Setting your goals … staying on track

Making progress in learning another language isn’t easy. Achieving fluency takes time, effort, and many months of persistence and practice. So how do you set your goals and then stay on track?

Recently, I read a very helpful article by Christine Carter about how to actually achieve those goals you set for yourself. Needless to say, simply repeating, “I wish I were better at English,” isn’t very helpful. The author of the article discussed this process in the context of how to incorporate more exercise into her busy life, but I’d like to take the same advice, tweak it a bit, and recast it in terms of mastering English.

First, state the big, overall goal. Ms. Carter suggests thinking about what you’d like to accomplish at the end of three months, but since language learning takes longer, you might want to set your goal six months or a year ahead. Let’s say you have to take TOEFL in nine months in order to apply to an American university. What’s the minimum score you need? And what’s a reasonable and doable score to aim for? If you are a beginner and need an overall score of 100, this may not be possible unless you have lots of time to devote to language learning. Set a goal that’s realistic, not impossibly hard … otherwise, you set yourself up for failure.

Next, break this big, overall goal down into smaller, long-term goals. So let’s say you need a 100 in TOEFL. Since there are four parts to the iBT, it’s relatively easy to break this goal down. You’ll set a goal of 25 points each in Listening, Reading, Speaking, and Writing. You have nine months to gain proficiency in each of those areas.

Decide whether you need to further refine those goals, by determining what steps or strategies are involved in accomplishing them. Here I’m adding a step to Ms. Carter’s plan, because language learning is a bit more complicated than exercising. Let’s take the 25-points-in-TOEFL-Reading goal. In my opinion, accomplishing this goal would require two main strategies … vocabulary acquisition and extensive reading. On the other hand, to achieve a 25 in Speaking, you might need to focus on both pronunciation/intonation issues and engaging in regular English conversation. If you’re not sure what strategies would help you to reach your various goals, an ESL professional would certainly be able to help.

Break each long-term goal down again, into short-term goals that take one to three weeks to accomplish. Let’s say your overall long-term goal in vocabulary acquisition is to master half of the words (the first five sub-lists) on the Academic Word List. With a total of 300 word families in nine months, 15 word families every two weeks would be a reasonable short-term goal. When doing this step, make sure that your short-term goals are easily doable. If they’re not, or if you see that the combination of all your short-term goals is unrealistic, you need to go back and rethink your overall goal. Is this goal too ambitious? Or should you give yourself more time to accomplish it? Either way, you’ll need to readjust.

Now, break your goals down into very specific, ridiculously easy baby steps. This suggestion reminds me of another book I recently read, Mini Habits by Stephen Guise. The mini-habit is a very small positive behavior that you force yourself to do every day; it’s “too small to fail” and thus you’re much more likely to make it a regular habit. If your short-term goals are realistic, it should be easy to identify specific, easy mini-goals. For example, 10 minutes of vocabulary study a day should be sufficient to master those 15 word families in two weeks. And an effective, easy-to-use app like Quizlet should help you maximize your efficiency.

Set up your environment to make things easier. Here, Ms. Carter points out that you should make structural, environmental changes to facilitate accomplishing your goals … in other words, don’t rely simply on motivation and willpower. Remove temptations and distractions from your study area. Turn off your mobile when you’re working on your vocabulary words. Keep your study materials accessible and organized. Make sure you don’t waste time hunting for your grammar book when you’re working on a writing task.

Involve other people, even if you are an introvert. Other people can help us remain accountable and motivated. This is probably one of the strongest reasons to involve a teacher or tutor in your learning, but there are other ways to include outsiders. Perhaps you could find a study partner to review your vocabulary words. Or harness social media to find other people who are working on their English.

Identify why your goal is important to you. This step may seem self-explanatory and obviously it’s something you thought about in the very beginning of the process. But this step involves pinpointing the “why” of your goal, on the way accomplishing your goal will make you feel, which is more likely to motivate you in the long run. So, for example, you rationally want to achieve a 25 on TOEFL Speaking because you need that score to get into a university program. But how will improving your speaking ability affect you emotionally? Envision how you will feel when you are able to converse with someone in English confidently and calmly. Ultimately, those feelings can be much more motivating.

Make it a part of your identity. If your goal involves language learning, you should identify yourself as a person with knowledge of English. Collect evidence that supports this identity. I can carry on a 20-minute conversation with a native English speaker (even if I feel a little nervous). I can read an article in English (even if I don’t understand every word). I can understand at least some of the conversation in an American movie (even if they speak too quickly).

Make the behavior more enticing. Linking rewards with your goals increases the likelihood that you’ll want to keep working on them, but figuring out how to do this with language learning requires a little creativity. If you’re working with a teacher, find one who’s positive and encouraging and makes learning fun. When you’re studying alone, build in a little reward at the end of each session … maybe a piece of chocolate or a good cup of tea.

Make the behavior more habitual. In English, we say that humans are “creatures of habit.” We tend to prefer routines, doing things at the same time and in the same way; we often operate “on autopilot.” All things being equal, you’re more likely to do something if it’s a habit. So consider scheduling your vocabulary sessions at a certain time of day. Link one routine with another; maybe you could listen to an English podcast when you take your daily bus ride. Harness the power of routines to help you achieve your goals.

I hope these ideas will help you succeed in your own personal goals. Happy learning!