How SMART Goals Can Help You Speak English Fluently

"I want to be fluent."

That's a great ambition, but "fluency" can mean many different things. Does it mean you want to be able to sing your favorite English songs like a native, or do you want to be able to give a business presentation overseas?

One of the most important things you can do as a learner is decide how you want to use your English. "Being fluent" is too large and unclear of a goal to be useful; instead, pick smaller, specific goals. Read on to learn some powerful tips that can help you to improve more quickly.

Setting SMART goals

One way to think about goals is to structure them according to the SMART system. "SMART" is an acronym that says your goals should be:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Regularly reviewed
• Time-bound

Let's take a closer look at each of these.

Specific

Before you achieve success, you need to know what your idea of success is. 

Start by thinking of specific things you want to do in English. Here are some examples:

1. I want to be able to pass job interviews in English confidently.
2. I want to be able to communicate in English when I travel overseas.
3. I want to make friends from around the world.

Setting specific goals like these can give you a better idea of how to achieve them. 

For example, if you want to learn English for international travel, it makes more sense to sign up for a survival English course instead of buying a textbook of business terms you don't need.

Measurable

The next step is finding ways to measure the progress you make. After all, when you’re working toward a goal, it’s motivating to know when you’re 25%, 50% or even 90% there! 

Measuring progress in language learning isn't so simple, but there are still things you can do. For example, if you bought a travel English book, you can set a smaller goal of studying a chapter each week until your trip. That way, instead of thinking about percentages ("I'm 25% closer to my goal."), you have a simple Yes/No system — you either did or did not study your chapter for the week.

Achievable

Achieving goals feels good! But more importantly, it gives us motivation to keep working so we can reach the next one.

However, we don't always know what goals are achievable until we try. For example, if you set a goal of memorizing 300 new words every week, you'll probably soon realize that you need to adjust it to 100 or even 50 words a week instead.

Don't feel bad if you can’t achieve a goal you originally set. Finding what works best for you is a process that takes time, so feel free to try several versions of a goal if the first doesn't work out. The important thing is that you are actively thinking about it and working toward it.

Regularly Reviewed

Regularly reviewing the goals you've set keeps them in your mind so you don't forget them — or get lazy and put them off until later.

In this case, reviewing can mean writing your goals down and putting them on your fridge, or setting alerts on your phone to remind you of things you need to do. Basically, the idea is to always be thinking over your goals and how you can reach them.

Here are some examples of how you might do this:

• Get a study partner and regularly share your progress with each other. That way, you're more likely to succeed.
• Keep track of your mistakes each time you practice. For example, note how many mistakes you make in your exercises, then see how the number goes down over time as you improve.
• Regularly test your understanding of new material. For example, every two weeks, challenge yourself to make sentences with the new words you learned without looking at their definitions.

Time-Bound

"Time-bound" goals means they need to have deadlines. So don't just say, "I want to be able to give a speech in English." Instead, it should be something like: "I want to be able to give a speech in English in three months."

It's best for the deadline to be sooner than later. If it's one or two years away, it’s easy to wait (“I’ll start tomorrow!”). Deadlines that are far in the future are OK if you also set smaller, short-term goals to work toward each week or month, like the ones we've discussed above.

Basically, don't give yourself a chance to be lazy. There should always be something close and immediate that you need to work toward. This will keep you motivated to make more progress!

Wrap-up

The SMART system is designed to take unclear or unrealistic ideas and change them into practical things you can do today to get closer to your goals. So we encourage you to think about each step of the process and find out how they can relate to what your idea of "fluency" is.

If you need help setting or achieving your goals, Engoo is here to help. We have tutors from around the world who are experienced in guiding students to better language skills — no matter what their specific goals may be! Even if your schedule is busy, 25-minute lessons could be just what you need to move forward. Give it a try!