Setting Semester Goals for ESL Students
In my experience, student often struggle with knowing exactly how to set goals for themselves. Often the words thrown around with ESL goals are quite vague. “I want to improve my English.” “I want to learn more vocabulary.” “I want to talk like a native speaker.” They’re great goals, but they’re hard to measure, and even harder to know how to get there.
In order to set a goal successfully, student need to know where they are, where they want to go, and know how to get there. They also have to be able to self-assess. A lot more than what first meets the eye, unfortunately.
So, on the first day, I always try to introduce this idea and help train students in setting specific and realistic goals for themselves. I use my “Semester Goals” form to organize all the steps a student needs to take.
1) Brainstorming. Have students brainstorm potential goals. Ask them to imagine themselves at graduation. How do they want to sound? What abilities do they wish they had? Then ask what skills they need to be that person. Do they need to practice speaking more in able to travel easily? Do they need to learn more vocabulary in order to feel more confident about speaking? Do they need to buckle down on grammar in order to get that translation job?
2) Choose 3 goals. After they’ve dreamed a little, help them take a more realistic approach. What are their top 3 goals they want to accomplish? Which ones mean the most to them or will help them the most in the future?
3) Choose the top 1 goal. Even three goals can be a lot to take on for one semester. Having one singular goal can help them focus more closely on it, and can also increase their chances of success. Your class ins’t the only class they have. They still have other classes, other exams, family issues, a social life, and a million other things on their plate. If they accomplish this one goal, good for them! Then they could move on to the other two on their list. But just focus on one for now.
4) Semester Plan. Have them finish the sentence, “This semester, I will . . .” This will shift their mentality from the finish line to how they plan to get there. What are they going to do this semester to accomplish their goals?
5) Quarterly Plan. Take the goal, take the plan, and cut it into even smaller bites. What will they do to work towards their goal during the first quarter? What is their goal for that first quarter?
6) Weekly Plan. “Each week, I will . . .” Students could set a goal for the end of each week or describe an action they will take weekly. Maybe it’s something like “Each week I will have memorized 50 new words.” or “Each week, I will watch one English movie.”
7) Class Plan. How frequently your class meets could vary from semester to semester. But what will your student do each time he is in your classroom? Maybe he will write, “Each class, I will talk to my partner in English” or “Each week, I will write down and learn one new word my teacher says.”
8) Daily Plan. Encourage students to do some work towards their goal every day. Of course, emphasize that this task should be small. “Watch an English movie” or “Learn 20 words” could be a bit much to maintain as a daily task. Smaller and less-strict activities work much better. “Read a little English every day,” “Watch a short English video,” or “Review my notes each day” would work much better and keep the goal of “learning English” more fun and more manageable on a day-to-day basis.
If you’d like to download my copy of the Semester Goals form, you can do so here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Student-Semester-Goals-4747470