3. What are your goals for learning English?
Did you know that you're more likely to achieve your goal if you write it down and tell another person about it?
Writing down your goal makes your strategy clearer and helps you to remember what you plan to do. Telling someone else your goal can make you more likely to continue working towards it, as they can give you extra encouragement.
We asked a group of English learners to write a SMART goal for their language learning for the new year and to share it with us. This is what they said.
Over the next six months, I will improve my reading skills and pronunciation by reading one page of the book '7 Habits of Highly Effective People' every day. I will write down five words that are tricky for me in my notebook, listen to their pronunciation in the Cambridge Dictionary and repeat each word three times.
Nancy, Mexico
By the end of June, I will be able to watch English-language movies and TV shows without needing subtitles. I will achieve this goal and improve my listening skills by watching one short episode (e.g. 'The Big Bang Theory', 'Friends') without subtitles every weekday and one movie every weekend. To check my understanding, I will write a brief summary of each one and compare it to an online synopsis.
David, Colombia
Over the next twelve months, my goal is to improve my English level and build a stronger vocabulary. I will read at least four English books or short novels during the year and learn ten new words every week, writing them in a notebook and reviewing them each weekend.
To improve my listening, I will listen to an English podcast or video for ten minutes every weekday and note five new words or phrases. I will practice speaking by joining online English conversation sessions as regularly as I can. By the end of the year, I want to reach a higher English level and feel more confident using English in daily life.
Samira, Afghanistan
Over the next four months, I’ll work on improving my pronunciation and mastering grammar rules. For the first two months, I will study two grammar rules for 20 minutes each day and read around three pages from my favorite book for another 20 minutes. I will also make sure to focus on the rules I’ve studied while reading.
As for the following two months, I will allocate them to pronunciation. I will dedicate 30 minutes every day to shadowing and recording myself. At the end of each week, I will revise everything I have studied and apply it in writing and speaking to make them stick in my mind.
Zeinab, Egypt
For the next five months, I will follow a daily schedule for reviewing the vocabulary and grammar I learned last year in my British Council lessons. I will allocate an hour a day for five days and I will spend:
30 minutes reading aloud and recording myself
10 minutes listening to texts
10 minutes reviewing last month's vocabulary
10 minutes reviewing grammar.
I will find out if I have achieved my goal, or at least 60% of it, through feedback from my teacher following a telephone conversation about my efforts.
Carmen, Romania
Now it's your turn to write a SMART goal!
- Think about your language-learning goals for the next year or the next few months.
- Can you use the SMART method to set at least one goal?
- Share your goal in the comments!
If you want to practise speaking, you can record your response using SpeakPipe voice recorder and post a link to the recording in your comment.
Go to SpeakPipe voice recorder
* Recordings are kept on a SpeakPipe server. Please don't include any music in your recording.
I don't realy like making plans or setting goals, but previous comments inspired me. So I'll try. For the next three months I'll improve my listening skills while watching my favourite Luke's English Podcast on YouTube (at least three videos a week). I'll also read two or three English books ( two of them will be by J. Austen including "Emma" which I haven't finished yet and one of them may be "Ann from Green Gabbels"). I'll also try to use some new words from this books writing my diery in English or writing some short stories. And the main thing wich I realy want to do is to improve my speaking. But unfortunatly I have no person to talk with and besides I have a very high psychology barrier being a great deal of introvert
Over the next six months, I would like to improve my English skills by listening and writing for ten minutes every weekday. I’ll try to make notes of new words or phrases from each podcast I listen to, and I’m going to review them at the weekend.
Hi guys, the next 6 months I will improve my English (speaking, reading, listening, writing) everyday I want to spent 2 hours of my time to do that with the technique of SMART
I started today 02/01/2026, I learned 10 new words so I will continue like that
Hi SiMohamed,
That's great! Keep up the good work. Can I ask how you pick the new words that you want to learn? And do you write them down somewhere then keep coming back to check that you've remembered them?
Good luck with improving your English skills!
Best wishes,
~ Tina ツ
LearnEnglish team
My goal is to take the IELTS exam within the next three months and achieve an overall band score of 7.0, with no less than 6.5 in each skill. I decided to take IELTS because I have received a conditional offer for an MSc program at the University of Manchester, and meeting the English requirement is very important for me.
