Shadowing Practice: To get fluent in a language… find another interest - Learn English Speaking with Video
Elige un modo de práctica
Cada modo abre una sala de práctica a pantalla completa.
114 oraciones
Si las oraciones son demasiado cortas o largas, haz clic en Editar para ajustarlas.
1
You know, I've been struggling recently with my Arabic
2
and I'm going to talk a bit about that
3
and why I've come to the realization that in order to become fluent in a language, you have to change your focus.
4
I've done this in the past.
5
I'm going to do it in Arabic and I'll explain to you what I mean.
6
So we all know, or I've said before, that when we start in a new language, there is that initial period of achievement, triumph.
7
We're learning something new, which is always stimulating for the brain.
8
We all of a sudden understand certain things.
9
There's a lot of high -frequency vocabulary.
10
So we're kind of climbing a steep hill, but we're getting that sense of getting somewhere.
11
And then we realize that actually it's a long, long road.
12
There are a lot of words to learn, a lot of low -frequency words to learn.
13
It takes a long time for the brain to get used to a new language, even if we understand certain rules of grammar
14
or we understand in theory how the new writing system works
15
it takes a long time for the brain to get used to these things so with my Arabic,
16
unlike say Persian where I had a lot of interesting content some of it prepared by our tutor at LingQ, Sahra on the history of Iran
17
and different aspects of the culture of Iran with Arabic I've
18
kind of bounced around from standard Arabic to Egyptian Arabic to Levantine Arabic,
19
and I haven't been able to find that same kind of interesting content that I had for Persian, for whatever reason.
20
And now I was helped by my tutor Sahra, who not only created good content, but found stimulating podcasts.
21
So when I'm engaged in a podcast on a subject of interest, I'm not aware that I'm learning Persian.
22
I'm just enjoying the podcast.
23
So it turns out
24
that there are four reasons why changing your focus from the
25
language you're learning to some other subject of interest is essential to staying the course and therefore eventually achieving fluency.
26
So point number one, apparently when you engage with a subject of interest, there are all kinds of effects in your brain.
27
It opens the door.
28
There's sort of a dopamine effect which makes you better at learning, better at remembering.
29
It's that reward for discovering things of interest to you that you're intrinsically interested in and you're learning more and more about.
30
Apparently, the brain is better able to focus.
31
So what I've always felt to be the case, that I learn better when I'm focused on a subject of interest,
32
there are lots of neurologic or brain research, cognitive science research, which supports that premise.
33
Now, the second reason why it's important to change focus
34
and to focus on a subject of interest is not based on cognitive science or, you know, brain research.
35
It's the fact that if I have a subject of interest, if I have, say, a podcast on history, I'm interested in getting to the next episode.
36
It's something that attracts me back to the language.
37
I'm not just fighting to improve in the language.
38
My focus is not how quickly can I learn this language?
39
Am I learning?
40
The focus is rather, you know, on something else beside the language.
41
And it attracts me back.
42
Again, this is recognized.
43
There is a teaching practice called CLIL, Content and Language Integrated Learning.
44
So this is something that happens in the classroom, where in some universities, people study a subject.
45
Say, if you're at school in English, you'll be learning some of your material in the language that you're trying to learn.
46
It's kind of similar to French immersion in Canadian schools or elsewhere.
47
The difficulty with this is that very often it's used to favor learning English.
48
So kind of, in a way, reinforces the sense that English is the only language worth learning.
49
And second of all, of course, it's in a classroom.
50
And to some extent, you know, if you're doing your chemistry in a language that's not your native language, you may, in fact, have trouble learning that subject.
51
So to that extent, CLIL in schools, to my mind, is less obviously a win than if you're doing it based on your own interests.
52
So I don't care if I'm doing the history of the Levant in Arabic and missing some things, because it's that sense of discovering things,
53
however imperfectly, in the language that I'm learning that matters to me, not whether I learn it as well as I might have learned it in English.
