How to Set Smart Goals For Learning a Language

Goal setting – this is where it all begins.

Whatever stage you're at in learning a language, without smart goals for learning a language you're denying yourself clarity on the road ahead.

In this post, I'm going to talk about how to define your language goals using the SMART goal approach. We'll then take a look at some smart goals for language learning examples.

Edit: A few years on from writing this post, I've changed my approach. I now focus on one thing in my language learning and get better results. Read about it here. 

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Defining Your Aims

As with everything else in life, a good plan is the foundation for language learning.

By defining your aims clearly at the start you can develop a plan to suit you and avoid wasting time on things that won’t bring you closer to your goal.

At some point you will have experienced the feeling of really wanting to learn a language, maybe even made a start, but ended up feeling lost – overwhelmed by the task and not knowing how what steps to take.

Like being lost in a very large forest with no clear path ahead.

Imagine this: You're planning a long trip to South America next year and you'd love nothing more than to be able to share a cold beer on the beach with some locals and chat with them in their language.

You've got 6 months to get it together.

If you take the route that most people take and buy a couple of books, maybe an audio series, there are two major problems.

1. You are learning things that someone else has decided you need. Think about it –  how have they chosen the vocabulary you're about to spend months learning? Are you really going to use all those grammar rules to describe the sunrise? (The grammar villain will tell you yes, but don't listen!)
2. You probably won't have actually spoken with anyone by the time you get to South America.  
   

Basically, there's no road map.

You haven't defined where you want to go, so how are you going to get there? If I were to show you a book, audio CD or photocopied page of grammar exercises, you would have no way of telling me how it brings you closer to your goals.

What do you do?

Well, most people just go with whatever they get their hands on and hope for the best. Lost in the forest.

Now, let's take a different approach. Let's say you sit down and write some smart goals for language learning, like the following:

I want to be able to approach people in Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru in a friendly way, ask them some simple questions about themselves, their families and their lives and talk about and compliment the surroundings. I don't need to show off, so having two or three ways to talk about each of these things is fine.

I'm not great at remembering things, but if I set aside enough time to practise I can do it. I'll be talking to local people so I should learn words and phrases that are appropriate to that area. I'm travelling in the summer, so that gives me six months to get ready.  

Set Smart Goals For Learning a Language

OK, it might sound a bit contrived, but what do you notice?

With these smart goals for learning a new language, your goals are now more manageable. There's a path through the forest.

Why not try out this short smart goals worksheet for language learning to clearly define your goals:

Specific

Write down the specific outcome you'd like from your language learning.

(For example: speak with locals when I travel, or hold a conversation with my friend in their native language.)

Measurable

Write down how you will know you've reached the goal.

(For example, I will practice for 20 minutes a day to reach the goal. )

Attainable

Think about how easy on a scale of 1-10 it is to reach this goal.

(We often overestimate what we can achieve, so keep the goal something that's within reach.)

Relevant

How important is it that you achieve this goal? If you set a goal that won't make much difference in your life, it will be harder to take the steps required to obtain it.

Time-Bound

Set a time frame for when you want to reach your goal.

Start Taking Small Steps to Reach Your Goal

Take some time to think through these smart goals and you'll find it easier to stick to your plan.

Whatever your language goals, and whether you're a beginner or heading for fluency, you need to start right here.

So over to you! Set your smart goals for learning a language in stone right now!