Shadowing Practice: CONTEMPORARY TOPICS UNIT 9 LINGUISTICS ANIMAL COMMUNICATION - Learn English Speaking with Video

Elige un modo de práctica

Cada modo abre una sala de práctica a pantalla completa.

64 oraciones
Si las oraciones son demasiado cortas o largas, haz clic en Editar para ajustarlas.
1
How many of you have pets?
2
They're great, aren't they?
3
I've got a golden retriever myself, and often I feel that my dog is communicating with me.
4
But do animals really communicate like we do?
5
Well, Harvard professor Mark Hauser has identified several types of animal communication.
6
And like humans, they do use sounds and nonverbal behavior to communicate.
7
For instance, they convey information to one another, they establish and maintain social organization, and they express their perceptions of the world.
8
So today we'll look at animal communication through the lens of human language.
9
Specifically, we'll use four basic characteristics of human language to see how animal and human communication styles compare.
10
I think that you'll be surprised at how sophisticated animal communication is.
11
But ultimately, we'll see that human communication is far more flexible and better developed.
12
Now the first characteristic we'll look at is arbitrariness.
13
Arbitrariness means that there's no logical relationship between a sound and its meaning.
14
For example, the word sky has no relationship with the thing it refers to, right?
15
In comparison, a lot of animal communication is not arbitrary.
16
For example, the growl of an angry dog is meant to very directly warn and threaten.
17
There's nothing arbitrary about this message, right?
18
However some animal communication is arbitrary, albeit to a limited degree.
19
For example, meerkats, a small African animal, can make about 20 distinct sounds.
20
They use one alarm call for snakes, another for eagles, and yet another for large cats, just to name a few, okay?
21
This is impressive, but human languages are far more flexible because they have a wide range of sounds.
22
English, for example, has more than 40 distinct sounds, such as ah, kuh, or t.
23
And we can make an unlimited number of arbitrary words by altering these sounds, far more than any animal.
24
The second characteristic of human language we'll compare is displacement.
25
Displacement is communicating ideas about things that are not physically present.
26
For example, if you talk about what you did last weekend, that's displacement.
27
Now, can animals do this?
28
Well, often the answer is they can't.
29
For instance, if your dog doesn't like the neighbor cat, maybe it barks when it sees the cat.
30
But when the cat isn't around, the dog doesn't bark.
31
It doesn't communicate its dislike of the cat.
32
This shows that the dog doesn't have the capacity for displacement.
33
Well, one exception to this is bees.
34
Many types of bees use displacement in their dances.
35
Through these dances, they're able to communicate to other bees the distance, direction, quality, and quantity of a food source.
36
The meaning of the dance is so clear and so precise
37
that even scientists researching bee dances can interpret exactly where the food is.
38
In any case, although I think that the bees is an excellent example of the sophistication of animal communication,
39
in general, animals' use of displacement is extremely limited compared to humans.
40
Think about books, magazines, and the internet.
41
I mean, everything that we read involves displacement, as do most of our conversations.
42
The third characteristic of human language that I want to consider is called cultural transmission, the idea that language is passed from one generation to the next.
43
Now, obviously, humans excel at this, but what about animals?
44
Well, some animals are also fairly skilled at passing language on to their young.
45
A good example of this is the killer whale.
46
They live in groups, and different groups develop different accents, just like people.
47
The accents are passed from older to younger killer whales.
48
Well, this is yet another example of the sophistication of some animal communication.
49
However, once again, what we see is that while animal and human communication share similarities,
50
similarities, the characteristics that we are looking for are far more developed in humans.
51
For example, in addition to accents, humans also pass on extremely large vocabularies and complex grammar.
52
The fourth and last characteristic that we'll talk about today is called discreteness.
53
This means that language is made up of discrete units that can be combined in different ways to create different meanings.
54
As humans, we do this by using sounds to make words and using grammar to arrange those words into sentences.
55
The best example we have of animals using discreteness is from chimpanzees raised in captivity.
56
Using a keyboard, chimps have made requests for food by typing, raisin peanut, which seemed to mean raisins and peanuts.
57
Chimps have also invented phrases that describe things.
58
For example, one chimp called watermelon drink fruit.
59
Clever, huh?
60
But while this is fairly impressive, one major problem with the chimpanzees' use of language is that their word order is quite random.
61
So most linguists would say that the chimpanzees really do not understand and use grammar in the way that humans do, and therefore can't be said to use discreteness.
62
In the use of discreteness, we see that humans have a huge advantage over animals.
63
allows us to make complex words and sentences that communicate an unlimited number of meanings.
64
And this is one of the really impressive, actually amazing aspects of human communication.

