Eva Zavadilová is a teacher of English at the Faculty of Education at Masaryk University and a teacher of Czech for foreigners at the Centre for Foreigners, Brno, Czech Republic. her current professional interests focus on formative assessment and feedback. She enjoys working with adult and young learners with an emphasis on the communicative approach. Email: 457966@mail.muni.cz

 

Why should learners set their own learning goals?

Setting goals in a language class seems to be beneficial for improving learners’ classroom performance. However, it is not only the teacher who may oversee goal setting, as greater involvement of learners in the learning process has many advantages.

Studies have shown that learners’ involvement in a given task increases significantly when they take a personal interest in the task (Barkat, 2014; Wiliam and Leahy, 2016). Based on this presumption, Wiliam and Leahy claim that when the teacher’s learning goals and tasks relate to learners’ personal goals, or when these are presented in such a way that learners are able to realise their importance, learners will be more involved in finishing the task (2016, p. 167).

By presenting the “My Goals” activity, this article suggests a way to help learners explore, develop and achieve their own learning goals within classroom practice. In this activity, learners follow several steps to create personal goals in language learning and reflect on their progress toward the goals in the class. Given the need for mediating the goal-setting process for learners, the “My Goals” activity is based on the concept of SMART goals. This concept represents a technique for determining Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timebound goals which can significantly simplify and illustrate goal setting for learners.

Including the “My Goals” activity in a foreign language course can be especially beneficial in mixed-ability classes and language courses for general purposes, in which learners might have significantly diverse interests and intentions regarding language learning. The teacher can integrate this activity both to boost learners’ involvement and motivation in learning and to promote individualisation in the class.

 

Introducing “My Goals”

Goal setting is a fundamental concept of formative assessment, which can be defined as a focus on “where learners are now, where they want to go, and how we can help them get there” (Leahy et al., 2005, p. 24). While elaborating on this definition, the “My Goals” activity guides learners through a set of steps to recognise, create and fulfil their own learning goals.

First, learners are prompted to think about their perceptions about foreign language learning. They are then introduced to the concept of SMART goals to get a proper understanding of how goals can be created effectively. Finally, learners set their own learning goals and propose a tailor-made, step-by-step path to their accomplishment.

 

Where am I now? Exploring current needs

The first step is to investigate where in the learning process learners currently are. Learners should be encouraged to think about their current situation, abilities, interests, mindset, and general approach to language learning. Here are some questions that help learners get engaged in the topic, get a general idea about goal setting, and, most importantly, relate their personal needs and interests to the overall course goals. In the class, these questions can be discussed in pairs or groups or they can be used in the TPS (Think-Pair-Share) technique.

1. In which situations are you currently using English? (writing emails, watching films, everyday communication, at work, travelling, studying, ...)
2. How do you feel about your English skills? Why? (shy/confident to talk, satisfied with my vocabulary range, unsure about my writing skills; …)
3. What are you currently able to do in English? (write messages, talk to a native speaker, read simple articles, look up information online, …)
4. What would you like to be able to do in English? (make calls, read books, get a job abroad, ...)
5. How could English be useful to you in the future? (studies, reading, work, IT, …)
6. What could you do if your English was remarkably advanced?
7. What would help you to improve your English?

 

Where do I want to go? Presenting SMART goals

After establishing current language skills and considering some possibilities and desires, learners naturally begin to formulate and develop their own learning goals. A good way to guide learners toward effective goal setting is to introduce the concept of SMART goals. (For more information on SMART goals, see https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/smart-goals/index.php) Research shows that setting goals which are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timebound can help learners to enhance their learning experience (Poe et al., 2021). Therefore, promoting SMART goals in the class can be beneficial for setting effective goals and improving the learning process.

To ensure a good understanding of SMART goals, the teacher can provide learners with a list of various goals and let them brainstorm whether or not these goals could be considered SMART and why and how these could be rephrased and improved. Here are some examples:

I will learn 100 new English words every day.

Although this goal is specific (to learn a certain number of words), measurable (one can say whether the goal was or was not achieved), relevant (learning new vocabulary is certainly beneficial for improving English skills) and timebound (“every day”), it is most probably not realistic considering the high number of words to be learnt on a daily basis.

Other ‘training’ goals may include such statements as:

• I’m going to read a book.
• I will improve my speaking.
• I want to play online games every day.
• I will chat with native speakers.
• I want to watch a film in English every week.
• I want to speak English more when I go abroad.

 

How will I get there? Creating “My Goals”

As Wiliam and Leahy point out, the teacher should always encourage learners to be the “owners” of their learning, since it is much more important to evoke motivation and promote learners’ involvement in the learning process than to focus on specific knowledge that is taught in the class (Wiliam & Leahy, 2016, p. 165). Following this advice, the main purpose of the “My Goals” activity is to involve learners by giving them the space to create their own learning goals and continuously review and reflect on the goals in the class. Therefore, this phase is divided into the following three stages:

 

1 The beginning: setting the goals

At the beginning of a course, learners can set one or more personal goals in language learning, such as I want to read a book in English by the end of the course or I want to communicate in English when I go abroad this summer. Next, they should think about what steps they need to take to achieve the goals as well as how and when they plan to fulfil the individual steps. Table 1 shows two examples of goals and their segmentation into individual steps.

