well great happy new year hey everybody
welcome back to our weekly live streams
it is the first stream of the new year
so i'm very excited to be back with
everyone again this week to kick off the
year in a positive fashion our topic is
how to make a personal study plan for
2020. in this lesson i'm going to talk
about
goal setting how to set good goals for
yourself how to set the right kind of
goals i'm also going to talk about a
process a flow that you can use to keep
your studies continuing to make sure
that your studies are always moving
forward so i hope that you can find
something
good and useful in this lesson whether
you're a beginner whether you're
intermediate or whether you're advanced
so we are getting everything rolling
here i think we're going to start in
just a couple of minutes
uh
and in the meantime as always i have
stuff to show you first if you have not
already as always we do have free
pdfs available for you to download you
can find the link for this below the
video if you are watching on youtube or
you can find it above the video if
you're watching on facebook there are a
bunch of different topics you can choose
from whether you like eating out or
going to hotels for travel like for
business
there's stuff to talk about your leisure
time which means the things you like to
do like your hobbies for example you
could also talk about all of these other
things so take a look at this i'll show
you a few more of these later in today's
lesson uh up close on our other camera
but you can take a look at these they
are free you can download them all from
english class 101.com
great i see lots of people on the
youtube chat now hello there augusto hi
jagdy markinson kodiak hello minhan
hello tiva colin hi everybody thanks
very much for joining us and i think
facebook is just getting up for us now
too hi everybody bori hey hi everybody
zaynab hello i have a couple people yeah
just facebook i think is just loading so
as you send or as you join please make
sure to send us a message and hit the
like button too so other people can find
today's lesson
oh yes my other announcement uh is about
uh in general this i wanted to share a
photo this is a photo i took with a
couple of our awesome team members at
the end of 2019 to say thank you to
everybody uh who has been watching and
sending your questions sending your
comments participating in our videos by
sending questions to ask alicia or to
our monthly review
a big thank you to everybody in 2019 and
i hope that you continue to support and
watch us
and connect with us in 2020 as well
great okay
that's it for announcements i see many
people are here now fantastic so as i
said today is going to be about setting
goals i'm going to focus on setting
goals
and also helping
build a plan helping you to kind of keep
your studies going forward so that you
don't fall flat you don't hit what's
called like that intermediate plateau a
plateau is like a flat part of land
where you don't go up or down so there's
an intermediate point that mid middle
level where we get stuck sometimes so
i'm going to talk about this today but
first i'm going to share today's live
lesson and then i'm going to begin
i'm going to start today by talking
about something that i talk about a
couple times every year i suppose i'm
going to talk about the concept of goal
setting specifically what's called smart
goal setting so i'm going to slow down
uh my speaking speed a little bit now
i'm going to start today's lesson by
talking about uh setting the right goals
setting the right goals so i know i see
your comments of every day and a lot of
you write comments like i want to speak
english fluently i want to talk like a
native speaker so you have like these
very big ideas which is great that's a
positive thing for sure but i want to
emphasize
uh the importance i want to share i want
to remind everybody how important it is
to have very
specific goals um so smaller goals
inside your bigger goal
so i want to talk first today about
setting goals uh in the most effective
way you can so we use this or i like to
use this what's called smart goal
settings so you can see the first letter
of each word here
s-m-a-r-t this spells smart so what is a
smart goal
a smart goal is a goal that has all of
these different points inside it so a
smart goal is something that is specific
specific so for example this
i want to be fluent is not a specific
goal like i want to be fluent in english
or i want to be fluent in chinese
whatever language you're studying this
is not a smart goal this is not specific
so choosing something specific is for
example i want to learn 500 new
vocabulary words like that's a very
specific goal or i want to learn
all the words all the vocabulary words
on this pdf something like that so you
choose something that's very specific so
you know exactly what the goal is
second
m the m in smart stands for measurable
measurable so measure so measuring
something imagine like a ruler yeah
you're able to measure the length of
something or you can measure time with a
watch so how are you going to track your
goal you need to make sure your goal is
measurable so in other words how do you
know
when you achieve the goal how do you
