Hi! A few questions:
1.) How do you know if what you're reading is too advanced for you?
2.) If you're reading something that's too advanced, and you just "keep at it", will you improve over time, or is it better to tailor content back down to your level and then eventually work your way up?
3.) Are there techniques to make it easier to read something at a higher level than you're comfortable with?
Context:
I'm a native English speaker learning Russian. I haven't formally assessed myself but I would guess I'm maybe about in the B1 range. I'm taking a Russian class in college right now, and we're assigned to read about a book chapter of native content per week. And I am really, really struggling with the readings assigned. There are a few problems, the biggest being that there are so many words I don't know. I used to look everything up, but that was making each page take like 1-2 hours (or even more as time went on and I got tired). This would be fine if I got to direct the overall pace, but it's hard to do with like fifteen pages assigned a week. So I've switched to trying to only look up words that are crucial to understanding the main gist, but with so many words I don't know, it's hard to know which words those are, and even when I find them, it's still hard to get through the readings with so many minor details missing. And thus, it's still taking me the same amount of time to read a page. It's also taking me time to decode more complex sentences, to figure out how the words are fitting together. It's doable, and it's satisfying, but it slows me down, which is problematic when I have a deadline. Anyway, long story short, these readings are rather difficult (and demotivating), and I think that's overall not good for my process, to carry around this fear and resentment towards them all the time. I am considering withdrawing from this class, but, apart from that being a waste of money, that also feels so bad because everything else is right at my level: the other homework assignments (which include easier readings from the textbook, which aren't a problem for me), the listening and speaking in class, etc. And besides, a lot of the other students seem to be around the same level as me, at least in terms of their speaking and listening skills (and considering we've been in a cohort together in Russian classes for a few years), and they seem to be surviving somehow, so maybe I'm just missing a technique that could help me? [Honestly I feel like what would be the best for my overall learning process would be to quit this class, take a year off from formally studying the language, use that time to learn more basic and semi-basic vocabulary and read more level-appropriate material, and then if I came back after that I'd feel a lot more prepared, but again, maybe I'm missing something that could help me now and/or I just need to keep doing this and it gets easier over time.]
So I guess I'm asking, does anyone have any relevant advice or experience? Thank you!
[link] [comments]
from Language Learning https://ift.tt/4Ih9g8d
via Learn Online English Speaking
Comments
Post a Comment