How To Set A Successful Language Goal

Setting a language goal is really important when it comes to learning a language. If you don’t know where you are trying to get to, you will never get there.

However, a lot of people find setting a goal confusing or difficult when it really doesn’t need to be.

I will go through the bascis goal setting framework you can use to make sure your goals are something you can actually attain in a good amount of time, while also being able to measure your progress.

(You can read more about – How To Make Your Own Study Plan For Learning A Language)

What Is A Language Goal?

A goal is simply stating something that you want to achieve with your new language. It’s setting yourself a target that you want to reach with your studies.

You can make this as simple or as complicated as you want, but you do need to make sure that you set the goal in certain way, or it will be a waste of time, but I will explain more of that below.

Long and Short Term Language Goals

The first part of setting a goal is to understand that you need both long and short term goals.

Learning a language is a long process and it is going to be very beneficial to have these two type of goals that will basically work together to get you to achieve what you want.

Long Term Goals

The long term goal is going to be a big, broad statement and usually quite simple, such as just saying “I want to learn Italian”.

This is great, but the problem is that reaching this goal is going to be so far away, that you will probably give up before you get there.

This is why you need short term goals as well, which are like the small stepping stones to get you to this bigger end goal.

Short Term Goal

Short term goals are set by using the long term goal as the target. Whatever the long term goal is, the short term ones are the stepping stones to get there.

They will be much more detailed and complicated in nature, but they are designed to take you closer to the long term goal.

Really you need to set your long term goal first and then work backwards making a plan of how to get there. It’s this plan that is your short term goals.

Short Term Goals Help You Reach The Long Term Goal

If you imagine learning a language as a journey (which it is actually often described as) then you have to see your long term goal as the final destination. Imagine it is like saying “I want to go to Italy”.

The short term goals are then like the directions of how you will get there “I will pack my bags and walk to the train station”…. “I will get a train to the airport” …”at the airport I will get a flight to Italy”.

As you complete these smaller, short term goals, you get closer and closer to the final destination, which is the long term goal.

The Framework You Need To Use For Setting Goals

If you want to actually reach your goals then you need to structure them with the following framework.

Every goal needs to be – Measurable, Attainable and Timed.

If you set a goal using these three principles, you will always ensure they are detailed enough to actually be effective.

If we think about the journey analogy again, using this framework is like making sure your travel plans are clear enough so you don’t get lost along the way.

Saying “I will take the train” is a good start, but it’s not that clear. It is far better to include exactly what train to take, at which station and what time.

These extra details may seem over the top, but they will make sure you don’t get lost and end up on the wrong train.   

Measuring A Language Goal

This is probably one of the most important parts of any language goal and it is often totally forgotten about. If you can’t measure the goal, how do you know if you’ve reached it?

Most people’s long term goals are always like “I want to learn Italian” or “I want to reach B2 level” which is cool, but how do you actually measure this?  

What does learning Italian mean? Learn it to fluency? … But then what does fluency mean? It’s just too vague and hard to measure precisely.

Even with something like trying to reach the B2 level, it is not clear enough; it also can’t be measured properly.

What if do the B2 test and pass? That’s great, but you might actually be at a higher C1 level at this point. So although you think you’ve reached your goal, you actually probably achieved it months ago and you don’t even realise.

While it’s perfectly fine to set these long term goals in this vague manner, it’s just too difficult to measure them. It is more important to focus on the smaller, short term goals that we can make very measurable.

We can use these track to our progress and as we move forward we will inevitably start to head toward our long term goal without even realising.

What Makes A Goal Measurable?

A measurable goal is something you can say has definitely happened or not. They are very clear and obvious if they have been achieved.

If you say “I want to watch a film without the subtitles and understand it enough to enjoy it”

You can either do this or not. There is no in between. You either understood the film enough to enjoy it, or you didn’t.

I know you are reading this and thinking “this is as vague as saying you want to be fluent” but it’s not. The difference is the detail. “I want to watch a film and understand it” is vague. How much do you want to understand? 1% …100%? It’s very vague.

