“What’s your goal?” I asked the class on the first day.
“Learn English!” they chorused back, smiling like they’ve just solved world hunger.
“Graduate university!” added someone from the back.
Cool. Great. But here’s the thing – those weren’t goals. Those were wishes you make when you blow out birthday candles.
I learned this the hard way watching students term after term tell me their big dreams on day one, then flounder around for the rest of term making zero progress toward them. They’d show up to class (check!), do their homework (mostly!), and then act shocked when their English didn’t magically transform into fluency by finals week.
The problem? They had outcome goals…you know, those shiny, far-off prizes. But how to GET there? Zero ideas. No game plan.
You see, when you discuss goals in your classes, you’ve gotta get specific. Really specific. And make sure to talk about six things that most goal-setting conversations skip right over.
1. What Are You Doing RIGHT NOW?
Before talking about where they want to go, ask what they’re doing today to get there.
“I’m taking English classes!” they say, looking around the classroom like, duh, isn’t that obvious?
Sure~~ But taking classes is like saying your goal is to get fit and your plan is “have a gym membership.” Just showing up doesn’t cut it.
So you have to push: “What else? What are you doing outside this classroom?”
Crickets… Maybe someone mentions watching Netflix in English (which, fine, that’s something). But most of them haven’t thought past “be in class, graduate, profit.”
This is where the real conversation starts.
2. Let’s Talk About Process Goals
Process goals are the specific actions you take that lead to that big outcome goal. They’re the stuff you have control over right now, today, this week.
Your students can’t control whether they’ll graduate from their dream university. That’s years away, and a million things could derail it, like loss of income, family emergencies, a global pandemic that shuts down international travel for two years (not that I’m bitter).
But they CAN control how much time they study each day. When they study. Where. What they focus on.
So what’s the key? It’s simple…get ridiculously specific.
Not “I’ll study in the evening.” When in the evening? 7 to 9 pm.
Not “I’ll study at home.” Where at home? At the dining room table with my phone in another room.
Not “I’ll practice vocabulary.” What vocabulary? Academic vocabulary? Engineering terms? Medical terminology for their future field?
I had a student, “Sora,” who kept saying she’d “practice speaking more.” That lasted about three days before life got busy and “more” became “never.” When we got specific – “I’ll record myself reading one news article out loud every Tuesday and Thursday at 6 pm” – suddenly she had something concrete to do. Something she could actually check off.
The more detailed they get, the more real it becomes. Vague goals are so easy to skip, right? I mean, it’s not like we never do that. But specific goals? Now those are harder to weasel out of.
3. Now Let’s Talk About the Obstacles
Discussing goals without talking about obstacles is delusional. Something IS going to happen. Your best-laid plans WILL get disrupted.
I ask my students: What’s going to try to stop you?
“I get tired after class,” one admits. “My kids need help with homework,” says another. “My roommate is loud,” someone moans. “I lose motivation,” someone in the back confesses.
Good. Now we’re getting somewhere.
Having a plan for known obstacles makes them so much easier to handle when they show up. And they give you tools for dealing with the surprise ones too.
What will they do when motivation tanks? Call their study buddy? Switch to a different activity? Take a day off without guilt?
What about when they suddenly have less time? Can they cut their 2-hour study block to 30 minutes and still maintain momentum?
How will they prevent distractions? Put the phone in a drawer? Use a website blocker? Study at the library?
“Samara” told me she kept missing her study time because her family would interrupt her. We brainstormed solutions, and she ended up hanging a sign on her door during study hours and telling her family she was “in class” during that time. It got through to them in a way that “I’m studying” never did.
The old ways of dealing with obstacles didn’t get them to their goal. So they need new ways.
4. Set Performance Standards
So they’ve got their process goal: study engineering vocabulary at the dining room table on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 7 to 8 pm.
Great, really, sincerely, but…how will they know if they’re succeeding?
This is where performance goals come in. They need a way to measure progress and adjust course if needed.
