Shadowing Practice: 7 reasons to listen before you read - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Today, I want to give you seven reasons why I think we should listen first before we read.
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Now, I often talk about the importance of input, and I think many people recognize the importance of input, but they sometimes wonder, is it better to read first or listen first?
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I believe everyone should do what they enjoy doing, because if you enjoy doing it, you're likely to continue doing it.
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So I will tell you what I do, and I will tell you the reasons why I do it.
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I listen first, and there are seven principal reasons which I've jotted down.
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Before I get into that, by the way, I looked up the perennial question of which comes first, the chicken or the egg?
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And there is an explanation online that the egg comes first because the egg evolved from a reptile's egg,
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which then became a chicken at some point in the evolutionary process, which to me doesn't really answer the question because then all you're doing is pushing it back to the reptile,
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which comes first, the reptile's egg or the reptile.
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But anyway, leaving that aside, to me, the first reason why listening comes first is because it's the easiest thing to do.
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It's the first thing I do in the morning.
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I don't wake up and start reading in, say, Persian, which I'm learning now.
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I get up and I get some audio, something that I'm listening to.
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It might be something out of Radio Fardo.
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It might be something from LingQ.
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I start listening.
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So it's the first thing I do.
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It's the easiest thing to do.
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You can do it wherever you are.
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I can do it while preparing breakfast.
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I do it in the car.
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I do it if I'm going to clean up the garage.
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It's just so easy to pick up some audio, put the AirPods in and listen.
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And I do make an effort to listen in LingQ Because then at least I get credit for those listening hours.
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Whereas if I'm listening on some other app, I'm usually too lazy to manually add those listening hours to my statistics.
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Now, somewhat related to that is the idea that listening is something you can do while doing other chores.
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It's the same idea, but the benefit is different.
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It's not because it's the easiest thing to do, but it's because very often when we're studying languages, we kind of think, gee, I wish I were doing something else.
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Whereas with listening, you can have the feeling that you are killing two birds with one stone.
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And you don't have to understand everything you're listening to.
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But again, it's part of this idea that it's easier to do.
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And also part of the fact that, again, and I'm going to get into exercise, but first thing I do in the morning is I grab my Persian listening
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and I grab my app that I have for exercise.
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And I think the fact that I can listen to my Farsi motivates me to do my exercises.
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And the fact that I'm doing the exercises motivates me to do the Farsi or the Persian.
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So there's a symbiosis there, a synergy.
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And so the multitasking capability strengthens our willingness to do both.
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And so therefore, to my mind, the listening comes first.
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The third point is exercise.
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I wanted to delve a little more deeply into exercise.
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There is research that shows that, first of all, exercise increases our cognitive ability.
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It might have to do with blood flow or whatever, but that is a fact.
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And not only during the exercise, but after the exercise, if we increase our flow of blood or if we're engaged in exercise, we are able to learn better.
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But there is very specific research that has been done on learning vocabulary,
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which showed that if two groups are exposed to new vocabulary and one group is on a,
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say, stationary bicycle and the other group is simply sitting there, then the group that's on the stationary bicycle will learn the vocabulary better.
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So I've actually experimented with this now, and I'm going to perhaps do another video on the different ways you can exercise and study languages, but apparently this works.
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So exercise improves your ability to learn and to remember.
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Number four, another reason why listening comes first is because the listening will trigger the curiosity from a number of perspectives.
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So you're listening to something, maybe you don't fully understand it.
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There are many words that you don't understand.
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Maybe it's an interesting story you want to understand the parts
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that you missed so that you can better understand the whole story.
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So the listening is going to trigger you to do other things.
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It's going to trigger you to read that story.
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It's going to trigger you to look up words, possibly review the words.
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So again, the listening starts the process and triggers the curiosity.
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And that's very important.
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Anything that keeps you going on your learning tasks is good.
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Now, number five is that listening gives you a sense of familiarity about the subject matter.
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You may find in listening to something new that you're not interested in it, or you may find that you're very interested in it.
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But the listening creates the atmosphere.
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You can't smell the smells, but you can feel the atmosphere of whatever it is you're listening to.
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I still remember when I listened to, you know, Russian novels or Italian novels, you know, at Cidiechi, in the case of Russian, while jogging around the field here,
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or while, you know, listening to I Prima Cisposi, pardon me if I like 19th century literature while learning Italian.
