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SMART Goals For Language Learning

The document discusses how to set SMART goals for language learning. It explains that SMART stands for specific, measurable, ambitious, realistic, and time-bound. It provides examples for how to make language learning goals specific and measurable by focusing on specific grammar points or vocabulary. Goals should also be ambitious but realistic based on one's schedule and previous progress. Finally, goals need a clear time frame or deadline to be considered time-bound and SMART. The document provides a sample SMART goal for learning tenses and verbs in French by the end of June.

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lndrredgord
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52 views

SMART Goals For Language Learning

The document discusses how to set SMART goals for language learning. It explains that SMART stands for specific, measurable, ambitious, realistic, and time-bound. It provides examples for how to make language learning goals specific and measurable by focusing on specific grammar points or vocabulary. Goals should also be ambitious but realistic based on one's schedule and previous progress. Finally, goals need a clear time frame or deadline to be considered time-bound and SMART. The document provides a sample SMART goal for learning tenses and verbs in French by the end of June.

Uploaded by

lndrredgord
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Document name: How to set SMART goals for language learning

Document date: 2015


Copyright information: Proprietary and used under license
OpenLearn course How to learn a language
OpenLearn url: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/languages/how-learn-
language/content-section-overview

How to set SMART goals for language learning


5minutelanguage.com

5minutelanguage.com (2015) ‘How to set SMART goals for language learning’ [online]. Available at
http://www.5minutelanguage.com/how-to-set-smart-goals-for-language-learning/ (Accessed 20
February 2018)

How to set SMART goals for language learning

Have you heard people talk about SMART goals before? They’re a very useful tool when
learning a language!
Many language learners get frustrated because in their head, they’re thinking they’re just
‘learning a language’. Their goal is usually ‘to be able to speak the language they’re learning’.
But what does this actually mean?
If you want to make progress, you really need to know right from the outset what it is that you’re
trying to learn.

www.open.edu/openlearn Page 1 of 4
Document name: How to set SMART goals for language learning
Document date: 2015
Copyright information: Proprietary and used under license
OpenLearn course How to learn a language
OpenLearn url: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/languages/how-learn-
language/content-section-overview

What are SMART goals?


Here’s what SMART stands for:
 Specific
 Measurable
 Ambitious
 Realistic
 Time-bound
So what does each of the letters mean in practice?

SMART goals: specific


You need to break down ‘learning a language’ into specific tasks that you’re trying to accomplish.
If you’re learning French, for example, these could be to:
 understand when to use the subjunctive
 get the intonation right when asking questions
 learn phrases that will enable you to be more persuasive when dealing with a French business
partner
 be able to transcribe a song by your favourite French band.
While working on each of the objectives above, you will of course be ‘learning French’. But your
learning will be more focused and more specific. This will enable you to feel more motivated and
to understand when exactly you’ve met your goal and are ready to move on to the next one.

SMART goals: measurable


You want to put a number on each one of your SMART objectives. Let’s look at the first two
examples above and see how you can measure them:
 Understand when to use the subjunctive: this could be made measurable by putting a
specific number on it. For example: learn the five most usual uses of the subjunctive.
 Learn phrases that will enable you to be more persuasive when dealing with a French
business partner: learn five adverbs that will help you emphasise what you’re trying to
communicate.
This is getting even more specific now, isn’t it?

SMART goals: ambitious


Remember – to learn, you need to leave your comfort zone. Whatever it is that you’ve set out to
do, make sure it sounds like a challenge to you.
So, instead of setting yourself a goal of learning 10 new words every week, call it 30, or even 50
if you feel brave enough.
One thing to remember, though, is you need to be able to balance ambitious with realistic, which
is the next element of SMART goals.

www.open.edu/openlearn Page 2 of 4
Document name: How to set SMART goals for language learning
Document date: 2015
Copyright information: Proprietary and used under license
OpenLearn course How to learn a language
OpenLearn url: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/languages/how-learn-
language/content-section-overview

SMART goals: realistic


Take your lifestyle and your everyday responsibilities into account when setting your objectives.
Use your previous experiences to determine what’s doable and what’s not. For example, if you
managed to learn 80 words last month, it’s probably realistic this month as well, as long as your
schedule looks similar to what it looked like last month. Was it an ambitious goal, though, last
month or did it feel a bit easy?
Being realistic is important because setting yourself goals that are unrealistic is counter-
productive and may cause your motivation levels to drop significantly.

SMART goals: time-bound


The final element of SMART goals is making them time-bound. But what does it mean? It
essentially means setting yourself a deadline for achieving your goal.
For example, ‘learn 20 French verbs by the end of next week’. You can then see the specific
chunk of time in your head and you know the learning process has to happen and get completed
during that period of time.

How to set SMART goals for language learning?

Writing SMART goals is like painting a picture of the future you want to see, as if it was already
here. The important thing is that it should not be a list of tasks but a reality that you want to
see. The tasks will form part of the actions that you will need to take to achieve this reality.
Some people like starting their goals with ‘I will have’ but I personally prefer to write them in the
present tense to make them more real and more achievable. Once you start seeing the future as
if it is now, you start believing that it’s actually possible.
I also like to start my goals with the ‘time-bound’ component, such as ‘It is the end of January’, ‘It
is Monday’, ‘It is the end of 2015’.
SMART goals don’t have to be expressed in one sentence. In fact, my language learning goals
are often made up of two or three sentences.
Writing SMART goals is like painting a picture of the future you want to see, as if it’s already…
Take a look at the example below.
It is the last day of June and I can now give a 5-minute speech about the jobs I’ve done in the
past, using the ‘imparfait’ and ‘passé composé’ tenses in French. I can confidently use link words
such as ‘après que’, ‘puis’ and ‘malgré’ to show logical continuity when describing past events. I
use five new irregular verbs to talk about my previous jobs, including ‘prendre’, ‘vendre’ and
‘sentir’.

www.open.edu/openlearn Page 3 of 4
Document name: How to set SMART goals for language learning
Document date: 2015
Copyright information: Proprietary and used under license
OpenLearn course How to learn a language
OpenLearn url: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/languages/how-learn-
language/content-section-overview

 This objective is specific in that it focuses specifically on using the two tenses – ‘imparfait’ and
‘passé composé’, as well as on learning irregular verbs in the ‘passé composé’. It also includes
a speaking component – being able to give a 5-minute speech on a very specific topic.
 It is measurable because it specifies the speech should be 5 minutes long and the number of
verbs is five. It also focuses on two specific tenses.
 It is an ambitious goal because it is focused on three different aspects of language learning –
speaking, grammar and vocabulary.
 It is realistic because I might set myself this goal at the beginning of June with a plan to
achieve it by the end of the month.
 It is also time-bound because the deadline is the last day of June.
Source: http://www.5minutelanguage.com/how-to-set-smart-goals-for-language-learning/

www.open.edu/openlearn Page 4 of 4

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