Pratique du Shadowing: how to do critical literary analysis | English made simple - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

Choisissez un mode d'entraînement

Chaque mode ouvre une salle d'entraînement en plein écran.

113 phrases

Si les phrases sont trop courtes ou trop longues, cliquez sur Edit pour les ajuster.

We study poems, plays, and books in English class, but strangely if you really think about it, we never actually learn how to analyze literature.

Rather, we were expected to pick it up along the way.

This, however, is unfortunately easier said than done, and as a result, we're just left with the too vague

or go deeper comments on our essays without actually knowing how to improve.

Today we're going to change that.

Here is my five -step critical literary analysis guide

that I developed over the course of my high school career

that got me an A -star in IGCSE English and A7 in IB English HL.

It honestly made my life so much easier

because it meant I could spend the minimum amount of time worrying about English exams

and spend more time on things like my university applications.

If you want to improve your English grades, watch this.

There is just one thing you need for this critical literary analysis framework, your text.

The steps will be simple, but you have to follow them exactly.

They're also all linked together with the fifth step being the most important

because that's what's actually going to make your analysis precise and deep.

In order to demonstrate these steps in real time, I'll be using one of my favorite poems, A .E.

Hausmann's Because I Loved You Better, as an example.

But this method works on both a large scale, so on a whole poem or a book, and small scale, so on individual sentences and quotes.

If you want to know how you can use this method to analyze a full book,

make sure to check it out on my free Patreon linked down below.

Step one, summarize what is actually happening.

The first step is to summarize exactly what is happening.

Don't worry about literary meaning or devices or anything like that at this stage.

Focus on just the plot, as if you're trying to give a factual report.

And this doesn't have to be very long either, you just have to make sure that you understand fully the sequence of events.

If you want to, you can write this out to practice the first few times, but afterwards you can just do it in your head.

For example, the poem that we're going to discuss, Because I'd Like To Better, tells the story of a man,

our speaker, who has just confessed to his lover that he likes them, probably more than a man should, in his words.

Basically, he's confessed that his feelings are stronger than he would like to admit to himself.

Unfortunately, the other person does not reciprocate his feelings and has asked our speaker to forget him entirely, which our speaker promises to do.

In the third stanza, the scene cuts to a tomb.

It is of our speaker.

He has died trying to keep his promise, and he asks his lover to stop by his headstone

and know that he has died trying to keep his word to him.

Step two, generalize it to a wider human experience.

Right now, what is happening in this work is limited to our speaker.

So why are we affected by it?

Why do we care about the fiction at all when they are all stories about other people?

But because they talk about the general human condition, experiences the majority of us will go through at least once in our life.

That's why we relate to fiction, to songs, to movies, and so on.

So once you've established the plotline of the work, it's time to extrapolate from it the general human condition that it is describing.

In the case of our poem, for example, it talks about three main universal experiences.

First, loving somebody, having a crush, but then having your feelings rejected by the other person.

A devastating experience for everybody.

Sometimes it hurts so much that it feels like you're dying.

Second, still loving your crush, for lack of a better term, even after the rejection.

In this poem, for instance, the speaker still feels very much in love with this you figure, even after his metaphorical death.

And third, and this is a slightly more nuanced experience, but feeling like you ought not to love someone, not being able to help it,

but also not being able to quite admit it even to yourself.

That is why perhaps the speaker says that he likes his lover, even though his actions clearly point to a deep love for this other person.

And if you know the authorial and historical context of this poem,

you'll understand why the poet and the speaker is not in a position where he can freely admit to his feelings,

and he probably also has a layer of internalized homophobia

that is stopping himself from being able to accept it even to himself.

If you're interested for more on this check out my free Patreon where I explain more on this poem as well.

Step three, name the emotions.

Next we have to describe what we're actually feeling from this work.

I know this slightly sounds like some strange group therapy session

but one key part of literary analysis is being able to explicitly describe exactly what this is making us feel.

That is also why reading makes us more emotionally mature people

because we're able to exactly understand and name what we were feeling.

So first, put an emotion to the work.

For instance, in Because I Like You Better, the big feeling here is sadness.

Step four, be a bit more specific.

As you can probably tell though, sadness alone is not nearly satisfactory enough to describe all of the nuanced feelings going on in this poem.

And there is definitely more than one feeling going on here too.

So the next step is to be more specific with the emotions and how we describe these emotions.

Let's apply this back to our case study, our poem.

We know that the speaker feels sad, but he's also feeling many smaller emotions under this sadness umbrella.

