (my feelings, experiences, opinions about some events  that happened that day), every day a few sentences.
• I will write my posts in English, with or without the help of a dictionary.
• I will go out with my foreign colleagues every Wednesday when they go for a beer and get involved in the discussions.
• I will attend English meetings twice a month, I will ask my best friend to join me.
• I will read one English graded reader at Level 4-6 every month.
• I will follow a minimum of 3 pages about cooking and spend at least 30 min per week reading the posts/links.

The trick is to do things that you truly enjoy doing or you really need. Surround yourself with English as naturally as possible, it may be speaking with your English speaking friends/colleagues, watching your favourite movies/tv series, reading your favourite authors/blogs ... If you don´t enjoy the activities on your Study plan, it will get harder and harder to return.

TIME MANAGEMENT

So all you need now is discipline. To be able to move forward and become more confident when using English, you will need to dedicate some of your time to it. There really is no magic pill or a magic course. It´s all about you and how much you want it. If it´s not your priority, don´t even bother. You will fade away, in 1-2 months you will. Especially with no buddy or guidance. But if your desire is strong, nothing can stop you. So make a weekly checklist or plan in the calendar, whatever works best for you but definitely have your study plan + schedule always nearby (fridge, work desk, dresser, toilet door,… more ideas welcome!)

RECORD YOURSELF

And don´t worry if you don´t have anyone to measure your progress. Record yourself speaking to someone now and then 6 months later, it´s the best way to find out how you did. And you know what? If you work hard, you will make progress.