Shadowing Practice: Advanced English Listening Practice | Can You Really Multitask? (C1–C2 British Podcast) - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hello there, everyone, and welcome back to the GSL English podcast.

My name is Gideon, and this is a podcast for all learners of English to practice

and improve in a relaxed and natural way.

And in this episode, we are going to talk about multitasking. Is multitasking actually real?

Is it something that us humans can actually do?

Because often there's a debate, isn't there, between perhaps friends and family members,

you know, do we individually have the ability to multitask?

Now, my wife would tell me that I don't.

I don't have the ability to multitask.

And we were actually in a jokingly way talking about this the other day.

And then it got me thinking, particularly with the podcast in mind.

And is it something that any of us can do?

Is there actually a skill that is called multitasking that would fall within that bracket?

So once I started to do some research into it, I kind of found out that this is a really interesting question that many scientists,

psychologists have looked into.

Is there such a thing as multitasking?

And then I kind of thought, well, if there is or if there isn't, does it apply to learning and improving our English?

For example, if you're listening to this podcast or any podcast or got an English TV program on in the background,

can you get as much from that whilst still scrolling on your phone?

If you're doing two things at once, do you still get as much of the benefits as if that particular activity had your full attention?

And the answer is actually really interesting.

Now I wanted to start with a question, actually a little task for you to do.

OK, so you don't need any pen.

You don't need any paper.

But if you really want to do this, I need you to speak out loud.

OK, and bear with me, don't switch off the episode yet.

There's a reason that I'm going to ask you to do this.

All right.

I want you to count from one to ten in English as quickly as you can.

OK, count from one to ten in English as quickly as you can.

Go.

OK, maybe you did it.

Would you say that was easy?

It is.

Yeah, we would all say that counting to one to ten in English.

If you listen to this podcast, that is not a difficult task.

Now, I'd like you to say the first ten letters of the alphabet again in English.

So that is A to J.

Off you go.

OK, there you go.

So one to ten and then from A to J in English.

Well done.

Now, again, if I asked you, was that challenging?

Were either of those challenging tasks?

You would most certainly say, no, that was easy.

That's basic.

Come on, give me something more challenging.

Now.

This time I want you to do both, but you're going to alternate between them.

So 1A, 2B, 3C, all the way up to 10.

And I want you to do that as fast as you can.

Okay, so go.

Now, how did that feel?

You might have done it.

And the reality is I tried doing this and I struggled a little bit.

And I think unless you've practiced or prepared for that particular task.

I'm going to guess that it was considerably more difficult than doing those tasks individually.

Maybe you lost your place.

Maybe you even had to start again or you didn't finish the task.

But that's what's strange about that, you know, multitasking or blending those tasks together because you haven't forgotten how to count.

You hadn't forgotten the alphabet separately.

Those tasks were ridiculously easy.

But as soon as you had to keep moving between them, something changed.

And that really brings us to the question, does multitasking actually exist?

And if so, what is it?

Are some of us better at it than others?

So that's the idea of today's episode.

And as we go through, of course, we're going to think about the English language, how we can improve.

And if you are new here, if this is the first podcast of mine that you've listened to, then as I said at the intro, my name is Gideon.

I'm an English teacher from Kent, just outside of London.

And I post episodes every Sunday to really just present the English language to you in a real, natural and authentic way.

So give it a subscribe if you like it and introduce yourself in the comments.

And I do always recommend, you know, of course, we want to improve our English with this podcast, but I really just want you to relax and enjoy it.

So if you can get comfortable, grab yourself a cup of tea if you're watching or take a break from work, if you're listening and if you're on the commute to work,

you know, just unwind with me as we enjoy the English language together.

So let's get into this.

Does multitasking exist?

Now, think about everything you might do simultaneously during an ordinary day.

Simultaneously means at the same time.

So, for example, perhaps you reply to messages whilst you're watching television.

You eat breakfast while reading the news.

You listen to a podcast while you're driving to work.

You walk while you're having a conversation with a friend.

You might be, for example, working on your computer with 15 tabs open, your phone beside you, music playing in the background,

all of these different things going on.

Then a message appears.

You check it, reply, go back to work.

Another notification appears.

You check it and eventually find yourself staring at your computer thinking.

Well, what was I doing?

We call all of this multitasking.

And it's fair to say that some people are rather proud of their ability to do it.

