Learning a foreign language is always challenging, especially if you’ve decided to start doing this on your own. However, we know the best method of how you can get the most of this process and enhance your language skills!

So, here are the 5 steps you need to create an efficient and productive language learning plan.

A Guide to Creating Your Personal Language Learning Plan

Having selected the language you want to master, don’t hurry to dive into the vocabulary and books! The very first thing you can set up your learning progress is to plan out your studying ahead!

Step 1. Motivate Yourself

One of the most critical steps that are greatly overlooked by people is defining the main reasons why you have decided to learn a foreign language.  Being a single-learner implies you directing and motivating yourself on studying instead of experiencing the traditional school system of rewards and punishments.

This means you have found out the practical benefits you can get from this language, feel the real necessity of its studying, define the goals you expect to achieve with its mastering. These methods will help get ready for your learning routine and feel the real value of the learning process.

For example, here are some questions to answer for motivating yourself for a learning foreign language:

• Why do you want to master a new language?
• What are the benefits of learning this language?
• Do you learn it for your own pleasure, for discovering some new prospects, or get a higher-paying job?

Take into consideration what you feel and how you want the foreign language to help you in life. You can also visualize the targets and think over the major points you would like to get along with studying the new language.

Step 2. Set Up the Learning Goals

Okay, now it’s critical to clear out the real, actionable goals about your studying progress. What do you expect from the studying results, which methods you would like to utilize for this purpose, and how to measure your learning goals.

According to Forbes, the SMART framework can help to achieve the perfect results in any industry: professional life, personal routines, community, etc. Here are the basic options what the SMART system stands for:

Specific: First of all, you have to define what exactly you want to achieve. So, write out the main goal you want to achieve with learning the new foreign language.

Measurable: Make sure you can measure your progress towards the goal achieving. For this purpose, it’s important to write a detailed plan of your progress and how you measure the results. For example, you can set up the goal of learning 10 new words and 1 phrase every day. After 1 month, try to watch some adapted films, or listen to music in this language.

Achievable: A SMART goal must be attainable for the learner. This will help you to define the methods you can use for your goals. Also, the achievable goal will show you the progress of your language studying.

Relevant: Additionally, your goal should be realistic, as well as given the available resources and time. So, make sure your goal is within the reach and can be accomplished. If the goal is too challenging, try to break it up into smaller steps for their achievement.

Timely: Last but not least, you should build the timeframes and deadlines for your learning progress. For instance, we recommend setting short-term goals for learning, which you can reach in less than 30 days.

Taken from: https://www.pinterest.com

Step 3. Schedule Your Learning Time

To be a successful self-directed learner, it is critical to schedule the lessons. This will help you to always find the time for your goal. By sticking yourself to weekly learning, you will be able to memorize the lessons, review the materials and make sure you’re moving towards your studying goal.

Step 4. Find the Partners for Practice

Of course, learning a language also requires lots of communication to develop speaking skills and to operate the language at the appropriate level. For this purpose, you should find some speaking clubs, where you can practice your language and make the most of your learning progress. Needless to say, that applying your new-learned skills in practice, you’ll achieve better mastery of the language skills.

Step 5. Search for the Learning Materials to Start with

Finally, make a little research about the materials you’re going to apply for mastering a new language. For example, StuDocu.com experts recommend starting from the specific coursebooks, eLearning platforms, audio files, and additional literature that can greatly help you to arrange the plan and learn the language more effectively.

For more productive self-studying, we also suggest starting your blog or creating a digital portfolio of the specific details of your studying progress. This is critical for your motivation and progress tracking.

Conclusion

To sum up, learning foreign languages implies detailed planning and scheduling. Nevertheless, if you set up the SMART goals, pay attention to the scheduling, and get yourself motivated, you will certainly master the language.