Descargar app

Todo lo que necesitas para hablar con fluidez

Pronunciación con IAEvalúa cada oración
Práctica de IPADomina cada sonido
VocabularioConstruye tu banco de palabras
Juego de vocabularioAprende mientras juegas

Mismo canal

FOR YOU

Recomendar Video

Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección

Este vídeo tiene 64 frases y 853 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 5:50. El hablante mantiene un ritmo constante de unas 146 palabras por minuto, cómodo para el shadowing. El 82 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés; conviene repasar el resto antes de empezar.

Vocabulario clave de este vídeo

15 palabras menos comunes del vídeo, con su pronunciación y significado:

  • displacement /dɪsˈpleɪsmɪnt/ (sustantivo) — desplazamiento. The act of displacing, or the state of being displaced; a putting out of place.
  • characteristic /ˌkæɹ(ə)ktəˈɹɪstɪk/ (sustantivo) — característica. A distinguishing feature of a person or thing, a part of mental or physical behavior.
  • bee /ˈbiː/ (sustantivo) — abeja. A flying insect, of the clade Anthophila within the hymenopteran superfamily Apoidea, known for its organised societies (though only a minority have them), for…
  • arbitrary /ˈɑː.bɪ.tɹə.ɹi/ (adjetivo) — arbitrario. Based on individual discretion or judgment; not based on any objective distinction, perhaps even made at random.
  • impressive /ɪmˈpɹɛsɪv/ (adjetivo) — impresionante. Making, or tending to make, a positive impression; having power to impress.
  • compare /kəmˈpɛɚ/ (verbo) — comparar, parangonar. To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things [“to compare X with Y”]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it…
  • grammar /ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/ (sustantivo) — gramática. A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general.
  • accent /ækˈsɛnt/ (sustantivo) — acento léxico. A higher-pitched or stronger (louder or longer) articulation of a particular syllable of a word or phrase in order to distinguish it from the others or to…
  • killer /ˈkɪlɚ/ (sustantivo) — matador, matadora. One who or that which kills.
  • distinct /dɪˈstɪŋkt/ (adjetivo) — distinto. Capable of being perceived very clearly.
  • flexible /ˈflɛk.sɪ.bəl/ (adjetivo) — flexible, doblegable. Capable of being flexed or bent without breaking; able to be turned or twisted without breaking.
  • unlimited /ʌnˈlɪm.ɪ.tɪd/ (adjetivo) — ilimitado, sin límite. Limitless or without bounds; unrestricted.
  • whale /ˈweɪl/ (sustantivo) — ballena. Any large cetacean, usually with the exclusion of dolphins and porpoises.
  • peanut /ˈpiˌnʌt/ (sustantivo) — maní, cacahuate. A legume resembling a nut, the fruit of the plant Arachis hypogaea, native to South America.
  • bark /bɑɹk/ (sustantivo) — corteza. The exterior covering of the trunk and branches of a tree or of various other woody plants.

Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar

  • look at (verbo) — mirar, funar. To observe or watch.
  • talk about (verbo) — hablar de, hablar sobre. Used to draw attention to the speaker's characterization of someone or something.
  • call for (verbo) — llamar. To shout out in order to summon (a person).
  • look for (verbo) — buscar, lambisquear. To seek.
  • pass on (verbo) — pasar. To go forward.
  • think about /ˈθɪŋk əˌbaʊt/ (verbo) — pensar en, ocurrírsele. To ponder.

Pronunciación a tener en cuenta

El hablante usa 18 contracciones y formas reducidas, como we'll, doesn't, can't. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.

  • Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: establish /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/, exception /əkˈsɛpʃən/, transmission /tɹænsˈmɪʃən/, perception /pɚˈsɛpʃ(ə)n/, sophistication /səˌfɪs.tɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/
  • Palabras largas — cuida el acento: communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/, characteristic /ˌkæɹ(ə)ktəˈɹɪstɪk/, arbitrary /ˈɑː.bɪ.tɹə.ɹi/, unlimited /ʌnˈlɪm.ɪ.tɪd/, similarity /ˌsɪm.ɪˈlæɹ.ɪ.ti/

Cómo practicar con este vídeo

  1. Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
  2. Haz shadowing frase por frase a velocidad normal, repitiendo cada una hasta que tu ritmo coincida con el del hablante.
  3. Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como displacement, characteristic, bee.

Gramática en este vídeo

Las estructuras que más usa el hablante, con las palabras exactas del vídeo:

EstructuraEn el vídeo
Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo haceis meant · is called · are passed
Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahorahas identified · have made · have also invented

¿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.

Técnica de shadowing: lee la guía completa paso a paso →