The English Club at Eurasian National University in Astana, Kazakhstan participated in a goal-setting exercise, which allowed English Language Fellow Lauren Whitaker to pinpoint students’ individual goals for the club. They integrated technology and social networking into goal-setting to increase support between students and provide accountability and responsibility for one’s own learning.
The class watched Matt Cutts’s Ted Talk “Try Something New for 30 Days,” to explain the process of breaking a large goal into small, achievable challenges over the course of 30 days. They put this to practice by setting new English language learning goals, such as improved vocabulary, pronunciation or conversational abilities.
Whitaker’s students worked together to identify several sustainable tasks for each goal, including “learn three to four new words each day” to improve vocabulary. Afterward, each student wrote their selected challenge on a card, which they took “selfies” with to post to social media with the hashtag “#30dayenglishchallenges”.