54
And nothing prevents me from, you know, increasing my knowledge by adding to my reading in English.
55
But while I'm engaged in the language that I'm learning, in this case, the Arabic, I am in the zone, so to speak.
56
And that's the third point.
57
If I'm engaging with something of interest to me, I'm less impatient.
58
I'm not questioning myself.
59
Am I learning right now?
60
Am I improving in my Arabic as I sit here and I save words or I listen or I read?
61
It's almost as if...
62
The language I'm learning, and I mentioned this with regard to Montaigne, it's like a companion.
63
I'm not out there to master the language, to defeat the language, to become perfect in the language.
64
The language is kind of my companion as I discover other things that are of interest to me.
65
And that increases my ability to stay persistent and patient in my learning
66
and therefore to stay the course until I achieve a level of fluency.
67
It also turns out that if you are learning something of interest, you have a reduced stress level.
68
Apparently, there's cortisol in the brain, which is a sort of an indicator of stress.
69
And if you can reduce that, you know, production of that stress, which is a resistance to learning, then you will learn more efficiently.
70
And finally, point number four, which I have experienced, is if you are focusing on a subject of interest,
71
which in my case might be history or for a while it was evolution in my Persian podcast.
72
If you stay with the same subject for a while, a number of things happen that are very beneficial for language learning.
73
First of all, you become increasingly familiar with that subject and comprehension is based on two things, vocabulary and familiarity with the subject.
74
So if you stay with the same subject, you become increasingly familiar with that subject.
75
You understand more and more there are more things that you know
76
and therefore you notice more new things
77
that add to your knowledge of the subject
78
but also to your knowledge of the language
79
and second of all of course if you're staying with the same subject
80
or a limited range of subject matter you know a lot
81
of the same low frequency vocabulary is going to appear more often than
82
if you had a scattered approach
83
so in other words you will increase your ability to learn low frequency vocabulary
84
so that's another good reason to stay with a subject of interest,
85
to move your focus from learning the language to learning a subject of interest.
86
So it becomes less stressful.
87
It approximates what a famous Hungarian, I believe, educator talked about as the,
88
the flow, that zone where you are engaged with something that you know is,
89
is difficult, but you're so interested in it that it feels less stressful,
90
less pressure, you're not aware of the fact that you are learning.
91
And so if I look at my current situation with Arabic, where I kind of bounce back and forth between going at the mini stories again,
92
which is beneficial because I'm hearing the same material over and over again.
93
I'm reinforcing my knowledge of some of the basics of the language, which is a good thing to do from time to time.
94
But by the third or fourth mini story that I've done before, Or my interest declines.
95
So when you are less motivated, you learn less.
96
So then I go from the sort of repeated listening to many stories to difficult content on, for example, MTV Lebanon.
97
It's difficult and yet I can make it easier for myself by using sentence mode and all these other things.
98
But intrinsically, I have a limited amount of interest in the political parties in Lebanon, for example.
99
If I had similar content on the history of the Levant, you know, from the Phoenicians, the Syrians, the Roman Empire,
100
the Ottoman Empire, all the stuff that I find fascinating, then I would learn faster.
101
So fortunately, I have now engaged with a new tutor who is promising
102
that he will put together some of his ideas on the Levant, the cities in Levant, the histories in the Levant, all of that in Levant in Arabic.
103
And he may also help me find some podcasts on similar subjects
104
so that I can start to build up the same kind of wealth of material
105
that helped me in my Persian learning and even my Turkish learning
106
and make that available now as I struggle to improve in my Levantine Arabic or Arabic learning.
107
I'll still do a bit of standard Arabic, and so by changing my focus from learning the language itself to learning about a specific subject,
108
which in this case is going to be the history of the Arabic world, and more specifically the history of, call it, you know, the Levant.
109
So just thought I would update you on where I stand in my Arabic learning
110
and suggest to you
111
that you might benefit from changing your focus from learning the language to developing an interest
112
that can keep you going for the long haul.