Saying you want to “watch it and understand it enough to enjoy it” is more detailed. You can measure if you enjoyed it or not.

It’s a subtitle difference, but hopefully you can see how the two are different.

Basically the more detailed your goal is, the easier you can measure it.

For example “I want to get by when I am Spain” is not as detailed as “I want to go to a restaurant in Spain and order a full meal and at no point speak English to the staff”. The more detailed goal is going to easier to measure.  

If you can measure it, then you can say if you have done it or not! So start making your short term goals a whole lot more detailed.

Making A Language Goal Attainable

When you are setting a goal you need to make sure it is actually attainable. If you can’t reach the goal, it’s not going to be very motivating to even try.

You will already know it’s impossible and you are just setting yourself up for failure.

However, if you can hit a goal you are going to feel good; you will want to make a more goals after and will want to keep pushing forward.

This is also why the long term goals can be problematic, they just seem too hard to reach.

We can make large goals more attainable by breaking them up into smaller goals. This is why we make short term goals; they can be smaller and therefore far more attainable.  

Imagine you want to learn 1000 words. That is a big number and just seems so over whelming and too unattainable. However, if you break this down into a smaller short term goals, it doesn’t seem as bad.

Let’s change this goal to only learning 3 words every day. This doesn’t seem too crazy, its small and it’s attainable. You could easily do this.

But guess what? If you do this small goal every day for a year, you will have learned 1000 words.

You’ve still reached the same goal, you just need to break it down so it becomes more manageable and can be something you can easily attain and get that feeling of success as you do it.  

The Timescale Of Your Language Goal Matters

The last piece of the language goal setting puzzle is your timescale. I’ve alluded to this already, as everything is interlinked, but basically, you need to make sure your goal is set to the right timescale.

This can be quite difficult as people tend to massively underestimate or totally over estimate how long it will take to reach a goal in language learning.

Having lots of small daily goals can be a lot easier to reach than one big yearly goal.

However, how long a goal takes will of course depend on what you have planned to do. I would also try and keep the amount of time you assign to something reasonable.

You need to factor in what you can actually realistically achieve. If you want to learn 1000 words, don’t say “I can do this in an hour” that would be crazy, you need to be realistic.

Maybe as I said above, you decide to do it over a year, and learn 3 words a day. Some of you may think this is too long. It’s up to you to decide what you can realistically do. Maybe you learn 5 words a day and it takes you about 6 months. That’s still manageable.  

So long as you can attain the goal in the time you set, and you can measure if you have done it …then your goal has been perfectly set, now all you need to do is make it happen.

Language Learning Goals Can Change Over Time

Part of setting a goal is knowing that they can change over time. You need to be a little flexible as you may not have initially set the goal perfectly, so it’s okay to change things.

If you have set the goal up using the framework above, you will know if things need to be changed. If you are able to measure what you are doing, you can very quickly tell if what you are trying to achieve is attainable, or if your timescale for doing it is wrong.

If you start a goal and then find you need to change your timescale or change what you are trying to achieve, that’s okay.

All I ask is you do not cheat yourself and that you try to push yourself as hard as you can with your language learning. Just be honest and realistic with yourself so that your goals are hard enough to make you work, but are still reachable.

If you keep doing this you will hit the goals and you will make progress with your language learning.  

You will also find that your goals in general will change throughout your language journey. As you progress you will want to change what you want to achieve. The goals you set as a beginner may be really small and very simple. However, you should notice that as you get more advanced, your goals will become more advanced as well.

This is totally normally as the style of learning you do as a beginner is totally difference once you get more advanced and how you set your goals should reflect this. 

Just do what feels right and you should be fine.

Conclusion

Goal setting is essential and so long as you set your goals with the correct framework then you will make progress in your language.

Always makes sure that your goals can be measured, are attainable and can be completed in a reasonable time. If you do this you will be smashing through them and feeling great.   

(You can read more about – Language resources To Help You learn)