Language learners want to get better at their target language.
Being a long way to go, language mastery can be managed by setting goals.
But should you set goals for language learning? How can it be done exactly?
The Importance of Setting Goals (And Being Goalless)
Going after a foreign language is a long journey that takes years to master. In the end, it rewards you with a tool for communicating with diverse people and accessing diverse culture.
But if you’re only starting out, it can feel like a monumental task. On top of that, you might have a busy schedule that doesn’t allow for dedicated learning.
That’s where goal setting comes in – you decide on a smaller but specific target that’s in line with your purpose then you go after it.
The opposite of having goals is having no purpose for learning the language. You go learn it nonetheless even if you have no immediate use for it, mostly because it got you curious or you wanted to explore and try new things.
Having said that, which is the better strategy?
I want to point out that neither one of them is bad. Some learners benefit by setting goals while some make progress without having one. But I want to elaborate on the differences moving forward.
Goals lock you in to an objective, ensuring that you’re not lost and your efforts are going somewhere. You become motivated knowing that there’s a target to reach. In language learning, having a goal might mean passing the highest level of proficiency test or holding a conversation for 15 minutes.
The counterpart, being goalless, allows you to have room for exploration on the language. Most of the time, you let your curiosity run and tell you what to learn. You take the pressure off of you to meet a target, allowing yourself to be carefree and go in any direction. You don’t mind listening to a podcast of your target language even if you can’t understand it.
In order to decide between the two, ask yourself: Do you need to accomplish something in your target language? Or are you simply testing the waters and want to learn something for leisure?
This would suggest that you need to have a clear reason for learning the language. Otherwise, you shouldn’t take goal setting that seriously.
The Common Ways to Set Goals for Language Learning
In case you decide to have language learning goals, there are countless ways to set them. You can get creative with goal setting (provided you have a clear WHY), but I find most learners typically pursue the following goals:
1. Holding Basic Conversations
Being able to speak the target language gives others the impression that you already know the language. A layperson would immediately think you’re fluent, while a native speaker would be impressed by your speaking ability (hence building rapport).
It would be nice to converse in your target language even if it’s just for 15 minutes, which can be useful in case you’re planning to travel abroad and vacation. You end up making friends and acquaintances, as well as meet diverse people.
It’s not an easy task though. After all, conversing would mean applying your knowledge from the books and classes, and onto the real world. You’ll be encountering a back-and-forth exchange of dialogues on the spot, with you probably stuttering and going slow and asking the other person to repeat what they’re saying.
This makes the goal a challenging one, yet giving you a whole load of benefits once you conquer it.
2. Reading a New Alphabet
As you may know by now, A to Z is not the only alphabet in the world. Look into diverse languages such as Chinese and Arabic and you find yourself dealing with unique symbols that seem impossible to crack. Wouldn’t it be a nice superpower to read them smoothly and understand their meaning?
I began with Korean by first learning the alphabet (Hangul). This allowed me to decode Korean words whenever I see them in public even if I didn’t yet understand the meaning. It felt like a head start because I got the reading hurdle out of the way. The same goes with my Japanese after having learned Hiragana and Katakana (I could read some characters in public).
Whether you start with a foreign language by learning their alphabet is up to you. For some languages, I don’t quite recommend them, such as with learning Chinese characters (which has thousands of complicated symbols). They can get boring if that’s all you do (not to mention you forget some along the way).
Learning the characters side by side with their sounds is also a nice goal to hit. During listening practice, you’ll be able to imagine the characters used which makes it easier to figure out the meaning.
To some, writing the alphabet is an interesting goal. Perhaps they want to communicate through handwriting (even do calligraphy) or simply type foreign characters through text (via smartphone or computer) and talk to someone online.
3. Passing the Proficiency Test
There are two reasons why people take proficiency tests: as a means to meeting a requirement, or as a way to personally gauge their ability.
The first one, meeting a requirement, uses the proficiency test score in order to comply with a particular requirement. Learners are usually aiming to work or study abroad, or perhaps be employed into a foreign company in their country. At the very least, your test score can be put in your CV which your employers could see.
The second reason for taking tests is to assess a person’s level on the language. I can relate to this case because this was my motivation for taking the TOPIK exam (the test for Korean). Although I could use the test result later on, it helped that I was gauging my progress and receiving feedback.
