How to Build the Perfect 2020 English Study Plan

it’s Happy New Year hey everybody

welcome back to our weekly live streams

it is the first stream of the new year

so I’m very excited to be back with

everyone again this week to kick off the

year in a positive fashion our topic is

how to make a personal study plan for

2020 in this lesson I’m going to talk

about goal-setting how to set good goals

for yourself how to set the right kind

of goals I’m also going to talk about a

process of flow that you can use to keep

your studies continuing to make sure

that your studies are always moving

forward so I hope that you can find

something a good and useful in this

lesson whether you’re a beginner whether

you’re intermediate or whether you’re

advanced so we are getting everything

rolling here I think we’re going to

start in just a couple of minutes and in

the meantime as always I have stuff to

show you

first if you have not already as always

we do have free PDFs available for you

to download you can find the link for

this below the video if you are watching

on youtube or you can find it above the

video if you’re watching on Facebook

there are a bunch of different topics

you can choose from whether you like

eating out or going to hotels for travel

like for business there’s stuff to talk

about your leisure time which means the

things you like to do like your hobbies

for example you could also talk about

all of these other things so take a look

at this I’ll show you a few more of

these later in today’s lesson up close

on our other camera but you can take a

look at these they are free you can

download their fall from English class

101 dot-com great I see lots of people

on the YouTube chat now hello there does

stow hi jagdeep Markinson kodiak hello

min Han hello Teva Collin hi everybody

thanks very much for joining us and I

think Facebook is just getting up for us

now - hi everybody bori hey hi everybody

Zeynep hello I have a couple people yeah

just Facebook I think is just loading so

as you send or as you join please make

sure to send us a message

and hit the like button too so other

people can find today’s lesson oh yes my

other announcement is about in general

this I wanted to share a photo this is a

photo I took with a couple of our

awesome team members at the end of 2019

to say thank you to everybody who has

been watching and sending your question

sending your comments participating in

our videos by sending questions to ask

Alicia or to our monthly review a big

thank you to everybody in 2019 and I

hope that you continue to support and

watch us and connect with us in 2020 as

well great okay that’s it for

announcements I see many people are here

now fantastic so as I said today is

going to be about setting goals I’m

going to focus on setting goals and also

helping build a plan helping you to kind

of keep your studies going forward so

that you don’t fall flat you don’t hit

what’s called like that intermediate

plateau a plateau is like a flat part of

land where if you don’t go up or down so

there’s an intermediate point that

middle level where we get stuck

sometimes so I’m going to talk about

this today but first I’m going to share

today’s live lesson and then I’m going

to begin I’m going to start today by

talking about something that I talked

about a couple times every year I

suppose I’m going to talk about the

concept of goal-setting specifically

what’s called SMART goal setting so I’m

going to slow down

my speaking of speed a little bit now

I’m gonna start today’s lesson by

talking about setting the right goal

setting the right goals so I know I see

your comments of every day and a lot of

you write comments like I want to speak

English fluently I want to talk like a

native speaker so if you have like these

very big ideas that which is great

that’s a positive thing for sure but I

want to emphasize

the importance I want to share I want to

remind everybody how important it is to

have very specific goals so smaller

goals inside your bigger goal so I want

to talk first today about setting goals

in the most effective way you can so we

use this or I like to use this what’s

called SMART goal settings so you can

see the first letter of each word here s

ma RT this spells smart so what is a

SMART goal a SMART goal is a goal that

has all of these different points inside

it so a SMART goal is something that is

specific specific so for example this I

want to be fluent is not a specific goal

like I want to be fluent in English or I

want to be fluent in Chinese whatever

language you’re studying this is not a

SMART goal this is not specific so

choosing something specific is for

example I want to learn 500 new

vocabulary words like that’s a very

specific goal or I want to learn all the

words all the vocabulary words on this

PDF something like that so you choose

something that’s very specific so you

know exactly what the goal is second M

the M in smart stands for measurable

measurable so measure so measuring

something imagine like a ruler yeah

you’re able to measure the length of

something or you can measure time with a

watch so how are you going to track your

goal you need to make sure your goal is

measurable so in other words how do you