So essentially we're trying to splice this larger emotion into all of its smaller and more intricate parts.

First we have his resigned acceptance that his lover does not love him back.

Next we have the speaker's yearning and a deep love for his lover, hoping that his lover will still remember him even after his metaphorical death.

There's also a degree of self -blame.

This is why as we mentioned before he uses like instead of love

and why he says all this was because he liked his lover.

Blaming his own emotions and affection for this other person for all of the sadness and not the other person.

We can also see that the speaker is feeling ignored because his emotions, which for him was life -endingly deep,

was nothing but annoying or irksome to his lover.

That is why he uses the word irksome.

There's also the sense of not belonging because his feelings, which are natural and uncontrollable as we all know, are not accepted by society.

Hence why he says that his feelings are more than suits a man to say.

Presumably because society has historically told men that they have to be stoic and restrained in their emotions.

Step 5.

Why this?

And this is the key difference between a B and an A star answer.

Finally, we have the most important step.

This is the one step that everyone misses in their literary analysis, and why your analysis might sound vague or not deep enough.

The last step is to explain exactly why the author chose these words to express themselves,

and all of these smaller emotions that we were able to identify in our previous step.

For example, for this poem, let's say that you want to analyze the quote, throw the thought away.

A B -level answer, or a 5 -6 level answer if you're doing the IB, might say the poet uses the metaphor to say

that the speaker will throw the thought away to show how much he wanted to get rid of his thoughts.

However, that analysis is still just explaining the plot of what is happening in those words, that the speaker wants to throw away the thought.

It does not explain why Hausman chose the verbs throw or the word thought.

We have to fully explain this if we were to make it a top -level answer.

For example, we might analyze the word throw like this.

The speaker promises to throw his thought away as though it were nothing more than an irksome piece of trash

and not as devastatingly deep feelings for his lover.

100

So linking the word throwaway, which is commonly used for trash,

101

and how much the speaker of the poem is feeling like his emotions are literally being treated like trash.

102

Likewise, we might analyze Hausmann's specific choice of the word thought like this.

103

Furthermore, Hausmann describes the speaker's uncontrollable feelings and emotions as a thought, as though it was a conscious thing the speaker could control,

104

and therefore just stop thinking about.

105

Pay close attention to the difference between the first answer,

106

which only explains the effects of the word and the plot of what is happening in that line, and the other two answers,

107

which specifically comments on why these words were intentionally chosen by Hausmann and the effect that those words have on the reader.

108

So this is the simple five -step guide to critical literary analysis.

109

As you can see, the steps themselves are extremely simple, but it can be tricky to execute them accurately.

110

But actually being able to follow them explicitly is the difference between a vague and a deep understanding of the literary text.

111

And that is why I've posted another full example analysis, this time for a whole book, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, for free on my Patreon,

112

where as you know I post all of my study resources for free.

113

Thank you so much for watching and bye!

Télécharger l'application

Tout pour parler couramment

Prononciation IAChaque phrase notée

Phonétique (IPA)Maîtrisez chaque son

VocabulaireEnrichissez votre lexique

Jeu de vocabulaireApprenez en jouant

Scanner le QR

Download on theApp Store Get it onGoogle Play

Même chaîne

how to make notes like an Oxford student | learn everything

Business EnglishInterview EnglishUniversity Students

FOR YOU

Vidéo recommandée

176 phrases

How to Create a Character with Samuel L. Jackson | Discover MasterClass | MasterClass

Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

150 phrases

How to Think in English (Stop Translating in Your Head)

Business EnglishDaily ConversationHigh School Students

685 phrases

Be a Topper in Everything 🔥 || Learn English Through Motivation 🔥 || Level 3 English ✅

Daily ConversationHigh School Students

39 phrases

English shadowing | Learning from Criticism | Level A2 | How to improve English

Business EnglishTeensDaily Conversation

234 phrases

How to Tell a Story in English - Using Past Tense

Cambridge Exam PrepInterview EnglishDaily Conversation

336 phrases

Things to Know Before Reading Pride and Prejudice | How to Read Jane Austen for Beginners

Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

Vocabulaire et conseils d’expression pour cette leçon

Cette leçon d’expression orale s’appuie sur la vidéo « how to do critical literary analysis ». Les mots qui reviennent le plus souvent : step, feeling, speaker, emotion, poem. Cette vidéo contient 113 phrases et 1684 mots à répéter en shadowing. La partie parlée dure 7:39. Le locuteur parle vite, environ 220 mots par minute : attendez-vous à des liaisons et à des sons réduits. 87 % des mots font partie des 3 000 mots les plus courants en anglais, le vocabulaire est donc facile à suivre.

