The Best Language Learning Trackers (Instructions

Included)
fluentu.com/blog/language-learning-tracker/

Anna Maria February 13, 2018

Do you ever wonder how your language learning is going?

As in, are you making progress?

Or are you stalled—stuck on a plateau, or even faceplanted into a brick wall?

That said, it’s all fairly simple to figure out…if you use a language learning tracker.

Contents

The 2 Big Benefits of Tracking Your Language Learning

Language tracking can involve two main components, with each part having its own benefit.

Periodically checking language progress reduces the “am I learning?”

issue. It’s a motivational method that’s perfect for anyone but is especially helpful to
solo learners who may not have the standard progress reports generated in a classroom
setting.

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 Keeping track of daily language learning, on the other hand, encourages
showing up to whatever the day’s lessons are, even if you might not feel like doing it.
It’s okay, we’ve all had those days where we’d rather do something other than grammar
drills or study vocabulary lists. It happens. But really, if you’ve got a three-week
“streak” going on, it’s not likely you’ll ditch the day’s lessons, is it?

Ideally, you should use tracking tools for both your time and your progress, but even if you
use a language tracker just to keep you focused on your goal and committed to daily lessons,
it’s worth using one.

The Best Language Learning Trackers and How to Use ‘Em

Language learners, their personalities, habits and target languages are so diverse that it
would be difficult to find a one-size-fits-all tracker to accommodate everyone. Impossible,
even.

The good news is that there are lots of different tracking tool options so there really is
something for every learner. You may decide to use one or more of these depending on your
needs, and most of them are highly customizable.

A Notebook
Language trackers don’t need to be complicated to work well. Going “old school” with a
notebook, colored pencils and a checklist is a simple, personalized method to track your
progress.

A few columns to show your lesson schedule and the areas you’re working on is more
than enough for a first tracker.

For example, if you have lessons five days a week, write the dates in a column. Next to that,
note what specific activities you’ll accomplish. Maybe reading dual-language books and
vocabulary building are your core language focal points, so you’ll write those down in this
second column. You can make a similar column for whether you’ve achieved certain learning
goals.

Every day that you accomplish a goal, whether related to study (completing a lesson) or
progress (learning a set of vocab words) check it off, give yourself a sticker or color in the
column. Whatever you need to do to make you feel good about actively participating in your
language program is fine. You’ll feel great watching the evidence of your time spent with your
target language grow.

A Calendar
An even more basic language tracking tool is a calendar.

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Whether it’s on your phone or on a wall, as long as you can mark off the days you work on
your target language, a calendar can track learning.

Unless you pencil in the different facets of study (vocabulary, writing, reading, speaking, etc.)
you won’t really know how you’re doing—you’ll just know that you’re actually working. That’s
still something good. Even if you just show up day after day and work consistently toward
your language goal, it’s a pretty safe bet that your skills are improving.

If you’re all about technology, then you’re in luck. There are lots of tracker options to suit the
technological language learner!

Built-in Language Tracking

Many language learning apps have a tracking feature already built into their program and in
many cases, there are ways to track both daily study time and progress.

Think Duolingo, with its lingots and streak count. The little owl does more than make
things fun; he actually rewards your progress and motivates learners to make time for study.
I have to admit, I’ve had a long Duolingo streak with a language simply because I didn’t want
to disappoint the owl or break the streak count!

FluentU has a similar streak feature to encourage daily study. The program combines
authentic videos in your target language with interactive subtitles that teach words in
context, and every word you learn is tracked. FluentU’s flashcards and personalized quizzes
also utilize spaced repetition that lets you review words when you might be starting to forget
them.

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LingQ is a flexible app that offers vocab tracking. You can also use it to track the amount of
time you devote to different skills. It focuses on learning naturally with imported content
from the web, so it’s a great way to get in extra practice to supplement a more formal learning
course and to watch your word bank grow while you’re at it.

A Habit Tracker App

Your phone can work as a language learning tracker if you download one of the habit
trackers designed specifically to increase productivity by creating new habits, focusing
energy on goals and showing just how well you’re doing.