know when you achieve the goal how do

you know if you didn’t achieve the goal

so for example with a goal like study

500 vocabulary words or learn 500

vocabulary words you can measure it did

I do it or not or with learn all the

vocabulary words on this PDF you can

check you can measure did I do it or not

so make sure your goal is measurable you

can’t measure fluent like

yes you can take tests but there are

many different types of tests and there

are different levels of fluency right so

make sure that your goal is measurable

third is achievable achievable that

means is it actually possible to do that

so if you are a beginner it or maybe

even like intermediate but you haven’t

studied for a while and you say like I

want to be giving a research

presentation next month like that’s just

not possible probably for most people

it’s not achievable it’s not something

we can achieve so there’s a very very

low chance of success so choose a goal

that is achievable like again like learn

500 vocabulary words by April something

like that is much more achievable next

realistic a realistic goal so that means

does the goal like match with your your

lifestyle does the goal match with your

schedule as well so maybe the goal is

achievable but for you like maybe you’re

super busy and you don’t have three

hours to use for study everyday so make

sure your goal is realistic so please

keep this in mind don’t like overwhelm

yourself with everything you need to do

finally is it timely timely so timely

think of timely here as meaning does it

match your life does it match your needs

right now is it something that you can

focus your energy on right now so maybe

if you’re like changing jobs or changing

houses or your you have many different

things going on in your life right now

maybe it’s really really difficult to

create a super focused study plan so

make sure that your goal matches your

life situation right now so this is

what’s called a SMART goal a goal that

meets all of these points is a SMART

goal so some examples of this are as I

said learn 500 new vocabulary words by

April so SMART goal because it’s

specific 500 new vocabulary words it’s

measurable

we understand did I do it or not like

did I learn 500

or not I can track it it’s achievable so

it sounds like something that it’s

actually possible to do is it realistic

yeah it’s 500 words I can break that

down each day each week is it timely

sure if maybe for this person it’s a

very timely goal I have a vocabulary gap

another example is this learn how to

talk about my hobby in the next six

weeks learn how to talk about my hobby

in the next six weeks so I have a six

week time period to talk about my hobby

so that means I need to be able to have

a conversation about my hobby maybe I

have a conversation partner and I can

check whether I was able to do it or not

so this is another specific goal path of

proficiency tests I know a lot of you

take proficiency tests like TOEIC and

TOEFL what else is there boo that’s

there’s so many so if maybe passing a

proficiency test is is your goal that’s

great just make sure it’s you know you

break down your goals make sure you

break down your studies I’ll talk about

that later too and finally just another

small but actually these are my favorite

kinds of goals sorry it’s kind of hidden

by the banner there I wrote it too far

down on the board I will read it it says

be able to order a pizza over the phone

by next month

be able to order pizza over the phone by

next month this means pick up the phone

and order a pizza so this is an example

of a daily life goal and actually these

are my favorites because they’re very

like mmm what should I say you can’t

really plan for them until you realize

you’re not able to do it so this was

something I wanted to be able to do like

in my studies for Japanese I knew I

wanted like to call a taxi to my house

one day and I knew that I needed to like

the vocabulary for that so I looked up

the vocabulary for it and thought

through like the sentences I would need

so these kinds of everyday life goals I

think are really really great because

you can kind of understand how to use

them

so this is how I wanted to start today’s

lesson by talking about smart goal

setting hmm alright so as we continue

through today’s lesson maybe send your

goal send your goal in the chat and we

can take a look and get some ideas maybe

some of you are stuck a little bit with

ideas for goals so try to send a few

through what everybody’s just saying

hello

hello everybody okay we’ll take one

quick break there and then I’m going to

talk about making your study plan so

this part I have designed a lovely

flowchart style presentation for this

we’re going to talk about how to build

and continue a study plan I’ve hopefully

got some hints here for people of every

level so let’s take a quick break and

then we’ll continue I showed you a few

of these earlier today today this

morning this afternoon this evening

depending on where you are I’ll show you

up close hello

so these as I showed you before these

are free PDFs that we have from the link

below the video on youtube or above the

video if you’re watching on Facebook if

you’re watching on you tour fit the

Instagram Instagram please check YouTube