And you might have even said this yourself.

You know, I'm good at multitasking.

Yeah, I'm a great multitasker.

But I'm going to really present the question to you.

Are you actually?

Are you really good at multitasking?

And I think the answer might be a little bit different than just, yes, I'm very good at it.

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So today we're really going to investigate what happens inside your brain when you're doing several things at once.

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So, of course, as always,

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we're going to look into the research and we're going to ask some questions. To really identify.

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Are we multitasking or is something else happening?

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Okay, so that's the idea of this episode.

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And we're also going to see how, of course, this applies to the English language.

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So before we get into it, just three words that we might use,

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three bits of vocabulary that we can use when talking about this particular topic.

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The first one is to juggle.

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Of course, you'll see it on the screen here if you're watching along with me now.

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Literally, to juggle means to throw several objects in the air and you repeatedly catch them.

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I've always been rubbish at juggling.

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Tried to get into it a little while ago, a little while ago when I was a teenager, a long time ago.

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Didn't have the dexterity for it.

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You might see a clown doing it at a circus, but we're not using it in that context.

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We're thinking about that word juggle metaphorically.

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If you juggle several things or you're juggling several things, you're trying to deal with several responsibilities or activities at the same time.

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For example, I'm trying to juggle a full time job, studying English and looking after two children, for example.

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Or she's very good at juggling several projects at once.

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So perhaps, you know, at the moment you're currently juggling work, family life, learning English and a hundred other things.

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It's like you're throwing all of those aspects of your life up in the air

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and at the same time trying to catch them.

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So they're good term to use if you've got different tasks at work.

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You know, I'm juggling several tasks at the moment.

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Secondly, to get sidetracked, to get sidetracked.

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Now, if you get sidetracked, something distracts you from what you originally intended to do.

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So imagine that you pick up your phone because you want to check tomorrow's weather, for example, and as you do that,

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you see a message, you reply to it.

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Then you open Instagram, then someone sends you a video.

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20 minutes later, you're watching a man in Australia rescue a kangaroo from a swimming pool.

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And suddenly you think, why did I pick up my phone in the first place?

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You've been sidetracked.

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And lastly, to lose your train of thought.

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Your train of thought is the sequence of ideas going through your mind.

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So if you lose your train of thought, you suddenly forget what you were thinking or saying.

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For example, sorry, I completely lost my train of thought.

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What was I saying?

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This happens to me when, sorry, I just got distracted.

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What was I talking about?

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Losing your train of thought.

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So there you go.

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three expressions to juggle several things, to get sidetracked and to lose train of thought.

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So I want you to keep those somewhere in your brain

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because we're going to come back to them later in the episode.

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So let's get into it.

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Your brain and multitasking.

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So we're going to go through this and in more of a discussion format.

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So please feel free to read along with me as we go through it.

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So imagine you're sitting at your desk trying to write an important email.

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You write the first sentence.

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Your phone vibrates.

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You look at it.

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It's a message from a friend.

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You reply.

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Then you notice another notification.

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You check that too.

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You return to your email and reread the first sentence because you've forgotten exactly what you were going to say.

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then someone asks you a question, you answer, you return to your email, and a few minutes later, you finally finish it.

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You've been busy the whole time, the entire time.

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But have you been multitasking?

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Or have you simply been switching rapidly at a fast pace between different tasks? works.

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Now, the answer is more complicated than you might expect.

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And just at the outset here, I think we can all relate to situations like that, particularly at work.

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You know, you go in on a Monday morning, you think, right, this is what I want to achieve this Monday morning.

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Then someone comes and asks you a question.

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You get another email coming.

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Your phone goes off, you have to ask it.

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So it happens all the time, doesn't it?

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And perhaps you're spending time with the kids and then something else crops up.

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So the question we're asking is, in those situations, are you actually multitasking?

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Does multitasking exist or are you simply switching your attention between different tasks?

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And that's really the thoughts.

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So let's get into it.

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The multitasking brain.

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What's going on in the old noggin?

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When we use the word multitasking, we often imagine the brain performing several independent activities simultaneously,

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almost like a computer running several programs at once.

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That's true, isn't it?

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That's what I had in mind when we thought of multitasking.

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Several independent, so they're not dependent on anything else,

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they are separate activities happening simultaneously at the same time in our brain.

