How much should I understand? Selecting appropriate material

Hi folks

I'm currently in a class which I would describe as above my level. The good news is that this pushes me to prepare heavily for class. I always look up all the words, etc., in the new material before going to class. (I assume this is good.. though sometimes I wonder if I'm flooding my brain, and it's less effective)

Just now, as I review, I can remember/understand a lot of the old material, but certainly not 100%. For example,

学外语的人大多都有过这样的————，那就是话到嘴边却不知该怎么说。

1）经验

2）经过

3）经历

4）遭遇

Here, I understand the first part of the sentence fine, and the second part I can understand the basic meaning, but it's passive (I would never be able to write a sentence like that). I know the answer to the question and I roughly know the differences between the possible answers.

Is this enough? Or is it necessary to work on material that you can really grasp?

The same goes for listening practice. If I listen to a TV show, but can only understand 40% of it, is this productive? Or should I lower the level of the material so that I can understand 70-90% ?

I'd imagine this question has been addressed before, but I couldn't find anything.

Thanks!

David

The same goes for listening practice. If I listen to a TV show, but can only understand 40% of it, is this productive?

You have to start somewhere. When I started watching TV shows, it was well below 40% understanding at full speed.

So I paused a lot, looked things up in the dictionary, tried to get the main gist. It was tedious. It certainly helped.

Going over material that is easy for you will work on your speed, listening comprehension, work on your accent and phrasing, and help you understand conversations at full speed.

Going over material that's above your head will introduce new vocab, new grammatical constructions, and generally push you to improve.

I think that both are very useful.

I don't think what percentage you can understand is so important as whether or not you can sustain your level of practice. The problem if the material is too difficult is that you will spend so much time looking up new words that it will just be frustrating and kill your motivation. I think the level at which this happens will vary widely from person to person. The more difficult the material, or the less you understand, then the more new stuff there is for you to learn potentially. You just have to find the level that you don't feel too frustrated or overwhelmed by the amount of new words.

Annonymoose said it well.

You just have to find the level that you don't feel too frustrated or overwhelmed by the amount of new words.

I personally like to work at mastering material that is only a little beyond where I am now. If I tackle language projects that are too difficult, I become discouraged and really want to stop. I used to be tougher than I am now and I'm not necessarily proud of that.

As far as classes are concerned, I've heard the figure 85%. And my anectodal evidence seems to be in line with this, I've mostly been in classes where I understood close to everything, which was indeed not conducive to my motivation.

I don't think what percentage you can understand is so important as whether or not you can sustain your level of practice. The problem if the material is too difficult is that you will spend so much time looking up new words that it will just be frustrating and kill your motivation. I think the level at which this happens will vary widely from person to person. The more difficult the material, or the less you understand, then the more new stuff there is for you to learn potentially. You just have to find the level that you don't feel too frustrated or overwhelmed by the amount of new words.

Agree..

As far as classes are concerned, I've heard the figure 85%. And my anectodal evidence seems to be in line with this, I've mostly been in classes where I understood close to everything, which was indeed not conducive to my motivation.

Agree..

It's like being on a knife edge.

You need to be on that edge to pick up the new things, but dont overstretch yourself where you're not interested because you cant understand.

I found that with my reading ability as it is now- I can read things which my friends write on Facebook (for example), and sometimes something new comes up.. I grab at it and learn it quick.

Same thing happens on here- sometimes I'll know what it means spoken, but I'll not be able to read it.. so I grab up all the bits I dont know yet, and learn it.

I think understanding about 80% of a lesson is a good place.. just as long as the other 20% is what your teacher in concentrating on teaching..