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
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Zeynep hello I have a couple people yeah
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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