Shadowing Practice: The Neuroscience of Creativity - Learn English Speaking with Video

This little guy is a nematode worm - it’s transparent, about 1mm in length and one of the simplest animals with a nervous system.

And his name is Steve.

Steve does something quite curious... he doesn’t just follow food scents.

He also explores his environment – thoroughly.

As if he wants to know what else is out there.

This worm shows a basic form of curiosity.

And Steve does this even though he only has 383 brain cells or neurons… compared to the 86 billion neurons in your human brain.

Your brain is also curious, it’s constantly looking for the next new thing.

But unlike a worm, our desire for novelty has led us to innovate and create.

Our high levels of creativity are thanks to the unique makeup of our restless brains.

So what exactly makes your brain so creative?

Well, this mass of 86 billion neurons is organised in a pretty special way.

Roughly speaking, one group of neurons sense the environment, and another group react to it.

In most animal brains, there’s a hard-wired path from the sensing neurons to acting neurons.

In your human brain though, there are lots of paths connecting the two.

Way more than what we need to perform vital tasks.

So these surplus neurons form tangled networks that generate random, spontaneous thoughts.

And researchers are starting to pinpoint how these random thoughts become creative ideas.

In a 2016 study, researchers found that creativity seems to depend on the cooperation of two competing brain networks: one that generates spontaneous thoughts and the executive control center of the brain that governs everything else.

To produce new ideas, we start with a pool of random, free-flowing thoughts – those worthy of further exploration are then approved by executive control.

And then, when researchers asked people to plan an artwork, cooperation between these two networks went up.

And the effect was stronger in professional artists.

Virtually all other research points to a similar conclusion: That no one area of your brain is responsible for creative thought.

Rather, many interacting processes by large-scale brain networks work together to give birth to a great idea.

And a new theory suggests these brain networks seem to be doing three things: They bend what we see, break what we expect and finally, they blend things with...other things.

Your restless brain is full of great ideas – just waiting to be realised.

This is the first of a three part series on creativity.

Next up, can you become more creative?

If we all have this amazing machinery in our brains, why are some people more creative than others?

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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección

Este vídeo tiene 29 frases y 433 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 2:59. El hablante mantiene un ritmo constante de unas 145 palabras por minuto, cómodo para el shadowing. Solo el 80 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés, por lo que el vocabulario es exigente.

Vocabulario clave de este vídeo

15 palabras del vídeo que vale la pena aprender, con su pronunciación y significado:

Palabra	Pronunciación	Significado
creativity sustantivo	/kri.eɪˈtɪv.ᵻ.ti/	creatividad
researcher sustantivo	/ˈɹiˌsɝ.t͡ʃɚ/	investigador, investigadora
worm sustantivo	/wɝm/	gusano, lombriz
curious adjetivo	/ˈkjʊɹ.i.əs/	curioso, tener curiosidad
cooperation sustantivo	/koʊˌɑ.pəˈɹeɪ.ʃən/	cooperación
generate verbo	/ˈd͡ʒɛn.ə.ɹeɪt/	generar
spontaneous adjetivo	/spɑnˈteɪ.ni.əs/	espontáneo
restless adjetivo	/ˈɹɛstlɪs/	inquieto
compare verbo	/kəmˈpɛɚ/	comparar, parangonar
wire sustantivo	/ˈwaɪɚ/	alambre, hilo
conclusion sustantivo	/kənˈkluːʒən/	conclusión, neta
compete verbo	/kəmˈpiːt/	competir, competer (disused)
connect verbo	/kəˈnɛkt/	conectar, empalmar
vital adjetivo	/ˈvaɪtəl/	vital
roughly adverbio	/ˈɹʌf.li/	toscamente

Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar

Palabra	Significado
go up verbo	subir

Pronunciación a tener en cuenta

Los sonidos de “th”: worthy /ˈwɝ.ði/, thoroughly /ˈθʌɹ.ə.li/
Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: cooperation /koʊˌɑ.pəˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, conclusion /kənˈkluːʒən/, exploration /ˌɛkspləˈɹeɪʃən/, machinery /məˈʃiːnəɹi/
Palabras largas — cuida el acento: creativity /kri.eɪˈtɪv.ᵻ.ti/, cooperation /koʊˌɑ.pəˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, spontaneous /spɑnˈteɪ.ni.əs/, virtually /ˈvɚ.t͡ʃə.wə.li/, exploration /ˌɛkspləˈɹeɪʃən/

Cómo practicar con este vídeo

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

¿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.

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