know if you didn't achieve the goal so
for example with a goal like study 500
vocabulary words or learn 500 vocabulary
words you can measure it did i do it or
not or with learn all the vocabulary
words on this pdf you can check you can
measure it did i do it or not so make
sure your goal is measurable you can't
measure fluid like yes you can take
tests but there are many different types
of tests and there are different levels
of fluency right so make sure that your
goal is measurable
third is
achievable achievable that means is it
actually possible to do that so if you
are a beginner or if you're maybe even
like intermediate but you haven't
studied for a while and you say like i
want to be
uh
giving a research presentation next
month like that's just not possible
probably for most people it's not
achievable it's not something we can
achieve so there's a very very low
chance of success so choose a goal that
is achievable like again
like learn 500 vocabulary words by april
something like that is much more
achievable
next realistic a realistic goal so that
means
does the goal like match with your your
lifestyle does the goal match with your
schedule as well so maybe the goal is
achievable but for you like maybe you're
super busy and you don't have
three hours to use for study every day
so make sure your goal is realistic so
please keep this in mind don't like
overwhelm yourself
with everything you need to do finally
is it timely timely so timely think of
timely here as meaning does it match
your life does it match your needs right
now is it something that you can focus
your energy on right now so maybe if
you're like changing jobs or changing
houses or you're you have many different
things going on in your life right now
maybe it's really really difficult to
create a super focused study plan so
make sure that your goal
matches your life situation right now so
this is what's called a smart goal a
goal that meets all of these points is a
smart goal so some examples of this are
as i said learn 500 new vocabulary words
by april so smart goal because it's
specific 500 new vocabulary words it's
measurable we understand did i do it or
not like did i learn 500 words or not i
can track it it's achievable so it
sounds like something that it's actually
possible to do
is it realistic yeah it's 500 words i
can break that down each day each week
is it timely sure maybe for this person
it's a very timely goal i have a
vocabulary gap another example is this
learn how to talk about my hobby in the
next six weeks learn how to talk about
my hobby in the next six weeks so i have
a six week time period to talk about my
hobby so that means i need to be able to
have a conversation about my hobby maybe
i have a conversation partner
and i can check whether i was able to do
it or not so this is another specific
goal
uh pass a proficiency test i know lots
of you uh take proficiency tests like
toeic and toefl what else is there
bulats there's so many um so if maybe
passing a proficiency test is is your
goal that's great just make sure it's
you know you break down your goals make
sure you break down your studies i'll
talk about that later too
and finally
just another
small but actually these are my favorite
kinds of goals sorry it's kind of hidden
by the banner there i wrote it too far
down on the board i will read it it says
be able to order a pizza over the phone
by next month be able to order pizza
over the phone by next month this means
pick up the phone and order a pizza so
this is an example of a daily life goal
and actually these are my favorites
because they're very like
um what should i say you can't really um
plan for them until you realize you're
not able to do it so this was something
i wanted to be able to do like in my
studies for japanese i knew i wanted
like to call a taxi to my house one day
and i knew that i needed to like the
vocabulary for that so i looked up the
vocabulary for it and thought through
like the sentences i would need so these
kinds of everyday life goals i think are
really really great because you can kind
of understand how to use them right away
so this is how i wanted to start today's
lesson by talking about smart goal
setting
all right uh so as we continue through
today's lesson maybe send your goal send
your goal in the chat
and we can take a look and get some
ideas
maybe some of you are stuck a little bit
with ideas for goals so try to send a
few through
uh everybody's just saying hello hello
everybody
okay we'll take one quick break there
and then i'm going to talk about making
your study plan so this part i have
designed a lovely flowchart
style presentation for this
we're going to talk about how to build
and continue a study plan i've hopefully
got some hints here for people of every
level so let's take a quick break
and then we'll continue i showed you
a few of these earlier today
today this morning this afternoon this
evening depending on where you are um
i'll show you
up close over here hello so these as i
showed you before these are free pdfs
that we have from the link below the
video on youtube or above the video if
you're watching on facebook if you're
watching on youtube
instagram instagram please check youtube