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But many of the activities we describe as multitasking involve something different.

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When two tasks both require conscious attention, so knowing that we're doing it,

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we often have to move our attention backwards and forwards between them.

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Psychologists call this task switching.

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So this is the idea here.

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When we have to go between different tasks that require conscious attention, meaning that we know we're doing it, we're aware we're having to do it, it's not subconscious.

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We're going backwards and forwards between them.

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So this is called task switching and switching has a cost.

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In experiments, researchers give participants simple tasks and compare what happens when they repeat the same task

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with what happens when they have to switch to another one.

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A consistent finding is that immediately after switching tasks,

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people tend to respond more slowly and often make more mistakes.

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This is known as switch cost.

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It may only be a small amount of time on each of individuals switch.

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But imagine switching hundreds of times throughout a working day.

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A message back to work, an email back to work, a notification back to work, another message back to work.

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Each interruption requires you, your brain to work out what am I doing now?

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What information is relevant?

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What rules apply to this task?

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And then when you return to the original activity, your brain has to reestablish what you were doing before.

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Now, this is the really interesting part.

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So we've got this term called task switching rather than multitasking.

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So in experiments, research is often that they've given participants simple tasks like we did at the beginning.

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And they compare what happens when they repeat the same task with what happens when they have to switch to another one.

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So the finding is that immediately, immediately after switching tasks, people respond more slowly.

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They make more mistakes.

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And this is known as a switch cost.

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If there is a cost, there is something we have to pay.

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So switch costs is basically the payment, the trade off for task switching.

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And it may only be a small amount of time on each individual switch.

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But think how many times we switch tasks throughout the day.

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Well, that can add up, can't it?

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Each interruption of that task requires our brain to ask questions, for example, what am I doing?

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So what was I originally doing?

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What information is relevant?

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What rules apply to this task and so on?

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So when we go back to the task, our brain is thinking, right, well, where was I?

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And having to reestablish what was happening before.

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And there's a really interesting experiment in switching.

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OK, here we go.

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In research published in 2001,

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psychologists Joshua Rubinstein and David Mayer and Jeffrey Evans investigated what happens when people alternate between different tasks.

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So that was the study.

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What happens when people alternate or go between different tasks?

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Across four experiments, participants had to switch between activities involving such things as classifying objects and solving mathematical problems.

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The researchers found measurable switching time costs.

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The costs also became larger when the rules of the tasks were more complicated.

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One explanation is that switching isn't simply a matter of pointing your attention in a different direction.

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brain may have to change goals and activates the appropriate rules for the new task.

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Think back, for example, now to the experiment we did at the beginning of this episode.

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So counting from one to ten, that was easy, wasn't it?

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Saying A to J was easy, but 1A, 2B, 3C was considerably harder.

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You knew exactly what you had to do.

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The problem was repeatedly switching between the two sets of rules.

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So there is a cost for task switching.

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And the research, of course, that they put into practice showed that. So is multitasking impossible?

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Now, this is where we need to be careful.

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You may have heard people say the human brain cannot multitask.

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It's quite a catchy statement.

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When we say that something's catchy, you know, we catch it, we go along with it.

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But really, that statement in and of itself, it's just too simple.

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For example, we can walk and talk at the same time.

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You can wash the dishes and listen to music.

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An experienced driver can operate a car, can drive a car while having a conversation.

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So clearly, we can see, you know, humans are capable.

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We have the ability to perform some activities simultaneously.

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But the important question is, what do those activities demand from us?

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Some tasks become highly automatic through practice.

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For example, when you first learn to drive, almost everything requires conscious attention.

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I remember this when I was learning to drive.

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And here in England, you kind of have the 10 to 2 on the steering wheel.

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And he always used to say to me to feed the steering wheel between your hands.

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It took such conscious effort for me to do that.

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Perhaps it was looking in your mirrors, then the clutch down, then the gears.

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What's your speed, the steering, careful of other cars, road signs.

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Everything required my conscious attention.

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and trying to have a complicated conversation at the same time when I was learning to drive, it was impossible.

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Perhaps you can relate to that.

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But years later, how long have I been driving now?

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Nearly 20 years.

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Really, a lot of the physical actions involved in driving, they require much less conscious thought.

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It just happens by nature.

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It's almost instinctive.

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Similarly, For example, walking usually requires very little conscious attention for an able bodied adult.

