hi I'm early welcome to Oxford online
English in this lesson you're going to
learn about setting goals for yourself
in your English Studies and how this can
help you to learn English faster setting
goals what's that got to do with English
actually it's incredibly important
mistakes with goal-setting are a big
reason why English learners don't reach
their goals when we meet new students at
ooe the first thing we do is talk about
goals and help students set clear study
targets we often hear students say
things like I want to be fluent in
English I want to speak English like a
native speaker I want to speak without
making pronunciation or grammar mistakes
here's the thing these goals are no good
if you say things like this you'll
create problems for yourself let's think
about why that is firstly these goals
are too big and too unclear what does
fluent mean how will you know when
you're fluent in English ask 10
different people what fluent means and
you'll get 10 different answers because
you have this goal which is huge and
unclear you don't know where to start
you know you want to do something but
you don't know what even if you do make
some progress you don't feel like you're
getting closer to what you want then you
feel discouraged why can't I learn
English why is my English still so bad
why am i spending all this time studying
English if it isn't getting better at
this point many people give up but it
doesn't have to be like this there's a
better way SMART goal setting SMART is
an acronym it stands for specific
measurable achievable relevant time
bound to make progress in English you
need to think about your goals in this
lesson you'll learn how to set SMART
goals and how this can help you to learn
English faster
first let's look at SMART goals in more
detail
the s in smart stands for specific your
goals need to be specific I want to
speak English like a native is not
specific I want to be able to talk about
everyday topics without hesitating is
better I want to improve my English
grammar is not specific enough I want to
learn how to use past verb forms
accurately is better sometimes you might
need to talk to a teacher or an expert
to help you make your goals specific
alternatively you might need to do some
research to set specific goals M stands
for measurable there needs to be a way
that you can check your progress so
here's a better goal I want to be able
to talk about five everyday topics for
one minute without hesitating a stands
for achievable your goal should not be
too easy but it also shouldn't be too
hard if you say something like I want to
speak perfect English
that isn't achievable that doesn't mean
you can never do it but it's a goal
which will take years or decades to
reach you need a goal that you can
achieve in a relatively short time
period so if you have a bigger goal like
I want to speak English fluently you
need to break that goal into smaller
more achievable steps like I want to be
able to talk about five everyday topics
for one minute without hesitating next
is R which stands for relevant this
means that your English learning goals
need to connect with other parts of your
life if you want to improve your
pronunciation think about why you need
this what will it help you to do what
change in other areas of your life if
your English pronunciation is better you
need an answer to this because it's
almost impossible to stay motivated if
your studies don't make a difference in
other parts of your life
finally the cheese stands for time-bound
this means you need a time limit on your
goal you need to set a date where you
can say I did this or I didn't do this
hopefully because your goals are
specific achievable and relevant you'll
be able to say I did this let's add a
time limit to our goal now you know what
SMART goals are let's look at how you
can set yourself SMART goals to improve
different areas of your English
do you want to improve your English
speaking of course you do everyone we
meet wants to speak English better
here's something we often hear from
students I want to express myself better
I feel like I don't have enough
vocabulary when I speak English let's
make some smart goals from this idea
first of all what do you want to talk
about everyday topics like your home
your family or your hobbies or do you
want to talk about something more
abstract or poetic like history or
psychology or love choose something
everyone's different so we can't choose
a topic for you but choose one for
yourself next make your goal measurable
adding a time element is a good way to
do this for example I want to be able to
talk about Van Gogh's lights and
paintings in detail for three minutes
without running out of words next you
need to ask yourself is this achievable
and relevant is this realistic for you
and does it connect to other areas of
your life looking at our example goal
talking about Van Gogh's life and
paintings the answers will probably be
no that's because it's an example which
we gave you but when you make your own
goals you should ask yourself the same
questions is it realistic and does it
connect to other areas of your life if
you don't do this your waste time
working towards goals which are
unrealistic or irrelevant this will hurt
your motivation finally you need to make