How often will they check in? Weekly? Monthly?
What does success look like? Mastering 30 new terms per week? Being able to use them in sentences? Explaining concepts to a classmate?
What happens if they miss the mark? Do they adjust the goal? Change their approach? Give themselves grace and try again?
And here’s the part most people skip: How will they celebrate when they DO hit their targets?
Celebrations matter. They give us something to look forward to. They boost motivation when it starts to sag, and they’re proof that the process is taking us somewhere.
“Zhen” decided that every time he completed a full week of his study schedule, he’d treat himself to his favorite bubble tea. Seems small, but it gave him something to anticipate. And when I saw him walking into class with that cup, I knew he’d had a good week.
5. Get Some Accountability
You know what’s great about mastermind groups in the business world? The accountability. Someone is expecting to hear about your progress, so you actually make some.
Your students can do this too.
Pair them up with a classmate who has similar goals and drive. Have them share their process goals and check in weekly. When one person is struggling, the other can offer ideas. When someone hits a milestone, they’ve got someone to celebrate with.
Can’t find anyone local? The pandemic taught us we don’t need to be in the same room. They can find study partners online, join language learning communities, connect through social media groups focused on their field of study. Okay, maybe not social media. That can turn into a time suck, right?
Anyway, the simple act of telling someone else “I’m going to study vocabulary Tuesday and Thursday at 7 pm” makes it more likely to happen. And when you have to report back later, you’re less likely to blow it off.
6. Build in Flexibility So They Don’t Break
Here’s something I wish someone had told me earlier in my teaching career: rigid goals break.
If your students are consistently missing their process goals, something needs to change. Maybe their approach isn’t fitting their life, or maybe the goals themselves are unrealistic.
That’s not failure. That’s feedback.
I had a student who set a goal to study two hours every single day. By week three, he was exhausted and beating himself up for “not having enough discipline.”
We adjusted. Study one hour on weekdays, 30 minutes on weekends, and take Saturdays completely off. Suddenly he was hitting his targets and his stress level dropped.
Dream big, sure. But be realistic about what you can sustain. A smaller goal you actually do will beat a massive goal you abandon by week two.
Here’s What Most of Us Get Wrong
We ask our students about their goals, we smile and nod at their big dreams, and then we move on to the grammar lesson.
And in doing that, we might be setting them up to fail.
When we just share goals without getting into the nitty-gritty of how to achieve them, we’re not helping them plan. We’re helping them make wishes. And while wishes might be a dream your heart makes, they’re not going to get you to graduation or fluency or that dream job.
If you want your students to actually achieve their goals, push them past “learn English” and “graduate university.” Get them talking about the daily processes, the predictable obstacles, and the specific plans for overcoming them.
Don’t believe me? Show them the TED talk “Keep Your Goals to Yourself“↗ by Derek Sivers. It’s short, it’s fascinating, and it explains why just talking about goals can actually make us LESS likely to achieve them. We get that hit of satisfaction from sharing our dreams, and our brains think we’ve already done the thing.
So make your students do more than dream. Make them plan.
The Bottom Line
Goal-setting conversations in ESL classes tend to be surface-level feel-good moments that don’t lead anywhere. We can do better.
Get specific about the processes. Talk about the obstacles that will definitely show up. Set up accountability systems. Build in flexibility for when life gets messy (because we all know that it absolutely will).
Your students came to you with big dreams. Give them the tools to get there.
That’s it from me. See you in the next post!
Need for some print-and-go goal-setting resources to use with your adult ESL students?
You can get these from my TpT store:
activity pack . . . | | | . . . idioms & proverbs . . . | | | . . . discussion questions . . . | | | . . . logical order writing activity – How to Set a Goal
Read more about teaching adult ESL!
I have an hour of conversational practice with internationals. They are wonderful and I enjoy working with them. Thank you for your help.
You’re welcome! Conversation classes can be so much fun, especially the more you get to know your students. 🙂