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You don't normally leave your house.

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You're thinking right foot, left foot, right foot.

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Don't forget the left foot.

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But the difficulty increases when two tasks compete heavily for limited cognitive resources.

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For example, try reading a complicated article,

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a really complicated piece on the news or something you're studying while simultaneously listening carefully to a completely different podcast.

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So imagine that you're reading an article on, let's say, global warming.

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It's a complicated article, even in your native language.

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But in the background, you've got a podcast on war and crime.

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What's going to happen?

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Well, you may technically, you hear the podcast, you see the words on the page.

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Understanding both deeply is another matter.

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You're not multitasking.

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You can have those on.

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You can try to do that activity.

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But as it said, where did it say put it perfectly and you're competing for limited cognitive resources.

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And that's where it gets difficult.

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Our cognitive resources, our brains capability, what it's trying to process.

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Certain activities require a competition between what is available.

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But there's an illusion of productivity.

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And that is that multitasking can feel productive.

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It can feel like we're achieving a lot.

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For example, you answer three messages.

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You check two emails, you open a document, you look something up, you reply to another message.

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Your brain's been so incredibly busy and busyness can feel like productivity.

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But those are not necessarily the same thing.

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Frequent switching, it really fragments the attention.

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Instead of spending 20 uninterrupted minutes solving one difficult problem,

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you might spend 40 minutes repeatedly entering and leaving it.

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And every time you return, you come back to that problem.

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There may be a brief moment of reconstruction.

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You know, where was I?

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What was I trying to do?

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What was my next step?

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Does that sound familiar?

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So are you really multitasking?

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Are you completing those tasks or are you just adding time on?

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To a task that really would have been better, just focused on individually.

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So that asks the question.

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Am I actually good at multitasking?

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Now, perhaps you're listening to all of this thinking, that's everybody else.

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That's not me.

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I'm actually very good at multitasking.

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Now, there's been some intriguing research on precisely this question.

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In a widely discussed 2009 study, Eyal Ofer, Clifford Nass

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and Anthony Wagner compared people who frequently used several forms of media simultaneously with people who did so less often.

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You might expect the heavy media multitaskers to have become particularly good at controlling their attention.

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But the researchers found something surprising.

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The heavy media multitaskers were more vulnerable.

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We're vulnerable.

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We're open to something.

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We're more susceptible to being a victim of something.

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So they were more vulnerable to interference from irrelevant information and performed worse on one test of task switching.

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So you might expect, let's just go back, the heavy media multitaskers to have become really good at controlling their attention.

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But actually it was the opposite.

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And there's an important scientific lesson here.

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One famous study does not settle a question forever, because later, researchers attempted to replicate and combine finding in this area,

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and the overall picture became less clear.

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Some subsequent studies did not reproduce the original relationship between heavy media multitasking and distractibility.

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So it would be misleading, really, to say that science has proved that people who multitask a lot have damaged their attention.

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The evidence really doesn't justify such a simple conclusion.

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We can say much more confidently is that switching between demanding cognitive tasks generally carries a performance cost.

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And that's what matters.

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And there's one big thing that really is the changing factor in this is our phone.

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what we have in our hands, perhaps what you're watching or listening to this podcast on, that changes the whole equation.

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Modern life has created an extraordinary environment for task switching.

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For most of human history, nobody had a device in their pocket capable of interrupting them with so many different things,

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a work email, breaking news.

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In England, And we had a massive alert go off on our phones the other day about the heat.

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A photograph, message from their mum, a video of a dog, the bank balance, the weather, an argument between two complete strangers.

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But we can do all of this within about 30 seconds.

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But the problem isn't the phone itself, is it?

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The problem is that each piece of information we look at offers another possible destination for our attention.

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And once we follow it, we may become sidetracked.

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You open your phone to do one thing and find yourself doing something completely different.

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The other task hasn't disappeared.

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It's sitting there waiting for you to return.

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How many times do you do this on your phone?

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So you go to check the weather.

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What do you find you're doing 10 minutes later?

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Well, you study in Instagram.

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You're going through the reels upon reels or you're back on YouTube.

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So what does all of this mean for learning English?

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Well, imagine two people listening to this podcast.

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Listener A is sitting somewhere quiet.

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Their phone is away.

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They're paying attention to the examples.