or Facebook to see these there are many

different topics this one a target hard

to see is about cooking this one is

about talking online so vocabulary you

can use on the internet on social media

ways to like plan time so time related

vocabulary if you like music you can

check out this one about singing this

one is shopping related so there are

lots and lots about twice there are lots

and lots of different topics that you

could take a look at these are all for

free you can download them from the link

below the video on youtube or above the

video on Facebook you do need an English

class 101.com account but you can make

one for free and then after you make the

account log in you can scroll to the

bottom of the page after you log in to

download these things lots of people

have asked that all righty great so with

that let’s continue to the meat of today

presentation the main focus of today’s

topic how to make your study plan so

it’s kind of a cycle we’re going to look

at how to make this plan for ourselves

and continue making the plans so if you

have not already please make sure to hit

the like button and share the video if

you have not already we’re going to get

started ok let’s take a look let’s start

we’re going to start right here

so the first step or the first place I

want to start here is this assess

yourself step the assess yourself so

assess maybe a new vocabulary word for

some of you assess to assess means like

to check yourself here so it means look

closely at yourself so and kind of

understand the different parts of

yourself for like your language studies

so ask yourself what can I do and what

can’t I do right now so this is like

you’re going to give yourself a level

check in this way so ask yourself can I

do something so finish this question can

i for example introduce myself or can I

read a magazine article in English or

maybe if you’re studying a different

language too can I do this can I read a

magazine article can I understand a TV

show I like so think about the different

things you do in your life in your

native language and ask yourself can I

do that in the language that I’m

studying other so also make sure when

you do this I know lots of you are

thinking about your speaking skills or

maybe your listening skills but when you

ask these questions you can actually

make a list or what I did I made a

Google like a Google Form like of all

these questions and then I can track my

answers over time so that might be a tip

for some of you so you can make a list

of questions to ask yourself make sure

your questions are asking about speaking

reading writing and Liz

skills need to have four different types

of questions so not just speaking but

consider speaking reading writing and

listening so you make sure you cover all

four of those main like phases of

language learning yeah so can I

understand a TV show I like is another

question to consider so that’s maybe

listening related can I talk about my

work a speaking question can I read my

friends social media posts so that’s a

reading related question can I do a job

interview in my second language or third

language can I write an essay or can I

give a presentation these are just a few

ideas

I chose when I made this list for myself

and for my students I chose about 20 to

25 questions in each category in reading

writing speaking listening and I made

them very easy to a little challenging

to difficult to very advanced so like

for example the very easy questions are

like I can say my name I can give my

name I can give my phone number and the

very advanced ones are like I can

participate in a debate about a topic

I’ve researched or something like that I

can’t remember off the top of man but

make sure your questions you ask

yourself go from easy to very difficult

so the reason ask yourself these things

and give yourself three choices for an

answer

you can answer with yes I can easily so

can I introduce myself

yes easily it’s easy for me to say my

name is Alicia or my name is your name

whatever that is so if your answer to

the question is yes I can easily it’s

easy for me to do that the next step is

to go to a more difficult question so

continue to the more difficult question

the purpose of this is to find the spot

that’s a little challenging for you so

I’ll talk about that in just a minute if

however you ask yourself these questions

and

you find one that’s no not at all I

can’t do it at all it’s impossible for

me to do that’s fine that’s good just

keep that for your future studies so

don’t worry so much about that if it’s

totally impossible for you okay great

that’s for your future for your future

studies if however you say can I

understand the TV show I like you asked

this question and your answer is yes a

little but it’s difficult that is a good

maybe spot to start your studies so the

things that are possible but there’s

still a little bit difficult for you

that’s a good spot to start so again if

your answer is yes okay fine that’s

great and then continue on to the next

hardest level of difficulty for your

focus that’s what I mean here so your

focus should be on the next level of

difficulty so one reason that people get

stuck at like the middle level the