Table 1: Setting the goals

My goal is to …	To achieve it, I need to …	I will achieve this by …	I will do this by …
Shop online on English websites	learn how to structure an email to exchange or refund goods	looking up example emails on the internet and making a list of useful phrases	the end of this week
	widen my vocabulary about shopping	learning 10 new words from shopping websites	the end of every week.
	practice writing emails	writing 3 example emails about refunding and exchanging goods	the end of the course
Read news in English	find reliable sources	looking up 5 news websites with authentic or simplified news articles	the end of this week
	learn advanced formal language structures	studying one English news article and highlighting advanced language structures	the end of every week
	practice skimming articles	reading an article quickly to get a general idea	every day by the end of the month

Since creating and elaborating on personal goals may need some practice, especially if learners take a compulsory language course and might lack internal motivation and a personal interest in the studies, the teacher can provide example goals to be discussed together in the class before learners set their own goals. The teacher suggests a few general goals and elicits ideas on what steps might lead to achieving these goals—e.g., to improve speaking (listening/reading/writing) skills, one should broaden their vocabulary, find somebody to practise with, study useful phrases online, watch videos about small talk. Similarly, the teacher can suggest more specific goals and situations, such as improving English for travelling, business, playing online/board games, or having a penfriend, and elicit steps which would be helpful in these situations.

 

2 Midterm review: writing

Once learners set the goals and start working, they should be continuously supported in their progress. Therefore, reflection on goal fulfilment should be provided at least once during the course. The teacher can incorporate this reflection into the course assessment by assigning a writing task, the aim of which is to retrace the steps which have/have not been taken and consider how well the steps contributed to the overall accomplishment of the goals so far.

To ensure learners’ understanding, the teacher should provide an outline, an example report, questions to answer, or any other means of support for the learners to structure the writing and fulfil the purpose of this task. Here are some examples in the form of sentence prompts, which are particularly useful for less advanced classes:

• My goal is to …
• I divided the goal into three steps which are …
• I already managed to (do) …
• It was easy/difficult for me because …
• So far, I haven’t managed to (do) …
• It was not possible for me to do it because …
• An activity which helps me reach my goal the most is … because …
• Now I want to focus on …
• I think I will/won’t fulfil the goal in time because …
• I might change the goal because …
• My new, adapted goal is to …

Note that the last three sentences suggest adapting the goal if learners discover an obstacle within the initial goal or one of the steps. Since critics point out that the SMART technique lacks flexibility, which can negatively impact the achievement of long-term goals (Haughey, 2014, projectsmart.co.uk), it can be helpful for learners to know that they can adapt their goals if they find them impossible to fulfil or if circumstances change. For example, if a learner sets a goal to practise speaking with an English-speaking friend but the friend suddenly moves away from the city, such situation could be demotivating but would not necessarily require abandoning the goal completely. Instead, it can be flexibly adapted, for example, to online chatting/video calling.

 

3 Final review: group discussion

At the end of the course, learners should reflect on the overall process of embedding their personal goals in classroom practice. The teacher can implement group discussions in the class and encourage learners to share their progress with their peers. Each group gets a set of questions to discuss:

• Which goal or step was the easiest for you? Why?
• Which goal or step was the most difficult? Why?
• Did you have to change some goals or steps? Why and how?
• Were you successful in fulfilling your goals? How can you tell?
• How could you improve on fulfilling your goals? What could you do better and how?
• How can you elaborate on your goals to take them even further? What can you do next?
• Would you like to set a new goal? What would it be?

Finally, learners might create a mind map or a poster during the group discussion to depict their progress, steps taken, and further aims. These pieces can become part of their language portfolios or they can be used at the beginning of the following course to remember what work has been done, reflect on current abilities, and set further goals.

 

Conclusion

Since learners get more involved in their studies when the teacher’s goals relate to their personal interests, setting and reflecting on personal goals in the class may increase learners’ motivation. The “My Goals” activity enables the teacher to guide learners through the process of setting and fulfilling goals that are effective and SMART. In this way, learners may become more engaged in their own learning process and begin to take more responsibility for their own steps and progress. By including learners’ personal interests and goals in classroom practice, learners may also enhance their general independence and motivation in the learning process.

 

References

Barkat, J. C. G. (2014). Handing over the baton: An intervention study looking at improving students’ motivational attitudes towards taking greater ownership of their learning at KS4. (Doctoral thesis, Institute of Education, University of London). https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10021616/

Haughey, D. (2014). A Brief History of SMART Goals. Retrieved October 24, 2022, from

https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/smart-goals/brief-history-of-smart-goals.php

Leahy, S., Lyon, C., Thompson, M., & William, D. (2005). Classroom assessment: Minute-by-minute and day-by-day. Educational Leadership, 63(3), 18–24.

Poe, L. F., Brooks, N. G., Korzaan, M., Hulshult, A. R., & Woods, D. M. (2021). Promoting Positive Student Outcomes: The Use of Reflection and Planning Activities with a Growth-Mindset Focus and SMART Goals. Information Systems Education Journal, 19(4), 13–22.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1310027.pdf

ProjectSmart. (2022, May 2). SMART Goals.  

https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/smart-goals/index.php

Wiliam, D., & Leahy, S. (2016). Zavádění Formativního Hodnocení: Praktické Techniky Pro Základní a střední školy [Embedding formative assessment: Practical techniques for K-12 Classrooms]. EDUkační LABoratoř, z.s.

 

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