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And when they hear an expression they don't quite know, they try to understand it from context.

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They're listening and they notice pronunciation.

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They predict perhaps what I'm going to say next.

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They're actively processing the English.

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Now, listener B is also playing the podcast, but they're scrolling through social media.

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They're reading messages, replying to emails, looking at photographs.

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Occasionally, they realize they haven't heard anything I've said for the past two minutes.

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Now, both people can technically say, I listen to an English podcast for 30 minutes.

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I listen to Gideon on the GSO English podcast.

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But did they have the same learning experience?

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Probably not.

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Language comprehension itself, it is cognitively demanding.

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It requires a lot of our brains.

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When we think about it, you know, you're identifying sounds.

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You're recognizing words, you're interpreting grammar, you're building meaning.

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You're remembering what came earlier.

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What did we talk about?

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Subconsciously, you're predicting what might come next.

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And if you're learning a second language.

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Some of those processes require so much more effort than they would in your first language.

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Adding another demanding task means that your attention has to go somewhere.

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So what does that mean for learning English and this podcast?

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Does it mean that you should only do things in a silent room?

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Where there's no distractions ever?

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Does it mean that if you're listening to this podcast in the background while cooking, there's something wrong?

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No. And this really is the important part of this episode.

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Listening to English while walking,

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cooking, cleaning or traveling, commuting is an excellent way to increase your exposure to the language.

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You're increasing your exposure to English.

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You don't need to sit at a desk staring intensely at my face at a wall every time you listen to English.

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The question you need to ask yourself, what is your goal? And that's what matters.

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If your goal is to simply surround yourself with more English, background listening is fantastic.

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Listening to this podcast in the background whilst doing other things, very useful.

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But if your goal is to understand a difficult C1 or C2 podcast,

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to improve your vocabulary, to notice new expressions and remember detailed information.

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If we're being honest, you might benefit more from giving English more of your attention.

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So therefore, we can really distinguish or make a difference between two kinds of listening.

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We've got exposure and deliberate practice.

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There's no multitasking.

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There's no switching.

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Both have value, but they aren't identical, are they?

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So let's really put this down to one real question.

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Asking, can humans multitask?

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Is it something we have the ability to do?

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That's not really the right question, is it?

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Sometimes we can.

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Sometimes we can't do it particularly well.

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And sometimes what feels like multitasking is actually rapid switching between tasks.

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What's the better question to ask?

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What am I asking my attention to do right now?

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If one activity is automatic and the other requires concentration, they may coexist, work along together perfectly well.

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But when two demanding tasks compete for the same limited attention, the reality is something may have to give.

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You might become slower.

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You might make more mistakes.

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You might remember less or you might simply just lose your train of thought.

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Remember that expression.

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So really, the next time you find yourself, you know, answering an email, checking your phone, listening to a podcast and working on an important project all at once.

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Just think and ask yourself, am I really, in all honesty, doing four things simultaneously?

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Or am I just switching between them so quickly that it feels as though I am?

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So I leave it up to you.

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Do you think multitasking really exists?

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Would you say that you are still a very good multitasker?

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Or do you think you're just switching between tasks?

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Really interesting, isn't it?

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And that point, particularly with learning English.

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You know, listening to the podcast in the background, I encourage it.

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I think it's a fantastic way of gaining exposure to the English language.

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But, you know, ask yourself, what is your goal?

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And do the task that helps you to reach that goal.

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So what have you been doing while listening to this episode? Be honest.

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Whilst you're listening to this episode, have you checked your phone?

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Have you opened another mobile app?

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Are you cooking, walking, driving, cleaning, working?

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There's nothing wrong with any of that at all.

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Okay, nothing wrong with it at all.

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But what is your goal?

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So I would love to know what have you been doing whilst taking in this podcast, whilst absorbing the podcast?

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What have you been doing?

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Have you been listening?

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Have you been taking notes?

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Have you been studying?

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Have you been writing down new words or do you take it in more passively?

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I would be really interested to know the way that you consume this podcast.

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So a little vocabulary test before we conclude.

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Thinking about the three words we said at the beginning of the podcast, I'm going to give you a question.

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What was the word?

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What verb means trying to manage several different responsibilities or activities at the same time?

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For example, I'm trying to work, studying and family life.

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What was the verb? Or to juggle.