intermediate level is because they

continue studying the things that are

already easy for them so you have to

challenge yourself in order to progress

to the next level so look for questions

that you answer yes but it’s a little

bit difficult so with this let’s

continue to the next part so the next

step in this process is to ask why so

when I say why I mean why is it

difficult for you for example this one

can I understand a TV show I like if you

say yes a little but it’s difficult why

is it difficult for you to understand

the TV show some examples I don’t know

the words that I need so maybe in this

TV show you’re watching you don’t have

the vocabulary for maybe for an essay

you’re reading you don’t have the

vocabulary words to understand this

essay so this is a vocabulary related

problem I don’t know the words I need so

this is a pretty good hint maybe I

should study vocabulary or maybe I don’t

understand this grammar so I’m reading

an article I’m reading this thing in my

favorite magazine or in a newspaper and

the

that’s used I just totally don’t

understand it the words I can understand

the words but I don’t understand the

grammar or I feel I’m missing something

in the grammar so that’s a pretty good

hint you should focus on grammar another

one for those of you working on writing

I know many of you many of you send me

questions how do I write a paragraph if

you feel I can’t write smoothly so

smoothly means your sentences connect

nicely

you have good connecting words

transition where it’s like then so

moreover furthermore and so on so if you

feel you can’t write smoothly maybe you

should focus on writing improving your

writing skills some of you often say

native speakers talk too fast

native speakers talk too fast so a

reminder I’m speaking a little more

slowly actually for this lesson I’m

speaking a bit even more slowly so

everyone can easily understand so keep

in mind that when you’re watching

someone like me or you’re watching your

other other teachers on YouTube or

online we speak at a different rate we

speak a little more slowly and we choose

our words very carefully to make sure

that everyone can understand and also to

be able to kind of challenge our

listeners and our viewers by choosing

words and explaining them in easy ways

so this is called grading your language

so this is why somewhat lots of you

asked me this why do I understand you

but I don’t understand native speakers

this is the reason teachers and

educators choose to use a different

style of speaking when working with

their students were working with

learners so if you think native speakers

talk too fast so this is maybe a

listening issue so this is another way

like another thing to consider how to

kind of move up in your listening skill

so if you only listen to me I appreciate

it but make sure to find other more

challenging things to listen to as well

so don’t just focus on the easy thing

again finally I have this one in red

because it’s a little different issue

some of you just say I’m not confident

I’m not confident that will come with

practice the answer to that one is

practice so the answer for all of these

are really in the background is please

just practice please just practice so

I’m not confident yes everybody has this

issue for sure I still have this issue

and you just I think we have to become

comfortable with being uncomfortable a

little bit so that will come with

practice so this is maybe a way to find

your focus points so ask yourself why

again connecting here why is this thing

difficult for me why is this activity

difficult for me think about it is it

words is it grammar I can’t write very

well I can’t understand I can’t catch

everything they’re saying this can help

you to find your focus point also one

point to please keep in mind native

speakers are not perfect we all make

mistakes we make mistakes all the time

all the time means very often so please

remember it’s natural to make mistakes

it’s good to make mistakes we learn from

them it’s and oftentimes native speakers

we don’t know the word for something or

we we find a new vocabulary word and we

check the dictionary I don’t know all

the words it’s not possible I don’t

think to know all the words in the

English language and maybe not in your

language either so please keep in mind

it’s very natural to not know things and

to make mistakes I made I’ve already

made several mistakes in this listen

like I couldn’t say Instagram earlier so

please keep in mind nobody’s perfect

and all of us are still learning in some

way okay so time is going quick

I will continue on I guess to the next

part so the next part after you find a

focus point maybe you have a couple of

focus points I know for me - always will

Cabul airy somehow I just always feel my

vocabulary is low so I always choose

activities related to studying

vocabulary

that’s true so you find your focus point

what do I want to focus on the next step

then is like how to focus building your

study schedule so in other words this

question you should ask yourself in this

step is what am I going to do to improve

this thing so in my case for example I

said like I feel my vocabulary is bad so

maybe this is my idea 15 minutes of

vocabulary study with flashcards in the