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It gets you in the mood.
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And once you have that mood and familiarity, it's so much easier than to read.
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Again, number seven, it's sort of related to this idea that you gain some familiarity with the subject matter, but it's more than that.
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It's this idea that you gain momentum.
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So you have heard it.
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You've heard the rhythm of the language and phrases and words have bounced around in your brain.
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And you've got the intonation and then you've heard the person's voice
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and all of that gives you momentum so that when you go to read, because when we read inevitably we sub vocalize, you've got some of that momentum,
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that intonation, and it pushes you forward.
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You're not fighting inertia.
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You've got some momentum going in your favor if you have been listening first.
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So that's the seventh reason why I think listening comes first.
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Now people are going to say when I listen, I can't maintain my focus.
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That's all true.
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And our ability to focus varies according to many different factors.
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I, for example, find that I am least able to focus
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if I just sit in a chair and don't do anything else.
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I can't just sit there and listen.
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I got to do something.
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Now, how much am I able to focus in?
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It's going to depend on my level in the language, on my interest in the subject matter, the audio quality, the narrator's voice quality,
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all of these things affect how much you're able to concentrate.
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Also, certain activities lend themselves more to staying focused.
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So I'm able to focus quite well while driving.
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If I'm exercising or lifting weights or even trying to organize my garage, it's much more difficult to stay focused.
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It doesn't matter because if you can listen to a lot, you're getting this rhythm, the intonation, as I've said, all those good things.
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But you're also picking up words and phrases.
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And you may not get them all, but whatever you do get goes into your database, into your reserve memory.
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And when we are reading or listening in the language, we're constantly predicting what's going to happen in the language.
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This is based on MRI research.
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So we're trying to predict what's going to come at us.
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We don't know to what extent these little bits and pieces of words and phrases that we noticed while listening, even though we weren't totally focused the whole time,
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to what extent is our ability to predict what's going to happen influenced by these little bits and pieces, these words and phrases.
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Similarly, when we go to speak, we know from research that we tend to grab words that we're confident, confident we can use or grab structures that we're confident we can use.
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And we kind of shape our utterances around things that we're comfortable using, or we think are going to work.
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And again, it's this error driven process that's either confirmed as being, you know, is working or not working.
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But in many cases, I think, again, we will grab some of these words and phrases that for whatever reason we heard or noticed while listening,
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even though we were of sort of fading in and out of the content while listening.
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So I think people shouldn't take the position that I'm only going to listen if I understand everything.
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That's not how listening works.
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You're going to understand better sometimes than at other times, and you're going to be able to focus better in some situations than other situations.
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So to summarize, input is so important, listening and reading.
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Obviously we all want to get to speaking and we want to speak a lot, but we need to have that listening and reading to give us the weapons,
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the words, the phrases, the familiarity that we need in order to have successful interactions in the language.
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If we listen, and listen a lot, it's going to improve our ability to read, it's going to improve our ability to learn from our reading, and because it's easy to do, it's going to keep us going.
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So I'm not saying that listening is more important, but if I'm asked which do I start with, then I start with listening for all of the reasons that I outlined,
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and I'd be interested in hearing your views on this subject.
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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección
Esta lección de conversación de nivel B2 se basa en el vídeo “7 reasons to listen before you read”. Las palabras que más se repiten: listening, exercise, listen, words, language. Este vídeo tiene 112 frases y 1697 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 8:11. El hablante habla rápido, unas 207 palabras por minuto, así que espera sonidos enlazados y reducidos. El 86 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés; conviene repasar el resto antes de empezar.
