Pratica di Shadowing: 3 grammar rules that you don’t need to follow anymore - Arika Okrent - Impara a parlare inglese con YouTube

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In 1954, Winston Cigarettes launched an ad so controversial, broadcasters refused to say it on the air.
⏸ In Pausa
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In 1954, Winston Cigarettes launched an ad so controversial, broadcasters refused to say it on the air.
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But the uproar had nothing to do with the dangerous product being advertised.
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People were appalled by the ad's grammar, specifically using like as a conjunction instead of as.
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Grammatical incidents like this have caused outrage in various regions and languages for centuries.
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But while we know people take grammar seriously, what's less clear is why.
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Where do these seemingly random rules come from, and which, if any, actually matter?
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The answers to these questions vary from rule to rule.
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So let's look at three particularly famous English examples.
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First up, the idea that you should never end a sentence with a preposition.
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Prepositions are small, common words like with, on, for, or to that often come before nouns.
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So, for example, a grammar stickler would consider, where does this rule come from,
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incorrect, preferring instead, from where does this rule come?
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This rule comes from 18th century England, when etiquette was all the rage.
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And amidst countless guides on how to act properly, grammarians flooded the market with books on how to speak properly.
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Many of the rules in these guides were taken from Latin, a language that was commonly used for written scholarship.
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But no one had spoken Latin conversationally in 1,000 years, and imposing its rules on speech was awkward, to say the least.
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The rule to never strand a preposition without a noun was one such revived relic.
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And while the scholars who proposed it presented the idea as a stylistic choice, subsequent writers turned their suggestion into a hard rule.
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Other rules have origins that are perhaps less arbitrary, but significantly more petty.
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Consider the idea that you should use fewer when referring to countable nouns,
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like water models, and less when referring to nouns we don't count, like water.
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This rule comes from another 18th-century grammarian called Robert Baker,
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who, for reasons unknown, believed less was inelegant when used with countable nouns.
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This might seem strange, but people today wage similar wars on so-called lesser language, such as like or literally.
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Besides, Baker's preference was part of a larger craze for codifying English.
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For centuries after the Norman conquest in 1066, French was the language of nobility in England, while English was seen as the language of commoners.
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While the English had long reclaimed their kingdom by Baker's time, this insecurity lingered in the hearts of many English grammarians.
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In fact, Baker also wanted King George to establish an Academy of Letters, with 50 officials to protect the English language.
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That's 10 more officials than were employed in France's grammar guard, l'Académie Française.
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Many English grammar rules have similarly silly origins, such as efforts to distinguish over from more than,
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or our attachment to Latin plurals like fungi and formulae.
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The stakes of all these grammatical debates are mostly academic.
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But one frequently discussed rule does have some real-world consequences.
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For centuries, they has been used in classic literature and everyday speech as both a plural and a singular pronoun.
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And today, many non-binary and transgender individuals prefer to use they-them as singular pronouns to refer to themselves.
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Nineteenth-century grammarians, however, believed that they should be an exclusively plural pronoun.
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Furthermore, in cases where they could be used as a singular pronoun, they argued the word should be swapped for the generic he.
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This was an obviously patriarchal decision,
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and during the 1970s, activists eventually convinced some usage guides to begin using he or she.
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But today, this quibble continues to cause confusion.
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Even though most official grammar guides have accepted they as both a singular and plural pronoun.
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This isn't the first time we've had this kind of pronoun predicament.
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For centuries, you was also considered an exclusively plural pronoun.
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And yet today, it's completely accepted in singular situations.
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And that's because grammar isn't a hard science.
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something we all build together to reflect the people using it.
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So however strange a rule's origins may be, the usage we choose to respect today is far from arbitrary.
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If you love learning, subscribe to our channel.
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Every week, we publish new videos on everything from the history of the world according to cats to how to be a better listener.
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Stay tuned and stay curious.
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Bye.

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Contesto e Sfondo

La grammatica inglese ha sempre suscitato dibattiti intensi, e spesso le regole che ci vengono insegnate sembrano prive di fondamento logico. Nel video di Arika Okrent, vengono esplorati alcuni di questi miti grammaticali, analizzando la loro origine storica e sociale. Molte di queste regole, nate in epoche passate, riflettono la cultura e i valori dell'epoca, piuttosto che la funzionalità della lingua moderna. Questo può risultare utile per chi vuole imparare l'inglese con YouTube, poiché ci invita a mettere in discussione le norme rigide di una lingua in continua evoluzione.

Top 5 Frasi per la Comunicazione Quotidiana

  • Where does this rule come from? - Dove viene questa regola?
  • From where does this rule come? - Da dove viene questa regola?
  • I prefer to use “fewer” with countable nouns. - Preferisco usare “fewer” con i nomi contabili.
  • They prefer to use “they/them” as singular pronouns. - Preferiscono usare “they/them” come pronomi singolari.
  • You was considered an exclusively plural pronoun. - “You” era considerato un pronome esclusivamente plurale.

Guida Passo-Passo al Shadowing

Se desideri migliorare le tue capacità di conversazione, il shadowspeak è una tecnica eccellente. Ecco come affrontare le difficoltà presentate nel video:

  1. Ascolta attentamente: Guarda il video senza sottotitoli almeno una volta. Concentrati su come l'oratrice pronuncia le parole e sulle espressioni che usa.
  2. Rivedi le frasi chiave: Ritorna alle frasi proposte nella sezione precedente e prova a ripeterle ad alta voce. Focalizzati sulla pronuncia e sul ritmo.
  3. Utilizza un shadowing site: Trova risorse online che offrono la possibilità di praticare la tecnica di shadowing. Cerca frasi con assistenza audio per avere un feedback immediato.
  4. Registra te stesso: Dopo aver praticato un paio di volte, registrati mentre ripeti le frasi. Ascolta la registrazione per notare aree in cui puoi migliorare.
  5. Pratica la conversazione in inglese: Trova un partner linguistico o un gruppo di pratica. Usa frasi apprese dal video per stimolare conversazioni più fluide.

Utilizzando queste tecniche e risorse, il tuo percorso per pratica di conversazione in inglese diventerà più efficace e coinvolgente. Non dimenticare che la grammatica è in continua evoluzione e adattarsi a questi cambiamenti può renderti un comunicatore più competente!

Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?

Shadowing è una tecnica di apprendimento delle lingue supportata da studi scientifici, originariamente sviluppata per la formazione dei traduttori professionisti e resa popolare dal poliglotta Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Il metodo è semplice ma potente: ascolti un audio in inglese di madrelingua e lo ripeti immediatamente ad alta voce — come un'ombra che segue il parlante con un ritardo di solo 1–2 secondi. A differenza dell'ascolto passivo o degli esercizi di grammatica, lo shadowing costringe il tuo cervello e i muscoli della bocca a elaborare e riprodurre simultaneamente i modelli di discorso reale. La ricerca dimostra che migliora significativamente la precisione della pronuncia, l'intonazione, il ritmo, il discorso connesso, la comprensione dell'ascolto e la fluidità del parlato — rendendolo uno dei metodi più efficaci per la preparazione alla prova di speaking dell'IELTS e per la comunicazione reale in inglese.

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