or facebook to see these there are many
different topics this one uh it's hard
to see it's about cooking
this one is about talking online so
vocabulary you can use on the internet
on social media uh ways to like plan
time so time related vocabulary if you
like music you can check out this one
about singing
this one is shopping related so there
are lots and lots oops i have that twice
there are lots and lots of different uh
topics that you can take a look at these
are all for free you can download them
from the link below the video on youtube
or above the video on facebook you do
need an english class 101.com account
but you can make one for free and then
after you make the account log in
you can scroll to the bottom of the page
after you log in to download these
things lots of people have asked that
all righty great so with that let's
continue to the meat of today's
presentation the main focus of today's
topic uh how to make your study plan so
it's kind of a cycle
we're going to look at how to make this
uh plan for ourselves and continue
making the plan so
if you have not already please make sure
to hit the like button and share the
video if you have not already we're
going to get started okay
let's take a look let's start we're
going to start right here
so the first step or the first place i
want to start here is this assess
yourself step the assess yourself so
assess maybe a new vocabulary word for
some of you
assess to assess means like to check
yourself here so it means look closely
at yourself so and kind of understand
the different parts of yourself for like
your language studies so ask yourself
what can i do and what can't i do right
now
so this is like you're going to give
yourself a level check in this way
so ask yourself can i do something so
finish this question can i for example
introduce myself
or can i read a magazine article in
english or maybe if you're studying a
different language too can i do this can
i read a magazine article
can i understand a tv show i like so
think about the different things you do
in your life in your native language and
ask yourself can i do that in the
language that i'm studying
other so also make sure when you do this
i know lots of you are thinking about
your speaking skills or maybe your
listening skills but when you ask these
questions you can actually make a list
or what i did uh i made a uh google like
a google form
like uh of all these questions and then
i can track my answers over time so that
might be a tip for some of you
so you can make a list of questions to
ask yourself make sure your questions
are asking about speaking
reading writing and listening skills
need to have four different types of
questions so not just speaking but
consider speaking reading writing and
listening so you make sure you cover all
four of those main like bases of
language learning yeah so uh can i
understand a tv show i like
is another question to consider so
that's maybe listening related
uh can i talk about my work a speaking
question can i read my friend's social
media posts so that's a reading related
question
can i do a job interview
in my second language or third language
can i write an essay
or can i give a presentation these are
just a few ideas i chose when i made
this list for myself and for my students
i chose about
20 to 25 questions in each category in
reading writing speaking listening
and i made them very easy to uh a little
challenging too difficult to very
advanced so like for example the very
easy questions are like i can say my
name i can give my name i can give my
phone number and the very advanced ones
are like i can participate in a debate
about a topic i've researched or
something like that i can't remember off
the top of my head but make sure your
questions you ask yourself go from easy
to very difficult
so the reason ask yourself these things
and give yourself three choices for an
answer you can answer with yes i can
easily so can i introduce myself yes
easily it's easy for me to say my name
is alicia or my name is your name
whatever that is
so
if your answer to the question is yes i
can easily it's easy for me to do that
the next step is to go to a more
difficult question so continue to the
more difficult question the purpose of
this is to find the spot that's a little
challenging for you
so i'll talk about that in just a minute
if however you ask yourself these
questions and you find one that's no
not at all i can't do it at all it's
impossible for me to do that's fine
that's good
just keep that for your future studies
so don't worry so much about that if
it's totally impossible for you okay
great that's for your future for your
future studies
if however you say can i understand a tv
show i like you ask this question and
your answer is
yes a little but it's difficult
that is a good maybe spot to start your
studies so the things that are
possible but they're still a little bit
difficult for you that's a good spot to
start
so again if your answer is yes okay fine
that's great and then continue on to the
next hardest level of difficulty for
your focus that's what i mean here so
your focus should be on the next level
of difficulty so
