Shadowing Practice: 'The Picture of Dorian Gray': An Introduction - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hello everyone.
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The following presentation is an introduction to Oscar Wilde's novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray,
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as part of the Gray 12 English Home Language Syllabus.
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The information in this presentation is not examinable, but it is important for your understanding of the context of the novel.
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I would also like to note that there are various film adaptions of the novel.
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However, the film versions are significantly different to the novel.
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It is advisable that you do not substitute your reading and studying of the novel with merely watching the films.
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You might land up confusing characters and events that do not actually occur in the novel.
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The picture of Dorian Gray takes place during the Victorian era.
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The Victorian age covered the period of Queen Victoria's reign over the years 1837 to 1901.
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During this period, Britain was the most powerful empire across the whole world, economically and in terms of its military.
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During the Victorian era, many medical and scientific breakthroughs occurred.
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This was also the period of the Industrial Revolution.
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During the Industrial Revolution, a move from an agricultural society to a more urban society took place.
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During the Victorian era, many changes in social and economic aspects of society took place.
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One of the main characteristics of the time was the rigid class structure in society.
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Society during the Victorian era comprised of three distinct classes.
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Firstly, the working class.
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The working class were made up of people who earned their living through physical labour.
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Secondly, the middle class.
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These people were mostly bankers and office workers.
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Lastly, the upper class who were so wealthy they did not have to work in order to earn a living.
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Their wealth came from investments and inheritance.
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The working class during the Victorian era experienced very poor living and working conditions.
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In the novel we learn that the working class live on the east side of London.
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Their living conditions were often overcrowded and poorly ventilated.
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There were no sewage or drainage systems in their homes, meaning that living conditions were also unhygienic.
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Unlike the middle class, working class workers also included women and children.
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Due to poverty and poor living conditions, most people were malnourished and sickly.
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Unlike the middle and upper class, they did not participate in social entertainment as it was too expensive.
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The working class also had very little opportunity to receive any form of education.
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The middle class only had men providing the income, while women stayed home to raise the children and manage their homes.
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The middle class men consisted of office workers, bankers, shopkeepers, merchants and engineers.
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The middle class had aspirations for upward mobility, meaning that they aspired to be part of the upper class.
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The middle class followed upper class social norms and were very concerned with appearances and perceptions.
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We will learn that the concern for appearances and public perceptions is one of the main themes in the novel.
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As mentioned before, the upper class did not have to work.
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The upper class's extreme wealth came from inherited land or investments.
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The upper class included people from the church and those of nobility.
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In order to create further context, note that during the Victorian era, the following did not exist.
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Cars, which is why horse-drawn carriages are mentioned in the novel.
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Cell phones, ATMs, credit cards,
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television or radio, plastic, computers and aeroplanes.
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Despite not having many things we have today, people of the Victorian era did have banks,
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schools and universities, railways and canal and ocean going ships,
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books and libraries, some form of running water and sanitation but not all classes had it equally,
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trade between many countries around the world and the skills to build multi-story buildings, tunnels and bridges.
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The following is some background to Oscar Wilde, the author of The Picture of Dorian Gray.
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Oscar Wilde was born on the 16th of October 1854.
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His father was a surgeon and his mother was a journalist and poet.
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Wilde studied at Trinity College in Dublin and at Magdalene College in Oxford.
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After he graduated, he moved to London.
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While living in London, Oscar Wilde associated himself with many elite London artists.
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In 1881, he published his first collection of poetry titled Poems.
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Also in 1881, he travelled to the United States of America to deliver a series of lectures on the philosophy of aesthetics.
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The concept of aesthetics is something you need to understand in your studying of this novel.
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What is the concept of aesthetics?
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Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that deals with questions about what is considered beautiful and questions about what is artistically tasteful.
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In the next slide, I would like to note some of the similarities between Victorian society
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and some of the instances and the characters in the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.
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The Victorian era was an era of covers.
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A person's reputation became their primary interest and priority.
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The Victorian era was when the image of the English gentleman was formed.
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An English gentleman is a man who is well-mannered, well-educated and well-dressed.
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As people began to care more about their reputation, a lot of hypocrisy was the result.
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People began to hide their darkest desires and their misdeeds while presenting a respectable face to the public.
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This is exactly what we will encounter with the character of Dorian Gray, as he lands up doing just the same.
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The idea of hiding one's true self from society highlights one of the main themes in the picture of Dorian Gray,
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which is appearance vs reality.
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In the novel, the following themes appear.
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Beauty and youth, appearance vs reality, art, morality or good vs evil, and class relations.
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Keep these themes and what occurrences in the novel illustrate each of these themes in mind.
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This will help you in your answering any potential essay questions.

