Here's another great question that I got from one of my followers on Instagram.
Is it true that if you don't have any certain goals then you won't be
improving your English? Is that true? Do you need specific goals to improve
your English? Let's discuss. Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to
you from New York City, and here's your English teacher, Michael. All
right, thank you Jann, and thanks everyone. It's Michael here from Happy
English and I help people speak English better. And this is Happy English Podcast,
Episode six seventy five. Can you improve your English without goals? I
recently asked my followers on social media what questions they had about learning English,
and I got a lot of good responses, so I thought it would be
a great opportunity for me to share some advice here on the podcast. Today's
question is about goals. Do you need a specific goal like a certain score
on the toeek or tofel in order to improve your English? First of all,
setting a specific goal, such as reaching a certain score on the toeek
or tofel can be helpful for structuring your English learning journey. Here's why having
a specific goal gives you a clear sense of direction. It helps you understand
what you want to achieve and where you want to focus your efforts. Plus,
it allows you to prioritize certain skills such as reading or essay writing,
so you can focus more on those as well. These kinds of goals could
be a source of motivation for you. If you are looking to reach nine
hundred on the toech or one hundred on the toful, that goal itself could
drive you to study constantly, practice regularly, and motivate you more. Having
such a goal allows you the chance to measure your progress over time. You
can track your improvement by regularly checking your current score on practice tests. Maybe
when you started studying you needed an hour to write a complete toful essay,
but after three months you can cut that time down to thirty or forty minutes.
This kind of self assessment can also keep you motivated as you see yourself
getting closer to your goal. Lastly, preparing for standardized tests like the Tower
KUTOFL can help you focus your attention on particular skills. Maybe you need to
build your vocabulary or expand your knowledge of grammar, or maybe you want to
improve your general test taking skills like time management or skimming and scanning reading passages.
By focusing on this kind of test preparation, you can enhance your abilities
in these areas and gain valuable language skills that you can use not only on
the exams, but in your daily English conversations as well. On the other
hand, it's important to know that having such a goal is not necessarily the
only way to improve your English. There could be other reasons why you want
to learn English. Maybe it's for personal growth or to communicate better when you
travel. Learning another language is a great way to deepen your cultural understanding and
expand your own personal universe. Another reason for learning English maybe because you are
already living in an English speaking country or are planning to do so, or
perhaps you work for an international company. I know from my own experience both
living in Japan and working for an international company that consistently working on your language
skills makes those experiences much more fulfilling and a heck of a lot easier.
If I had not invested the time and energy to learn Japanese while I was
living there, I probably would not be here talking to you on this podcast.
My language learning introduced me to the idea of learning another language from the
point of view of a teacher that in and of itself was life changing.
Plus those language skills came in really handy living overseas. And this brings us
to long term motivation. Do you remember when you were in high school and
you studied for that history or biology exam? What happened after the exam?
If you are like most people, you probably forgot most of what you studied
after the exam ended. And it's the same with English. Once you get
that nine hundred score on the toek, do you still have motivation to keep
improving your English? If you get a one hundred on the toful and get
accepted to your university of choice, will you maintain that same motivation level to
keep improving English? Maybe not, but I'll tell you that for me,
even thirty years after I first started studying Japanese, I'm still motivated to keep
at it, build my vocabulary and improve my communication skills. And I have
no plans to take any exams. Oh yeah, did you know that research
has shown that learning a second language can help prevent Alzheimer's and other cognitive issues
as you age. For me, that's motivation enough. And maybe you just
enjoy the process of learning and using English. That's reason enough to keep at
it. What I mean there is you can do things and improve your skills
at those things just because you like doing it. I cook almost every day.
I like cooking, and of course I do need to eat, But
I'm not cooking and trying to cook better because I have a goal of becoming
a five star chef. I don't need such a set goal to want to
improve myself. Maybe I just do it because I enjoy it. And maybe
you study English because you just enjoy the process, and that's motivation enough to
keep improving. If you are the kind of learner who needs a push and
needs a set goal to motivate yourself to study, then I recommend studying for
an exam as a way of pushing yourself. But if you learn English simply
because you enjoy it, then keep doing that and you'll improve. Hey,
send me a message and let me know what you are struggling with, and
who knows, your question could become a podcast like this one. If you'd
like to get more practice speaking English, why don't you join my podcast Learners
study group. There you can make new friends, join me for live group
coaching every week, plus get the PDF transcript and audio download for every Happy
English podcast in the past and in the future, and each episode has exercises
where you can practice this English point with speaking and writing checked by me.
To learn more, just visit my Happy English dot com and choose podcast lesson
six seventy five. Remember, learning another language is not easy, but it's
not impossible, and I'm here to help you on your journey. This podcast
is brought to you by Happy English. Please visit my Happy English dot com
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