A great one to try is called Habit List. It’s a free app with a clean interface that allows for
flexible scheduling of up to three habits with no extra purchases. So if you’re working on
more than one language, this is the go-to app. If you’re concerned with only one language,
you can use this to also track your gym days or any other practice that’s important to you.

There are even trackers that gamify your habit. Habitica turns any life activity into a game.
It’s easy to set the game up by listing the habits you want to cultivate or strengthen. Every
time you check in to the game, you get credit for doing so. It mounts up to a point where
you’re challenged to go on quests, accomplish tasks and even have pets.

If you’re a gamer, turning tracking language into a game might be the best way for you to stay
motivated and watch your progress. I know it sounds impossible—or too good to be true—but
“game on” with this one!

A Bullet Journal
To round out the options, I saved the one I personally use and consider the best tool for
language tracking, the bullet journal, for last. A bullet journal is a completely customizable
option but most language bullet journals include basic pages for tasks, goals and progress
trackers to show what’s been completed.

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It’s usually a small notebook, so it’s portable, which I like. It’s also as creative or minimalist
as its owner wants it to be. My progress trackers are color coded, but that’s just me. Someone
else’s might be a pencil line graph, and that’s fine, too. The point is to track!

How to Start Using Your Language Learning Tracker(s)

So now that you’ve chosen or are considering a language tracking tool or tools, you’ll want to
focus on the best way to utilize your method. If you’re not using built-in tracking, you might
be wondering how exactly to track your progress. We’ll get into all of that here.

First, decide what aspects of your language program you want to track. Do
you want to monitor vocabulary acquisition, reading proficiency, writing skills or
conversational skills? Maybe you’ve got a combination of all of those in mind. Actually,
they should all be part of your program, so it makes sense to keep an eye on each of
them if you can.

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 Assess where you are in your language learning. If you know where you are,
proficiency-wise, you’ll be able to determine where you want to go and set goals
accordingly. These downloadable language tracking sheets are used in classroom
settings to gauge English proficiency, but they can be modified to suit any language.
While these are intended to be used by teachers, with a little tweaking, they can give
you a good idea of what your goals should be and they can also help you note your
progress at any given point. They’re also a great way to see just where you fall on the
proficiency scale.

One of the essential aspects of these sheets is that they offer measurable guides to assess
language. Beginning learners would benefit from downloading the Kindergarten sheets,
which place 500 words as the first linguistic vocabulary benchmark for a Level 1 learner. The
scale on each tracking sheet increases until the Grades 10-12 sheets, which put linguistic
learning in the 5000-word range.

Having resources like these on hand allows you to note progress and make gauging
proficiency clear-cut, even if you’re using a lower-tech or non-language-specific tool as a
tracker.

Start tracking study time/tasks. One of the best features of any language tracker is
that it gives you the ability to track your study time. Do you want to devote one hour a
day to learning? Two? Whatever fits your program and schedule, factor that in when
you use your tracker. You’ll be able to see just how much time you need to spend to
accomplish your tasks—and you’ll be able to make time in your schedule to get the job
done.

A language tracker isn’t a stagnant tool. Optimally, you’ll access your tracker daily
as you confirm you’ve completed your language studies. At the end of a week,
month or year you’ll have a clear view of what you’ve been doing with your study time.

Review your progress periodically. I suggest monthly because I find that there are
some weeks that I just don’t make every single task and I don’t want to feel badly about
that. But if weekly works for you, that’s great, too. I review my language tracker at the
end of every month and can see what I did, what I concentrated on and how many
hours I devoted to studying a target language.

This is also a good time to break out the tracking sheets above, or review whatever built-in
progress trackers you have going. If you see that you’re flagging in a certain area, adjust your
course to get you back on target.

Trackers Are Excellent Tools for Language Learners

Trackers are effective.

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They provide accountability, motivation and help gauge success.

Fitness trackers are a perfect example of how tracking works on human behavior. I mean,
how many Fitbit owners (myself included) don’t call it a day until the step count goal is
reached?

Let’s be honest, we all want to know how we’re doing and how we can do even better—and
this is the method to address those concerns. Adding a tracker to your language routine, and
using it consistently, can really help increase what you get done. It can also provide a tangible
assessment of how well a program is performing.

Bring language learning to the next level, and keep your face out of that brick wall.

Track your way to success!

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