one reason that people get stuck at like
the middle level the intermediate level
is because they continue studying the
things that are already easy for them so
you have to challenge yourself in order
to progress to the next level so
look for questions that you answer yes
but it's a little bit difficult
so with this let's continue to the next
part so the next step in this process is
to ask why so when i say why i mean why
is it difficult for you for example this
one can i understand a tv show i like if
you say yes a little but it's difficult
why is it difficult for you to
understand the tv show
some examples
i don't know the words that i need so
maybe in this tv show you're watching
you don't have the vocabulary or maybe
for an essay you're reading you don't
have the vocabulary words to understand
this essay so this is a vocabulary
related problem i don't know the words i
need so
this is a pretty good hint maybe i
should study vocabulary or maybe i don't
understand this grammar so i'm reading
an article i'm reading this thing in my
favorite magazine or in a newspaper and
the grammar
that's used i just totally don't
understand it the words i can understand
the words but i don't understand the
grammar or i feel i'm missing something
in the grammar so that's a pretty good
hint you should focus on grammar
another one
for those of you working on writing i
know many of you many of you send me
questions how do i write a paragraph
if you feel i can't write smoothly so
smoothly means your sentences connect
nicely you have good connecting words
transition words like then so moreover
furthermore and so on so if you feel you
can't write smoothly maybe you should
focus on writing improving your writing
skills
some of you often say native speakers
talk too fast native speakers talk too
fast so a reminder i'm speaking a little
more slowly actually for this lesson i'm
speaking a bit even more slowly so
everyone can easily understand um so
keep in mind that when you're watching
someone like me or you're watching your
other other teachers on youtube or
online we speak at a different rate we
speak a little more slowly and we choose
our words very carefully to make sure
that everyone can understand and also to
be able to kind of challenge
our listeners and our viewers by
choosing words and explaining them in
easy ways so this is called grading your
language so this is why some lots of you
asked me this why do i understand you
but i don't understand native speakers
this is the reason uh teachers
educators choose to use a different
style of speaking
um when working with their students when
working with learners so if you think
native speakers talk too fast so this is
maybe a listening issue so uh
this is another way like another thing
to consider how to kind of move up in
your listening skills so if you only
listen to me i appreciate it but make
sure to find other more challenging
things to listen to as well so don't
just focus on the easy things again
finally i have this one in red
because it's a little different issue
some of you just say i'm not confident
i'm not confident that will come with
practice the answer to that one is
practice so the answer for all of these
really in the background is please just
practice please just practice
so i'm not confident yes everybody has
this issue for sure i still have this
issue and you just i think we have to
become comfortable with being
uncomfortable a little bit uh so
that will come with practice so uh this
is
maybe a way to find your focus points so
ask yourself why again connecting here
why is this thing difficult for me why
is this activity difficult for me think
about it is it words is it grammar i
can't write very well i can't understand
i can't catch everything they're saying
this can help you to find your focus
point
also one point to please keep in mind
native speakers are not perfect we all
make mistakes we make mistakes all the
time all the time means very often so
please remember it's natural to make
mistakes it's good to make mistakes we
learn from them it's and oftentimes
native speakers
we don't know the word for something or
we we find a new vocabulary word and we
check the dictionary i don't know all
the words it's not possible i don't
think to know all the words uh in the
english language and maybe not in your
language either
so please keep in mind it's very natural
to not know things and to make mistakes
i made i've already made several
mistakes in this lesson like i couldn't
say instagram earlier so please keep in
mind nobody's perfect uh and all of us
are still learning in some way okay
so
uh
time's going quick i will
continue on i guess to
the next part uh so the next part after
you
find a focus point maybe you have a
couple of focus points i know for me
mine is always vocabulary somehow i just
always feel my vocabulary is low so i
always choose activities uh related to
studying vocabulary that is true so
you find your focus point what do i want
to focus on the next step then is like
how to focus building your study
schedule so in other words this question
you should ask yourself in this step is
what am i going to do to improve this
thing so in my case for example i said