113
Thank you for listening.
114
Bye for now.
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
B21
Apprendre une langue, c’est s’y habituer
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
C1Task-Based Language Learning
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
C14
Do This if You Understand But Can't Speak
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
How To Improve Your Listening Skills
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B24
How To Improve Your Reading Comprehension
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B25
The Key to Improved Listening Comprehension
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
C11
Can we learn to sound native in another language?
University StudentsWorking Adults
B22
Learn any language with point-of-view stories
Travel EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B26
Chunking: the secret to fluency?
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
C1Why reading is the KILLER APP for language learning
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
7 tips for staying motivated when learning a language
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C11
My Method for Learning Languages from Scratch
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B2Should you learn low-frequency words? My approach as a polyglot
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B27 reasons to listen before you read
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C1Want to learn faster? Reduce cognitive load
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B1My Top 7 Tips For Improving Your Listening Skills
Daily ConversationHigh School StudentsUniversity Students
FOR YOU
Recomendar Video
B21
383 oraciones
15-minute (B2 Level) English Listening Practice || B2 Level English Podcast for Fluency
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
104 oraciones
Why I Quit Learning Languages
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
106 oraciones
Why Some People Become Fluent — and Others Stay Stuck
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B22
145 oraciones
How to think in English and stop translating in your head
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
127 oraciones
How I only study Arabic 10 minutes a day.
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
216 oraciones
How to Love Learning a Language (and Progress Faster)
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B22
270 oraciones
Hobbies That Make You Smarter AND More Attractive
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B26
234 oraciones
Steve Kaufman | Meeting and Chatting in Osaka
American AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
74 oraciones
All Ears English Podcast 04 Deep Thoughts Thursday Inspiration to Keep Learning
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
B21
164 oraciones
The language learning system I wish I knew years ago!
Daily ConversationWorking Adults
¿Qué aprenderás en esta lección?
En esta práctica, explorarás una estrategia clave para mejorar tu fluidez en inglés: centrarte en temas que te interesen en lugar de enfocarte exclusivamente en la lengua. Aprenderás a combinar el aprendizaje de contenido con el desarrollo de habilidades lingüísticas, lo que te ayudará a mantener la motivación y avanzar de manera más efectiva. Ideal para quienes buscan mejorar su speaking, ya sea para el IELTS o para comunicarse con confianza.
Vocabulario y frases clave
- Fluency: Fluidez (la capacidad de hablar sin pausas excesivas).
- Intrinsic interest: Interés intrínseco (motivación que viene de dentro, por el placer del tema).
- CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning): Enseñanza integrada de contenido y lengua (método que combina el aprendizaje de materias con el de un idioma).
- Dopamine effect: Efecto de la dopamina (reacción cerebral que mejora la memoria y el enfoque).
- Stay the course: Mantener el rumbo (persistir a pesar de las dificultades).
Consejos de práctica: Técnica de shadowing
La técnica de shadowing es perfecta para este video, ya que su tono es conversacional y su velocidad es moderada. Sigue estos pasos: 1. Escucha un fragmento corto (10-15 segundos) y repítelo inmediatamente, imitando la pronunciación, la entonación y el ritmo. 2. Presta atención a frases como "change your focus" o "stay the course" para practicar la conexión de palabras. 3. Usa una app de shadowing o un sitio de shadowing para grabarte y compararte con el original: esto te ayudará a identificar áreas para mejorar. Recuerda que el objetivo no es ser perfecto, sino acercarte a la naturalidad del inglés. Si lo haces diariamente, notarás cómo mejora la pronunciación en inglés y tu confianza para el speaking, incluso para exámenes como el IELTS. ¡Sigue adelante, cada repetición te acerca más a la fluidez!
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 come · I've done · I've said |
| Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hace | was helped · is not based · is recognized |
| Oraciones de relativo who / which + oración — información extra sobre una persona o cosa | new, which is · effect which makes · brain, which is |
¿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.