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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección

Esta lección de conversación de nivel B1 se basa en el vídeo “'The Picture of Dorian Gray': An Introduction”. Las palabras que más se repiten: novel, Victorian, era, Gray, upper. Este vídeo tiene 73 frases y 978 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 8:23. El hablante mantiene un ritmo constante de unas 117 palabras por minuto, cómodo para el shadowing. El 83 % 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:

PalabraPronunciaciónSignificado
aesthetics sustantivo/ɛsˈθɛt.ɪks/estética
banker sustantivo/ˈbæŋkəː/banquero, banquera
gentleman sustantivo/ˈd͡ʒɛn.təl.mən/caballero, gentilhombre
perception sustantivo/pɚˈsɛpʃ(ə)n/percepción
presentation sustantivo/ˌpɹɛzn̩ˈteɪʃn̩/presentación, exposición
advisable adjetivoaconsejable, recomendable
artistically adverbio/ɑː(ɹ)ˈtɪstɪkli/artísticamente
aspiration sustantivo/ˌæspəˈɹeɪʃən/aspiración
aspire verbo/əˈspaɪɚ/aspirar, ambicionar
malnourished adjetivodesnutrido
misdeed sustantivo/mɪsˈdiːd/fechoría, malhecho
nobility sustantivo/noʊˈbɪlɪti/nobleza
overcrowded adjetivodemasiado amuchado
sickly adjetivo/ˈsɪkli/enfermizo, enclenque
tasteful adjetivo/ˈteɪstfəl/sabroso

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 hacewere made · were often overcrowded · were malnourished
Oraciones de relativo who / which + oración — información extra sobre una persona o cosapeople who earned · Cars, which is · man who is
Superlativos the -est / the most … — lo más alto o lo más bajo de un grupothe most powerful · their darkest
Futuro con “will” will + verbo — una decisión, una promesa o una predicciónwill learn · will encounter · will help

Pronunciación a tener en cuenta

  • Los sonidos de “th”: aesthetics /ɛsˈθɛt.ɪks/, breakthrough /ˈbɹeɪk.θɹuː/, wealthy /ˈwɛl.θi/
  • Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: perception /pɚˈsɛpʃ(ə)n/, presentation /ˌpɹɛzn̩ˈteɪʃn̩/, aspiration /ˌæspəˈɹeɪʃən/, shopkeeper /ˈʃɑpkiːpɚ/, sanitation /ˌsænɪˈteɪʃən/
  • Palabras largas — cuida el acento: artistically /ɑː(ɹ)ˈtɪstɪkli/, aspiration /ˌæspəˈɹeɪʃən/, nobility /noʊˈbɪlɪti/, sanitation /ˌsænɪˈteɪʃən/, similarity /ˌsɪm.ɪˈlæɹ.ɪ.ti/

Sonidos difíciles para hispanohablantes:

  • /z/ — sonora, no /s/: presentation /ˌpɹɛzn̩ˈteɪʃn̩/, comprise /kəmˈpɹaɪz/, confuse /kənˈfjuːz/
  • /dʒ/ — no es la “y” ni la “ch”: gentleman /ˈd͡ʒɛn.təl.mən/, sewage /ˈsu.ɪd͡ʒ/, rigid /ˈɹɪd͡ʒ.ɪd/, drainage /ˈdɹeɪnəd͡ʒ/, educate /ˈɛd͡ʒ.əˌkeɪt/
  • /h/ — una aspiración suave, no la “j”: inherit /ɪnˈhɛɹɪt/, hypocrisy /hɪˈpɑkɹəsi/, inheritance /ɪnˈhɛɹɪtəns/, highlight /ˈhaɪˌlaɪt/

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 aesthetics, banker, gentleman.

¿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 →