Written By Amy Smith

Setting goals is an essential part of learning a language. Your goals help give structure to your learning and motivate you to work harder.

However, there are some key points to bear in mind when creating your language learning goals, because doing this in the wrong way could actually do more harm than good.

What Are Realistic Goals In English Learning?

When learning English, it is very easy to just have the goal of "become fluent".

While this is a good long-term goal, it is likely to take a long time and is also difficult to measure. This can result in you feeling like you are not making progress, which will ultimately affect your confidence.

A much more practical approach is to set smaller goals that act as steps towards your main objective. This way you can clearly see your progress and gradually improve your English fluency through structured learning.

 Examples Of Realistic Goals For Learning English

Here are some examples of smaller, measurable goals that can lead to a bigger overall goal:

• Learn and confidently use 8 new phrasal verbs every week for a month

• Have a conversation about a topic you have never spoken about before in English

• Learn to read a paragraph with correct intonation and record your progress

As you can see, these goals are much easier to measure. This not only makes it easier to monitor your progress, but also allows you to celebrate your success - a win-win situation.

 Why Small Goals Improve English Fluency

Smaller learning goals make progress visible. When you can see improvement regularly, motivation increases and learning becomes consistent.

Consistency is one of the most important factors in improving your English speaking ability.