Vocabulaire clé de cette vidéo

15 mots de la vidéo à retenir, avec leur prononciation et leur sens :

Mot	Prononciation	Sens
poem nom	/ˈpoʊ.əm/	poème
emotion nom	/ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/	émotion
lover nom	/ˈlʌvɚ/	amoureux, amoureuse
literary adjectif	/ˈlɪt.(ə.)ɹə.ɹi/	littéraire
analyze verbe	/ˈæn.əˌlaɪz/	analyser
sadness nom	/ˈsædnəs/	tristesse
trash nom	/tɹæʃ/	déchet
vague adjectif	/veɪɡ/	vague
fiction nom	/ˈfɪkʃən/	fiction, belles-lettres
poet nom	/ˈpoʊ.ət/	poète, poétesse
crush verbe	/kɹʌʃ/	écraser, écrabouiller
explicitly adverbe		explicitement
confess verbe	/kənˈfɛs/	avouer, confesser
universal adjectif	/ˌjunəˈvɜɹs(ə)l/	universel
ignore verbe	/ɪɡˈnɔː/	ignorer, ne pas prêter attention à

Les verbes à particule que vous entendrez

Mot	Sens
check out verbe	mater, regarder
throw away verbe	rejeter, jeter

La grammaire de cette vidéo

Les structures que le locuteur utilise le plus, avec les mots exacts de la vidéo :

Structure	Dans la vidéo
Present perfect have/has + participe passé — une action passée qui compte encore maintenant	has just confessed · has asked · you've established
Voix passive be + participe passé — l’accent est mis sur ce qui arrive, pas sur qui le fait	were expected · are not accepted · being treated
Propositions relatives who / which + proposition — une précision sur une personne ou une chose	feelings, which are · throwaway, which is

Prononciation à surveiller

Le locuteur utilise 18 contractions et formes réduites, comme we're, you're, doesn't. Prononcez-les sous leur forme courte, telles que vous les entendez.

Les sons « sh » et « zh »: emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, trash /tɹæʃ/, fiction /ˈfɪkʃən/, crush /kɹʌʃ/, establish /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/
Mots longs — placez bien l’accent: literary /ˈlɪt.(ə.)ɹə.ɹi/, universal /ˌjunəˈvɜɹs(ə)l/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, historically /hɪˈstɔɹɪkli/, presumably /pɹɪˈzuːməbli/

Les sons difficiles pour les francophones :

/h/ — il se souffle, il n’est pas muet: hence /ˈhɛns/, historically /hɪˈstɔɹɪkli/, headstone /ˈhɛdstoʊn/, homophobia /ˌhoʊ.məˈfoʊ.bi.ə/
/tʃ/ et /dʒ/ — à ne pas adoucir en « ch » et « j »: mature /məˈt͡ʃʊ(ə)ɹ/, rejection /ɹɪˈd͡ʒɛkʃən/, strangely /ˈstɹeɪnd͡ʒli/, factual /ˈfæk.tʃ(u)əl/, generalize /ˈd͡ʒɛn.(ə.)ɹə.laɪz/
/r/ anglais — langue recourbée, sans frotter la gorge: literary /ˈlɪt.(ə.)ɹə.ɹi/, trash /tɹæʃ/, crush /kɹʌʃ/, universal /ˌjunəˈvɜɹs(ə)l/, resource /ɹɪˈzɔːs/

Comment s’entraîner avec cette vidéo

Écoutez la vidéo en entier une fois sans parler et notez les mots que vous ne connaissez pas.
Commencez à la vitesse 0,75×, répétez phrase par phrase, puis revenez à la vitesse normale quand cela devient facile.
Enregistrez-vous et comparez avec l’original, en faisant attention à des mots comme poem, emotion, lover.

Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?

Le Shadowing est une technique d'apprentissage des langues fondée sur la science, développée à l'origine pour la formation des interprètes professionnels. Le principe est simple mais puissant : vous écoutez de l'anglais natif et le répétez immédiatement à voix haute — comme une ombre suivant le locuteur avec un décalage de 1 à 2 secondes. Les recherches montrent une amélioration significative de la précision de la prononciation, de l'intonation, du rythme, des liaisons, de la compréhension orale et de la fluidité.

Technique du shadowing : lire le guide complet étape par étape →