You don’t have the right level of French to live a peaceful life in France?
Do you want to make progress in French but you don’t really know where to start?
In this blog post, I share four tips to help you achieve your French goals: inner motivation, goal settings, and action plan!
1- Understand your inner motivation and use his energy
Motivation is key in the learning process: it is one of the most important factors for efficient and fast learning.
Your inner motivation brings energy and passion to your learning.
Example of inner motivation :
– If I could speak better French, I could start looking for a job and become financially independent.
– A better level of French would allow me to make new friendships and to feel surrounded.
Find your inner motivation :
How different would be your life if you could speak better French?
What could a good level of French bring you in your professional life? In your private life?
Would you earn more money? Would you have a different job? Would you feel more confident? Would you be proud of you?
Read or repeat your inner motivation every time you need the energy to continue on your French learning process.
2- SET SMART & MOTIVATING GOALS
Once you have a clear idea of what is your inner motivation, you can start setting your French goals.
I suggest you to use the SMART goals technique to define specific and reachable objectives.
Your S.M.A.R.T (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound) goals for French :
1- SPECIFIC
An example of a non-specific goal: Understanding better French
An example of a specific goals: Understanding the main information on TV News / Understanding the emails that I receive at work / Understanding my colleagues at the coffee break / Getting a B1 Level of comprehension
What content would you like to understand, who would you like to understand, what level of comprehension would you like to reach, what kind of interaction would you like to understand?
Reading / Listening comprehension?
2- MEASURABLE: You should be able to measure the achievement of your goal.
Ideas to measure a goal: Understanding the emails that I receive at works.
With a french speaker/coach/teacher: ask him to check your understanding of the last 10 emails that you received.
Auto-evaluation: Do I understand the content of the last 10emails that I received without using a translation tool or a dictionary?
How do you measure that you have achieved this goal?
How can you evaluate the achievement of this goal?
3- ATTAINABLE: Make sure that this goal is realistically attainable.
You need to set realistic goals to help your brain visualize the way to reach them. If your goal is too big, you may face motivation issues to achieve it.
Your Coach advice: Split a big goal into smaller goals!
Do you have enough time to accomplish this goal?
Do you have material, human, or financial resources to help you reach this goal?
4- RELEVANT: Set goals that are resonating with you.
You are the best person to define your own goals. If your goals are personalized and inspiring, you will be more engaged in the process of reaching them.
Is this goal resonating with you?
How important is this goal for you?
If you would like to be guided in this process I can help you to define your goals during a mentoring session.
5-TIME-BOUND: you can also define a time frame: deadline, intermediate date, time-period to achieve your goals.
When do you need to accomplish this goal?
3- DEFINE AN ACTION PLAN ADAPTED TO YOU
Now that you have defined your goals, the next step is to set an action plan to reach them.
What are the different actions that you should take to reach your goals?
How are you going to reach this goal?
What action should you take to reach this goal?
MAKE IT PERSONAL
Adapt your action plan to your preferences and your experience.
If the content of your action plan fits your personality and your preferences, it will be easier to follow it.
Think about a list of activities and actions that you could do to reach your goal. Think of it as an enjoyable, motivating, and pleasant process :
you will naturally reach your goals!
You hate grammar books: don’t use it.
You like grammar exercises: do it.
You are a creative person: integrate your creativity into your learning process
What kind of material could you use to reach your goal?
What activity could help you to reach your goal?
How could you work around your goal?
What do you need/want to do, to read, to listen, to achieve your goal?
Example :
Goal: be able to understand French TV news.
Example of possible actions :
– I will listen to the French news every day.
– I will read the titles of the French news and translate it
– I will brainstorm vocabulary around interesting news.
– I listen to a French podcast
– I will try to write a journalistic article per week about a subject that inspires me.
What action resonates with you?
BE CURIOUS
I invite you to open your mind, to be curious, and discover new ways to learn a language.
There is hundreds of way to work around a goal.
Try new strategies and observe :
What is working (or not) on you? What are you motivated to do or not?
4- Look for solutions or help whenever you are blocked or feel that something is not working
It is normal to face issues and to experience blocks in learning.
The most important is moving forward, looking for solutions, and finding help when it is needed.
How can I solve this problem?
What could help me? Who could help me?
How could I release this block?
Whenever you are in a frustrating situation, always check into the reasons why this is happening and what solution do you have to solve the problem.
Remember what is your inner motivation and believe that you will reach the goals that you want to achieve.
I hope you find these tips useful and that they will help you put in place your ideal action plan to progress in French!
Would you like to get straight to the point and learn only the most important things so you can finally express yourself comfortably?
I have designed a 12-week program for busy women who have a deep desire to move to the next level.
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