他想学习中文

Since it is 想, meaning "thinking" about it, I would go for "more aspirational", i.e. "He wants to learn Chinese"

An "action or steps to get to the objective" would be 他正在学习中文 or 他想学好他的中文, if you want to retain the 想?

Just my personal view of course as trying to indicate the "subtlety" which you see in the English context may not be that easy in Chinese.