like i feel my vocabulary is bad so
maybe this is my idea 15 minutes of
vocabulary study with flash cards in the
morning and in the evening this is my
this was my actual solution i did this i
had an app on my phone
true story i had an app on my phone
i used it in the morning when i went to
work on the subway and after work in the
evening on the subway 15 minutes 15
minutes it was 30 minutes of study a day
i did that for like a year and my
vocabulary went up a lot this was a
really really good one for me so if
you're studying vocabulary maybe this
will work for you too again i used an
app a japanese study app you can find
lots of different apps flashcard apps
and of course we have flashcards at
englishclass101.com so check those out
too
other ideas
uh if you want to work on your listening
you could listen to one audio lesson
every day and again i had two times a
day i guess just for me it was like it
was so great to refresh myself on the
lesson i did are those topics i studied
in the morning and then study again in
the evening that really helped me and
then i would review later that week as
well so maybe two times a day you listen
to an audio lesson like a 10 minute
audio lesson in the morning 10-minute
audio lesson in the evening so here's
something to work on your listening
skills
again if you want to use media i know
lots and lots of you like to use media
which is great
you can watch a movie once a week for
example choose a new movie to watch once
a week and maybe try to choose a movie
that's not like a super super sci-fi or
it's not like a um
i don't know a comedy maybe comedies can
be kind of difficult to understand
sometimes so choose a new movie once a
week and write down new words in a
notebook so don't just like put the
movie on and clean your house or just
stare at the screen but really practice
your active listening so that means
writing new words down or maybe if
you're beginning you can listen and then
read the subtitles in your language if
you're more intermediate or advanced you
can read the subtitles in english there
are many different ways to use movies
and video and so on so that's an idea
another idea
read three magazine articles a week and
look up the words you don't know so
don't just pass over the words that you
don't know if you find a word you don't
know stop check the dictionary what does
it mean this is what i do when i read
articles in english sometimes i'll find
a new word in an article and i need to
look it up so this is something that you
can do for your language studies other
ideas watch a video lesson every day so
of course there are many of you watching
now thank you very much but you can
watch a video lesson every day not just
once a week of course we have many video
lessons on our website and on our
youtube channel english class 101 i'm
just saying that a lot today i guess um
and then another idea is to write in a
diary every day write in a diary every
day to improve your writing skills what
did you do what are you going to do what
are you thinking about so using your
second language as much as possible
some other ideas are coming in elton on
youtube says i listen to a lot of
podcasts every day that's a good idea
yeah choose some podcasts if you don't
know what a podcast is it's an audio
file so you listen you can download them
to your smartphone and or you can listen
to them online in your web browser it's
usually like one or two people talking
about one topic for like 30 minutes or
maybe an hour or so and sometimes
there's video so like i have one
actually
that does i do audio and i have video
too so that people can see facial
expressions as well
so you can find a podcast that you like
and listen to that or watch that once a
week that's another great idea
uh someone says christopher says i spend
50 minutes from monday to friday
separately reading for 15 minutes
listening 15 and speaking 20 minutes wow
that's nice great great excellent uh nay
lynn said what kind of audio lessons
should i listen to sorry i just missed
your i just missed your thing ah audio
lessons i couldn't see the the last part
of your question can we scroll up i lost
it ah it was a good question oh there it
is okay uh some are boring because
they're not live oh yeah yeah yeah if
you want to find audio lessons um
we have some on our youtube channel on
the english class 101 youtube channel
you are watching on facebook so you
might hop over to youtube to see
and then of course we have some on our
website we have everything like uh
there's like a course on our website
with audio lessons so you can check that
out too so you can find all that from
the link below or above the video if you
want to check that out
um
okay other things
okay i don't see other points here yet
another thing i like to do is i do all
of my social media posts bilingually so
like facebook and instagram i it's my
like personal challenge i write it in
english and in japanese always maybe
there's mistakes there's probably a lot
of mistakes in my japanese but that's
another thing that i try to do to make
the language part of my everyday life so
it's cool all right we'll take one more
quick break and then we'll go to the
final part of today's study session uh