Vocabulario clave de este vídeo
Las 15 palabras más avanzadas del vídeo, con su pronunciación y significado:
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| familiarity sustantivo | /fəmɪliˈæɹɪti/ | intimidad |
| momentum sustantivo | /ˌmə(ʊ)ˈmɛntəm/ | moméntum, viada |
| intonation sustantivo | /ɪntəˈneɪʃən/ | entonación |
| vocabulary sustantivo | /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/ | vocabulario |
| predict verbo | /pɹɪˈdɪkt/ | predecir |
| reptile sustantivo | /ˈɹɛp.taɪl/ | reptil |
| motivate verbo | /ˈmoʊ.tɪ.veɪt/ | motivar |
| stationary adjetivo | /ˈsteɪʃəˌnɛɹi/ | estacionario |
| curiosity sustantivo | /ˌkjʊɹ.iˈɑ.sə.ti/ | curiosidad |
| bicycle sustantivo | /ˈbaɪsɪk(ə)l/ | bicicleta, bici |
| rhythm sustantivo | /ˈɹɪð.əm/ | ritmo |
| inertia sustantivo | /ɪnˈɝ.ʃə/ | inercia |
| multitasking sustantivo | multitarea | |
| summarize verbo | /ˈsʌməˌɹaɪz/ | resumir |
| symbiosis sustantivo | /sɪmbaɪˈoʊsɪs/ | simbiosis |
Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| look up verbo | /ˌlʊk ˈʌp/ | mejorar |
| pick up verbo | coger, asir | |
| clean up verbo | limpiar | |
| get up verbo | levantarse | |
| wake up verbo | /ˌweɪk ˈʌp/ | despertarse, recordar |
Frases que vale la pena repetir
Frases cortas y completas del vídeo que puedes reutilizar en la conversación diaria:
- It's the first thing I do in the morning.
- There are many words that you don't understand.
- It's going to trigger you to read that story.
- It's this idea that you gain momentum.
- I can't just sit there and listen.
Gramática en este vídeo
Las estructuras que más usa el hablante, con las palabras exactas del vídeo:
| Estructura | En el vídeo |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahora | I've jotted · has been done · I've actually experimented |
| Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hace | has been done · are exposed · is based |
Pronunciación a tener en cuenta
El hablante usa 55 contracciones y formas reducidas, como I'm, you're, we're. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.
- Los sonidos de “th”: rhythm /ˈɹɪð.əm/, strengthen /ˈstɹɛŋ(k)θən/
- Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: intonation /ɪntəˈneɪʃən/, stationary /ˈsteɪʃəˌnɛɹi/, inertia /ɪnˈɝ.ʃə/, evolutionary /ˌiː.vəˈluː.ʃən.ɛɹ.i/
- Palabras largas — cuida el acento: familiarity /fəmɪliˈæɹɪti/, momentum /ˌmə(ʊ)ˈmɛntəm/, intonation /ɪntəˈneɪʃən/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, stationary /ˈsteɪʃəˌnɛɹi/
Sonidos difíciles para hispanohablantes:
- s + consonante al inicio — sin añadir una “e” delante: stationary /ˈsteɪʃəˌnɛɹi/, strengthen /ˈstɹɛŋ(k)θən/
- /v/ — no es /b/: los dientes tocan el labio inferior: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, motivate /ˈmoʊ.tɪ.veɪt/, vocalize /ˈvoʊ.kə.laɪz/, evolve /ɪˈvɑlv/, evolutionary /ˌiː.vəˈluː.ʃən.ɛɹ.i/
- /z/ — sonora, no /s/: summarize /ˈsʌməˌɹaɪz/, vocalize /ˈvoʊ.kə.laɪz/, organize /ˈɔɹɡənaɪz/, expose /ɪkˈspoʊz/
Cómo practicar con este vídeo
- Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
- Empieza a velocidad 0,75×, haz shadowing frase por frase y vuelve a la velocidad normal cuando te resulte fácil.
- Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como familiarity, momentum, intonation.
¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?
Shadowing es una técnica de aprendizaje de idiomas respaldada por la ciencia, desarrollada originalmente para la formación de intérpretes profesionales y popularizada por el políglota Dr. Alexander Arguelles. El método es simple pero poderoso: escuchas audio en inglés nativo y lo repites en voz alta de inmediato, como una sombra que sigue al hablante con solo 1-2 segundos de retraso. A diferencia de la escucha pasiva o los ejercicios de gramática, el shadowing obliga a tu cerebro y músculos de la boca a procesar y reproducir simultáneamente patrones de habla reales. Las investigaciones muestran que mejora significativamente la precisión de la pronunciación, la entonación, el ritmo, el habla conectada, la comprensión auditiva y la fluidez al hablar, convirtiéndola en una de las metodologías más efectivas para la preparación del IELTS Speaking y la comunicación en inglés en el mundo real.