I have already started my preparation, and now I want to focus more seriously on improving all four skills. I practice Writing and Listening twice a week, spending 2 hours per session at the office. Every evening, I practice Speaking for one hour using TikTok, which helps me build confidence. I also spend more than four hours every day reading different materials on various platforms.
At the end of each week, I take full IELTS practice tests to check my progress and understand where I need to improve. I will follow this plan consistently over the next three months to make sure I am fully prepared and able to achieve my target score.
The next three months, I will be able to speak english with confident and thinking by using english not arabic that can done by listening and speaking activities through listening podcast , practice speaking through participating in online English conversation sessions and watching British council videos and then try to summarise what i learnt from the video
My goals for learning English are same with last year. I would rather self study methods except when I need to practice speaking. So I am going to learn from books, apps, websites and YouTube. Also I know I should focus on output activity. I should do writing and speaking exercise more in this year.
Hie!! My name is Farai Mutetwa and my goal is to study towards the IELTS test and sit for it by the end of June 2025. The strategy is to dedicate 3 hours after work each day from Monday through Friday to studying each section and then use Saturdays and Sundays for reviews. This aligns with my goals for enrolling with a university in Australia
❤ Good luck with achieving your goal and sitting your IELTS test by the end of June Farai Mutetwa. And I really hope you are accepted into a university in Australia.
Which degree would you like to do there?
~ TInaツ
LearnEnglish team
I am going to improve my English skills in 2025 by reading english articles or listening podcasts at least 30 minutes minimum 3-5 times a week.
In Feb 2025, I'm going to take TOEIC test again. I want to improve my vocabulary and speaking skills. I will do 1 full test each week and review incorrect answers. I will write down new words from the test and review at the weekend.
Hi NguyenMy,
That's a great SMART goal. Good luck with your test preparation :-)
Best wishes,
Jo (LearnEnglish team)
It is interesting fact about writing down or telling someone your goals. First I have seen this idea in "Leviathan" written by Thomas Hobbes. There was a really borring part about human being, but some ideas was memorable. One of them "thoughts disappear if you don't write them down".
Also, I have the similar to Verry's SMART idea about getting IELTS. But my version looks like "thursday for written, wensday for speaking and so on"
Hi Worm,
Thanks for sharing your comment and that interesting quote 'thoughts disappear if you don't write them down'. I really like that.
Do you keep any kind of journal with reflections and ideas? It's something I've started doing this year and so far I'm finding it really helpful.
Good luck with working towards the IELTS exams.
Best wishes,
Jo (LearnEnglish team)
One of my goals in 2025 is to become more confident at speaking English. How to achieve this: I'll try thinking in English. In order to widen my vocabulary (which I'll need when I'm thinking in English:)) I'll spend at least 30 min per day for learning some new words by reading, listening and writing down the new words which I would meet in the text/video/podcast. Then in order to remember these new words I'll try to make my own sentences. I hope that till the end of the 1H of the year I'll record some progress :)
Hi Panny,
That sounds like an excellent SMART goal. I hope you enjoy the journey towards reaching it.
Best wishes,
Jo (LearnEnglish team)
I am absolutely going to improve my english language during the 2025, for this I planned to spend at least 3 hours per day on listening, speaking, writing and reading.
Hi Okhunjon,
Good luck with achieving your goals this year! I hope you'll find the resources on the LearnEnglish website for your skills practice.
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills
Best wishes,
Jo (LearnEnglish team)
My new year resolution is to speak fluent English.
I am learning English for a long time but I believed my self my English language skills don't improve. I hope this year 2025, I will try my best to be advance level of my language skills with set up a SMART goal.
Hi Sagiohtoo,
I hope that the information here about SMART goals has been useful for you. Good luck with setting your own SMART goal!
Best wishes,
Jo (LearnEnglish team)
This year I want to get better at english speaking.For this I will join a course for practice regularly.I will give 40 minutes everyday and record myself to moniter my growth.I will use Ai applications and podcasts to learn better everyday.I hope I will be fluent at english in 2 months.
My ambition for the next year is to be better version of myself and learn skills.... I also want to focus on improving my english and learning new hanguages .and studying in better country