i'll show you these one more time stuff
that i have maybe didn't show you
earlier um so a couple more of these i
mentioned uh i showed you this one this
is these are all free uh that i showed
earlier this one's shopping
where's one i didn't show you i didn't
show you uh vocabulary words for like
around your city there's one for that uh
there's another one for emergency
related words good to know um if you
have pets there's a few uh resources to
talk about those and travel as well so
we have lots and lots of different
topics for you to consider uh make sure
to find that from the link below the
video if you're watching on youtube or
above the video if you're watching on
facebook instagram i can't see your
comments live check youtube or facebook
to get that stuff
okie dokie let's go to the last part for
today the last part for today is
everyone's favorite part actually
studying so maybe this is the hardest
part for many of you i know it is for me
like i like to make the plan and then i
sometimes just don't have the energy or
i want to like watch tv or be on my
phone so study so you've made the
schedule you asked yourself the
questions you've thought about your
level all of this work then you get to
study so take the time to do it you know
you give yourself a month or three
months or whatever study according to
your schedule is obviously the next step
you made this lovely plan so put it to
use study according to your schedule so
what did you choose to do study 15
minutes a day in the morning and in the
evening great do that so steady that's
the next obvious step then after this
we come back to the first step in the
process hooray
so assess yourself again so you study
according to your schedule that means
you study for three months and then at
the end of three months at the end of
your schedule come back assess yourself
ask the same question
now can i understand this tv show i like
if the answer is yes easily great go on
to the next thing if the answer is still
it's a little but it's difficult ask why
what am i missing so this like flow
will help you to always consider the
next step and to also consider the
reason
you're not able to do this thing yet
so even if you don't have a teacher or
you don't have someone like to check you
all the time you can at least use this
this flowchart uh to consider
how to move forward uh and how to
challenge yourself so i hope that this
is helpful for you i want to finish
today i'm late uh classic
uh i want to finish today
bye
uh sharing two tips two tips uh and then
we'll say goodbye first break down your
activities and your conversations into
small pieces so by that i mean don't say
i want to travel to the usa make it a
smaller goal so say i want to check in
at my hotel i want to order a coffee at
a restaurant i want to make a
reservation at a cafe whatever break it
down into smaller pieces and consider
the things that the people are probably
going to say to you and the things that
you will need to respond with so break
down your goals into smaller pieces stop
saying like i want to be fluent i want
to be fluent yes we all want to be
fluent but this is really hard to
understand as a goal
second one of my personal favorite tips
one thing that i have learned over the
years is extremely helpful is to study
as if you are going to teach the topic
to someone else this is extremely
helpful for me so if i study just for
myself i'll think like i kind of have it
great okay i'll continue on but if you
study like you're going to teach someone
else it's a whole other level you're
responsible for communicating the
information to someone else so when
you're studying grammar for example
think about how you would explain that
grammar to someone else i stole this tip
from like programming actually from
programmers apparently there's this
thing in programming i'm sorry i'm late
there's this thing in programming where
um
if a programmer finds a problem in code
they'll explain it to like a like a
rubber duck or to like a a little
creature they have on their desk just to
have the opportunity to explain it out
loud to someone else and in the process
of teaching someone else about the
problem they can often find out what the
issue is so study like you're going to
teach someone even if you don't have
someone to teach try to practice
explaining the issue
okay i have to finish there i'm very
late oh my gosh it's a busy day so we'll
end there i hope that this was helpful
for you i will step away from the board
so you can take a screenshot hooray uh
and then we'll end so thanks for joining
us as always this week really appreciate
it and good to be back fantastic uh
we'll be back next week next week same
time same channel same place what is the
topic january 16th ah yes how to use
common english idioms really is that
what i wrote okay it seems it is i chose
i tried to do a couple idiom uh idiom
lessons every year so i i haven't done
one in a while so i will choose some new
idioms to describe for next week's
lesson so please join us 9 p.m eastern
standard time that is new york city time
please google it if you do not know your
local time we'll finish there for today
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