The problem:
Struggling to set proper language learning goals?
Don't have any language learning goals?
Don't know where to start?
The Solution:
Set a short-term goal (1 week)
Set a medium-term goal (1 month)
Set a long-term goal (1 year)
Introduction
This post will cover three main concepts: time frames, goal types and the concept of self-efficacy. It’s one of five posts that cover the fundamentals of learning a new language or improving an existing one. You need a strong foundation when starting something as complex as communication, so the five posts were written to form this foundation.
Determine specific goals (short, medium, and long-term)
Why do you want to learn the language? This is a seemingly innocuous question, but it is one of the most important questions that you should ask yourself when learning a language. Setting goals determines the direction you are moving in: long-term goals should be far in the future, so they will seem vague at the beginning; medium-term goals should be clearer, but still vague enough that they can change; and short-term goals should be well-thought out and practically achievable. You can use the 20%-60%-80% (long-medium-short) scale which refers to how much detail you should have when planning the respective goals.
Start with short-term goals right now - even reading this post is the first step. Every week you should look back at your goals, adjust them and document your progress. You can choose to look at your one-year goal as just one completed task or you can see that it’s made up of monthly goals (12) and weekly goals (52). The small steps you take are what lead you to knowing the language, so keep focused on them.
When you are working on short-term goals try a strategy and continue with it if it works for you, but if it doesn't work then change it for the next week. Make sure that the small goals help you progress toward your medium-term goal. Repeat this process every month for your medium-term goals and before you know it, you will have achieved your long-term goal. The importance of small incremental steps cannot be overstated because it's not the 6 hours sessions once a week that are going to help the most. It's rather the 20-minute sessions every day that are going to make the biggest difference.
SMART goals
Setting goals is not easy at first, but there is a certain formula that can be followed which makes the process much easier and more effective. The term SMART goals (Doran 1981) is an acronym which describes five key points to consider when setting a goal.
Specific
Goals need to be as specific as possible in the short-term with decreasing specificity the longer the time frame - think back on the 20%-60%-80% scale. This gives you very clear tasks to achieve now, but also the freedom to adjust goals when you get new information. After achieving a goal or reaching the goal deadline, you should do a review to assess whether or not it was realistic and in line with your skill level.
Measurable
Decide what are your criteria for success and failure. For example, if your short-term goal is to order a meal in French, then go to a restaurant and order the meal. You are successful if the waiter can understand you, otherwise you have failed. Make the outcome as clear as possible, so that you know where you can improve if you have failed. In the end success or failure isn't important, what is important is that you know whether you succeeded or failed. Success means you are progressing and failure means you know where your weaknesses are - both are important to get to your goal. But if you don't know whether a goal was achieved or not then you don't know what to work on. So, being honest with yourself is the quickest way to measure your success or failure.
Achievable
You need a goal that you are able to achieve in the "Goldilocks Zone" - neither too easy nor too difficult, but just right. Setting unachievable goals is not going to lead to success, they will most likely lead you to feel overwhelmed, unhappy and unmotivated. In such situations you will often abandon learning and say "well, I must not have a talent for languages". The problem isn't that you lack a talent for languages, but rather that you are unskilled in setting achievable goals. Luckily, this is a skill that can be learned, but it takes time and patience.
Relevant
The goals you set need to be relevant to you or something that you are working on. Setting random goals that are not related to anything in your life will ultimately lead to unsatisfactory results because there won’t be any urgency to achieve them. Focus on integrating the goals into your life, so that achieving them will give you satisfaction and improve your life in some way. The internet has provided a wealth of information in most of the world's languages, so use those search skills and find material that you are passionate about.
Time-based
One of the most important components of goal setting is to always set a time limit. Do this in a way that gives you some sense of urgency, but not so much that you feel overwhelmed - the Goldilocks analogy applies here as well. In the beginning if you're not meeting your own deadlines then review the time frames and extend them to be more realistic. The purpose is to find the balance between making meaningful progress and giving yourself adequate time to do it.
Self-efficacy
Self-efficacy is the idea that people have confidence in their own abilities. As Bandura (1977: 194) put it "people fear and tend to avoid threatening situations they believe exceed their coping skills, whereas they get involved in activities and behave assuredly when they judge themselves capable of handling situations that would otherwise be intimidating". Self-efficacy is important when setting goals because your expectations need to be realistic. Someone who started learning French from scratch a week ago cannot expect to write the DALF C2 (the highest level of French proficiency) in a week's time - this is an unrealistic goal. That person can, however, move that goal into long-term status and instead opt for the DELF A1 exam (beginner level of French proficiency). This will still be a challenging goal given the time frame, but it's much more realistic.
A Final Thought
I'm sure that when you were reading this article, it was quite apparent that there was no mention of motivation. This was done intentionally because, although it is very important, motivation is to some extent unrelated to goal setting. The basic idea of goal setting is to be able to direct your actions to a certain point in the future. By doing this, you can see if you reached the goal (appropriate), you fell short of it (too difficult) or you shot over it (too easy). When you have achieved a goal, review what you did so that you can get insight into your own goal-setting process. This can provide you with a glimpse into whether your expectations of your own skills matched what you actually did.
On a slightly different note, motivation is not a direction that guides you to your goal, but rather the energy you have to reach that goal. It is also very important in language learning and we'll deal with it in another article, but just like most other things in life language learning doesn't have one magic formula. There are many different aspects to consider which all play an important role in the process.
In Practice
I want to learn French because I am moving to France in 6 months, so I need to set goals before I get started learning. There are three basic goals that I will set:
Short-term (Week 1): find out which tools I have available (dual language texts, audio book and a community of speakers), my budget and how much time I have available each day of the week.
Short-term (Week 2): do shadowing exercises to get used to the sounds of the language.
Short-term (Week 3): read a chapter of a book (English) then read the same chapter (French) while listening to the French audio.
Medium-term (End of the first month): get in contact with a community of speakers and try some basic phrases. Ask them for their opinions on whether they can understand me or not.
Long-term (Month 6): have a 5-minute conversation with the community and ask them for tips on what to expect in France.
References
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological review, 84(2), 191.
Doran, G. T. (1981). There’sa SMART way to write management’s goals and objectives. Management review, 70(11), 35-36.