your goal time bound for example by the
end of the month I want to be able to
talk about Van Gogh's life and paintings
in detail for three minutes without
running out of words to reach your goal
you may need to set yourself a dish
my nurples such as by the end of this
week I will learn the English names of
ten of Van Gogh's paintings by the end
of next week I will be able to describe
sunflowers in detail without forgetting
any words by tomorrow I will have read
this English article about Van Gogh's
life and I'll underline 20 words and
phrases to learn in this way a big vague
goal becomes specific and you have clear
steps which you can follow to make
progress and improve let's do another
example to see how you can use smart
goals to improve your English
pronunciation
here's something we often hear from
students I want to sound more natural
when I speak English let's see how you
can take this goal and make it smart
especially with pronunciation and other
linguistic knowledge you might need some
help to make your goal specific often
when we teach people pronunciation they
need our help because they don't really
know where to start if this is your
situation then you either need help from
a teacher or you need to do your own
research you need to do something
because a goal like I want to sound more
natural when I speak English isn't
enough let's see how you could make this
more specific I want to improve my
intonation and stress in English so that
I sound more natural maybe for you this
will be different maybe you need to
learn more about consonant sounds or
long versus short vowels or syllable
stress or something else whatever your
goal you still need to make it
measurable this is more difficult with
pronunciation goals but you still need
to try you could add something like I
want to study these five units from this
pronunciation book on intonation and
stress and practice with the audio until
it feels easy then you need to ask
yourself if your goal is achievable and
relevant like you do with every goal
finally set a time limit within two
weeks I want to study these five units
from this pronunciation book on
intonation and stress and practice with
the audio until it feels easy your time
limits should always be as short as
possible can you see why you know what
happens if you have a deadline far in
the future you won't do anything until
the deadline is close
you need to feel that you don't have
quite enough time so that you start
working towards your goals sooner let's
do one more example together to see how
smart goals can help you to improve your
English grammar
again let's start with something we
often hear from students I want to be
more accurate in English and make fewer
mistakes when I speak or write what
should i do first
we hope you know the answer by now
hopefully you're thinking that goal
needs to be more specific so you need to
know what mistakes you make now and what
exactly do you want to learn to improve
your grammar again maybe you need some
help at this point
you might need to find a teacher to show
you where you make mistakes and what you
need to study or you can do your own
research to find exactly what to focus
on however you do it you need to set a
specific goal like this I want to
understand the difference between the
present perfect and the past simple I
want to learn how to write complex
sentences using relative clauses
conjunctions and adverbials I want to
make fewer mistakes with grammar I've
known for years like forgetting to add s
to a verb in the third person present
simple next you need to make your goals
measurable the best way to do this is in
writing for example if you write
something for your teacher and your
teacher shows you 10 mistakes with the
present perfect and past simple your
goal could be I want to write a 300 word
essay with fewer than 3 mistakes
involving the present perfect and past
simple verb tenses what's next you
should know the answer to this question
to hopefully you remember that you need
to ask yourself if your goal is
achievable and relevant these are
questions that only you can answer
finally set a time limit by the end of
next week I want to write a 300 word
essay with fewer than three mistakes
involving the present perfect and past
simple verb tense
again you might need to set minor goals
to help you reach your major goal for
example today I will study this unit on
the present perfect tense and repeat the
exercises until I get every answer
correct
tomorrow I'll review the mistakes I made
in the last three things I wrote and
make them into Quizlet cards so that I
can remember them this might seem like a
lot of effort at the beginning but it's
worth it once you get used to setting
SMART goals it will become more
instinctive the clearer your goals the
more chance you'll have to reach them
and get what you want
if you get better at setting goals
you'll feel a sense of progress this
will give you motivation and confidence
which will make it easier to continue
learning and improving now we have a
question for you what's your first SMART
goal share it in the comments and tell
us if you made it or not remember that
you can find many more of our free
English lessons on our website
oxfordonlineenglish.com thanks for
watching
see you next time