goals and objectives
Despite the large number of informative materials available for goals and objectives, many people do not know the difference between the two concepts. According to the Oxford Dictionary, goals are those dreams we hope to achieve, and, the perfect equivalent for the term goal is aim. Objectives, by the same dictionary, are defined to achieve. Without too much scrutiny into it, one cannot see the in-depth distinction between the terms. However, the two definitions do not share the same meaning because one refers to hoping while the other to trying. Specificity comes with the latter verb, more specific than the former, and basically this is what renders the difference between goals and objectives.
Other pretentious definitions of the concepts consider goals broader than objectives or in other words, goals are closer to intentions while objectives reflect superior precision. If we had to analyze goals and objectives from the point of view of the criteria referring to the understanding and conceptualization capacity, objectives are thus more tangible than goals. To give a picture of these differences, we can analyze goals and objectives from the point of view of teaching grammar according to school curricula. Thus, the goal of the lesson consists in the students learning how to use past tense simple. The specific objectives would be several, perhaps, such as: the students identifying whether the verbs are regular or irregular, adding ed or using the second irregular form of the verb depending on the case, using the correct word order depending on whether they are formulating a statement or a question, placing the auxiliary did before the subject in questions, adding the auxiliary did in negative assertive phrases, and so on.
As it may become obvious from this example, we can distinguish between goals and objectives in that goals are more general while objectives represent specific situations in the process of goal achieving. In other words, objectives can be viewed as the specific steps one needs to take in order to meet a goal. Furthermore, objectives are measurable while goals are much harder to measure. You can give a test and check whether students make use of the specific behaviors you have required from them; but it would be a whole lot more difficult to verify whether the goal has been fulfilled without checking and measuring the achievement of objectives. That is why courses of foreign languages require periodical testing which measures the achievement of objectives. However, final tests are meant for proficiency purposes, and that will be measured in terms the broader goals.