Given your target language has a sizeable population, you can find a recognized proficiency test that provides an established standard for recognizing one’s language ability. Depending on the language, there are multiple levels one could reach, making them a nice target for goal setting (even climb step-by-step in difficulty).
The downside of proficiency tests is in the way they’re structured. Even at best, these tests are NOT indicative of true language ability in real life. In their raw form, they’re just questions printed on paper or dialogues recorded on audio (for listening test). The world is much messier for a standardized test to determine how good you are.
Nonetheless, if you need a goal that will challenge and make you focus on the next level, then signing up for the next language exam is a great option.
4. Increasing Vocabulary
Learning more words in the target language is always a good goal – the more you know the better you can understand and produce sentences.
You can simply aim to learn the first 500 words frequently used by speakers. Or perhaps try a niched approach, like learning 100 new words related to food and beverage.
Personally, I find myself learning more vocabulary when I gamify the experience, my favorite being to play flashcard apps and games, Some say it’s not that effective, but I find myself being able to go for hundreds of words in one go, therefore leveraging repetition.
That said, I’ve also been exploring flashcard decks (like Anki) in order to create a customized a set of words to learn. This works especially if I’m not contented with the pre-made decks or set of words in the apps.
Almost everyone online has their own recommendation for learning vocabulary, such as spaced repetition, mnemonics, active recall, and immersion. What ultimately matters is the method that works for you and fits your learning style.
5. Improving Grammar
Related to learning vocabulary is understanding the grammar that ties words together. By becoming familiar with more grammar rules, the more complex the sentences you can handle.
According to Paul Pimsleur, the basic grammar rules of most foreign languages can be covered in a book of under a hundred pages. This is after you’ve removed most of the fluff in grammar books and made the rules compact. This implies that grammar isn’t as daunting as one thinks it might be – you are capable of learning the rules!
On the way to fluency, grammar plays an important role in a language, which makes learning it a nice goal to set. You can learn how verbs are formed, how adjectives are used, how sentences are structured (Subject-Verb-Object, Subject-Object-Verb, etc.), how to use honorifics and to whom, how to ask questions, or simply learn all of them.
6. Consuming Content Without Translation
How would you like to watch TV shows without relying on subtitles? How about reading continuously with only some occasional stops? Or having friends come to you and translate a foreign label because they know you’re very good at it?
If you’re like me and many other language learners, you want the superpower of being able to consume native content smoothly. Regardless of how fast or what topic the content is about, you can keep up and enjoy yourself for hours on end.
If it feels like a distant goal at present, my suggestion is to specialize on one topic or domain or medium then master that first. In Korean, I’ve decided on a few topics to start immersing in, including coffee, weather, and travel. My medium is mostly through YouTube, preferably videos that have Korean subtitles which I can read alongside the dialogue.
At first, you will be consciously translating the sentences through the help of the words and grammar rules you’ve already learned, including some constant lookup in the dictionary – a true source of headache for language learners. Over time, it gets faster the more your brain gets practice.
7. Becoming Fluent or Mastering the Language
So many individuals aim for the ultimate goal: to become fluent in their target language.
That means for all skills – reading, writing, listening, speaking – you’re able to do them naturally and correctly without much effort. You have rich vocabulary, can understand complex sentences, and even distinguish some nuances that aren’t obvious to a beginner.
Although anyone can decide to become fluent, it takes a long time to accomplish. You can choose from the previous items in the list (goals) to start improving today. But mastery means you have to strive to know everything about your target language.
If you have the attitude and dedication to stay consistent on the language and learn everything, even if you’re taking small baby steps, then this shouldn’t be a concern at all.
Bottomline
There’s no one-size-fits-all goal that all language learners should take. We all come from different walks of life, having different situations and purpose for the language we’re learning.
Starting with the purpose, you can derive specific goals that will work for you. These goals in turn dictate HOW you study the language. A goal of holding basic conversations could prompt you to learn some conversational phrases, as well as focus on the most common words used by native speakers.
On one hand, you should not force yourself to create goals just because everyone is doing it. There’s something interesting about the “journey” which makes every second worth the pursuit.
I prefer this journey mindset – it’s not that pressuring, yet allows for flexibility to set goals along the way.
What do you think, should you push for goals or become goalless instead?