morning and in the evening this is my

this was my actual solution I did this I

had an app on my phone

true story I had an app on my phone I

used it in the morning when I went to

work on the subway and after work in the

evening on the subway 15 minutes 15

minutes it was 30 minutes of study a day

I did that for like a year and my

vocabulary went up a lot this was a

really really good one for me so if

you’re studying vocabulary maybe this

will work for you too again I used an

app a Japanese study app you can find

lots of different apps flashcard apps

and of course we have flashcards at

English class 101.com so check those out

too other ideas if you want to work on

your listening you could listen to one

audio lesson every day and again I have

two times a day

I guess just for me it was like it was

so great to refresh myself on the lesson

I did are those topics I studied in the

morning and then study again in the

evening that really helped me and then I

would review later that week as well so

maybe two times a day you listen to an

audio lesson like a 10-minute audio

lesson in the morning 10-minute audio

lesson in the evening so here’s

something to work on your listening

skills again if you want to use media I

know lots and lots of you like to use

media which is great you can watch a

movie once a week for example choose a

new movie to watch once a week and maybe

try to choose a movie that’s not like a

super super sci-fi or

it’s not like I don’t know comedy maybe

comedies can be kind of difficult to

understand sometimes so choose a new

movie once a week and write down new

words in a notebook so don’t just like

put the movie on and clean your house or

just stare at the screen but really

practice your active listening so that

means writing new words down or maybe if

you’re a beginning you can listen and

then read the subtitles in your language

if you’re more intermediate or advanced

you can read the subtitles in English

there are many different ways to use

movies and video and so on so that’s an

idea

another idea read three magazine

articles a week and look up the words

you don’t know so don’t just pass over

the words that you don’t know if you

find a word you don’t know stop check

the dictionary what does it mean this is

what I do when I read articles in

English sometimes I’ll find a new word

in an article and I need to look it up

so this is something that you can do for

your language studies other ideas watch

a video lesson every day so of course

there are many of you watching now thank

you very much but you can watch a video

lesson every day not just once a week of

course we have many video lessons on our

website and on our YouTube channel

English class 101 I’m just saying that a

lot today I guess and then another idea

is to write in a diary every day write

in a diary every day to improve your

writing skills what did you do what are

you going to do what are you thinking

about so using your second language as

much as possible some other ideas are

coming in Elton on YouTube says I listen

to a lot of podcasts every day that’s a

good idea yeah choose some podcasts if

you don’t know what a podcast is it’s an

audio file so you listen you can

download them to your smart phone and/or

you can listen to them online in your

web browser it’s usually like 1 or 2

people talking about one topic for like

30 minutes or maybe an hour or so and

sometimes there’s video so like I have

one actually that does I do audio and I

have video too so that people can see

facial expressions as well so you can

find a podcast that you like

and listen to that or watch that once a

week that’s another great idea

someone says Christopher says I spend 50

minutes from Monday to Friday separately

reading for 15 minutes listening 15 and

speaking 20 minutes wow that’s nice

great great excellent uh nail in sand

what kind of audio lessons should I

listen to sorry I just missed your I

just missed your thing uh audio lessons

I couldn’t see the last part of your

question can we scroll up I lost it was

a good question oh there it is okay

some are boring because they’re not live

oh yeah yeah yeah if you want to find

audio lessons we have some on our

YouTube channel on the English class 101

YouTube channel you are watching on

Facebook so you might hop over to

YouTube to see and then of course we

have them on our website we have

everything like there’s like a course on

our website with audio lessons so you

can check that out too so you can find

all that from the link below or above

the video if you want to check that out

um okay other things okay I don’t see

other points here yet another thing I

like to do is I do all of my social

media posts bilingually so like Facebook

and Instagram I that’s my like personal

challenge I write it in English and in

Japanese always maybe there’s mistakes

there’s probably a lot of mistakes in my

Japanese but that’s another thing that I

try to do to make the language part of

my everyday life so it’s cool all right

we’ll take one more quick break and then

we’ll go to the final part of today’s

study session i’ll show you these one

more time stuff that i have maybe didn’t

show you earlier so a couple more of

these i’d mentioned i showed you this

one this is these are all free that i

showed earlier this one’s shopping

where’s what i didn’t show you i didn’t

show you vocabulary words for like

around your city there’s one foot

there’s another one for emergency

related words good to know if you have

pets there’s a few resources to talk

about those

and travel as well so we have lots and

lots of different topics for you to

consider make sure to find that from the

link below the video if you’re watching

on YouTube or above the video if you’re

watching on Facebook Instagram I can’t

see your comments live check YouTube or

Facebook to get that stuff okey-dokey

let’s go to the last part for today the

last part for today is everyone’s

favorite part actually studying so maybe

this is the hardest part for many of you

I know it is for me like I like to make

the plan and then they sometimes just

don’t have to enter dear I want to like

watch TV or be on my phone so steady so

you’ve made this schedule you asked

yourself the questions you’ve thought

about your level all of this work then

you get to study so take the time to do

it you know you give yourself a month or

three months or whatever study according

to your schedule is obviously the next

step you made this lovely plan so put it

to use steady according to your schedule

so what did you choose to do study 15

minutes a day in the morning and in the

evening great do that so studying that’s

the next obvious step then after this

but uh we come back to the first step in

the process hooray

so assess yourself again so you study

according to your schedule

that means you study for three months

and then at the end of three months at

the end of your schedule come back

assess yourself ask the same question

now can I understand this TV show I like

if the answer is yes

easily great go on to the next thing

if the answer is still yes a little but

it’s difficult ask why what am I missing

so this like flow will help you to

always consider the next step and to

also consider the reason you’re not able

to do this thing yet so even if you

don’t have a teacher or you don’t have

someone like to check you all the time

you can at least use this this flow

chart to consider how to move forward

and how to challenge your

so I hope that this is helpful for you I

want to finish today I’m late classic uh

uh uh I wanna finish today by sharing

two tips two tips and then we’ll say

goodbye first break down your activities

and your conversations into small pieces

so by that I mean don’t say I want to

travel to the USA make it a smaller goal

so say I want to check in at my hotel I

want to order a coffee at a restaurant I

want to make a reservation at a cafe

whatever break it down into smaller

pieces and consider the things that the

people are probably going to say to you

and the things that you will need to

respond with so break down your goals

into smaller pieces

stop saying like I want to be fluent I

want to be fluent yes we all want to be

fluent but this is really hard to

understand as a goal second one of my

personal favorite tips one thing that I

have learned over the years is extremely

helpful is to study as if you are going

to teach the topic to someone else this

is extremely helpful for me so if I

study just for myself I’ll think like I

kind of have it great okay I’ll continue

on but if you study like you’re going to

teach someone else it’s a whole other

level you’re responsible for

communicating the information to someone

else so when you’re studying grammar for

example think about how you would

explain that grammar to someone else I

stole this tip from like programming

actually from programmers apparently

there’s this thing in programming I’m

sorry I’m late the thing in programming

where if a programmer finds a problem in

code they’ll explain it to like a like a

rubber duck or to like a little creature

they have on their desk just to have the

opportunity to explain it out loud to

someone else and in the process of

teaching someone else about the problem

they can often find out what the issue

is so study like you’re going to teach

someone even if you don’t have someone

to teach try to practice explaining the

issue

okay I have to finish there I’m very

late oh my gosh I’m good so we’ll end

there I hope that this was helpful for

you I will step away from the board so

you can take a screenshot three and then

we’ll end so thanks for joining us as

always this week really appreciate it

and good to be back

fantastic we’ll be back next week next

week same time same channel same place

what is the topic January 16th I guess

how to use common English idioms shows I

tried to do a couple idiom idiom lessons

every year so I haven’t done one in a

while so I will choose some new idioms

to describe for next week’s lesson so

please join us 9 p.m. Eastern Standard

Time that is New York City time please

google it if you do not know your local

time we’ll finish there for today thank

you very very much for liking and for

sharing the video we all really really

appreciate it make sure to download your

free stuff from the link below the video

or above the video if you have not

already and enjoy the rest of your week

thank you very much we’ll see you again

next time

bye Molly