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Question two, what phrasal verb means becoming distracted from what you originally intended to do?

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The answer, to get sidetracked.

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I picked up my phone to check the weather and got sidetracked.

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And finally, number three, what expression means suddenly forgetting what you were thinking of saying?

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suddenly forgetting what you think of what you were saying to lose your train of thought.

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And if you didn't get them all, that's absolutely fine.

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In the last episode, we talked about retrieval practice.

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You'll know that if you make mistakes, that's a fantastic way of learning, of just trying to retrieve the English language.

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So here's just a little challenge for you over the next week.

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Choose one podcast episode.

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It doesn't have to be mine, but I prefer it if it was.

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For the first 10 minutes, give it your full attention.

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All right.

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Put your phone somewhere.

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Don't answer messages.

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Don't scroll.

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Don't open another tab.

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I just want you to listen or watch.

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When the 10 minutes are finished, I want you to ask yourself.

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What do I remember?

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Then on another day, try listening to something similar difficulty while also doing another mentally demanding activity.

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Not something dangerous or crazy.

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But try reading messages or browsing something whilst listening.

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Ask yourself the same question.

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What do I remember?

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And see if you notice a difference.

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There's no right or wrong answer.

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But it will really highlight what works for you to reach your goals.

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So there you go.

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I hope you enjoyed this episode today.

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And it's really modern life just gives us constant divisions of our attention, doesn't it?

472

And perhaps I think one thing I've learned about life in

473

this kind of world at the moment is just trying to manage our attention

474

so we can best use our time because goodness knows it goes on other stuff so easily.

475

So there you go.

476

If you got to to this point of the podcast, please write multitask in the comments.

477

Thank you so much for watching.

478

I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments on this episode.

479

So please feel free to share them.

480

Give us a like, give us a follow, give us a subscribe.

481

It really does help out.

482

So thank you so much, guys.

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Have a good one.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 483 sentences and 4996 words to shadow. The speech runs for 36:30. The speaker talks at a steady 137 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
podcast noun	/ˈpɑdˌkæst/	A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on…
simultaneously adverb	/ˌsaɪmlˈteɪnɪəsli/	Occurring at the same time.
whilst adverb	/waɪlst/	Often preceded by the: During the time; meanwhile.
conscious adjective	/ˈkɑn.ʃəs/	Alert, awake; with one's mental faculties active.
complicated adjective	/ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/	Difficult or convoluted.
experiment noun	/ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/	A test under controlled conditions made to either demonstrate a known truth, examine the validity of a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of…
exposure noun	/ɪkˈspəʊ.ʒə(ɹ)/	The condition of being exposed, uncovered, or unprotected.
cognitive adjective	/ˈkɑɡ.nɪ.tɪv/	Relating to the part of mental functions that deals with logic, as opposed to affective which deals with emotions.
researcher noun	/ˈɹiˌsɝ.t͡ʃɚ/	One who researches.
compete verb	/kəmˈpiːt/	To be in battle or in a rivalry with another for the same thing, position, or reward; to contend.
repeatedly adverb	/ɹɪˈpiːtɪdli/	Done several times or in repetition.
vulnerable adjective	/ˈvʌln(ə)ɹəbl̩/	More or most likely to be exposed to the chance of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally.
alternate adjective	/ˈɔl.tɚ.nət/	Happening by turns; one following the other in succession of time or place; first one and then the other (repeatedly).
notification noun	/ˌnoʊtɪfɪˈkeɪʃn̩/	The act of notifying.
individually adverb	/ˌɪndɪˈvɪd͡ʒ(u)əli/	As individuals, separately, independently.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
go through verb	To travel from one end of something to the other.
pick up verb	To lift; to grasp and raise.
go back to verb	To stem from; to originate in.
add up verb	To take the sum of; to total.
find out verb	To discover, as by asking or investigating.
go along with verb	To acquiesce to or comply with a proposal, despite lacking a desire or value for it.
go back verb	To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time.
go in on verb	To contribute money for a joint purchase.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	have you been multitasking · have you simply been switching · have I been driving
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have looked · you've practiced · haven't forgotten
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is called · You've been sidetracked · is known
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	people who frequently · people who multitask

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 129 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, we're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: authentic /ɔˈθɛn.tɪk/, mathematical /ˌmæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪ.kəl/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: conscious /ˈkɑn.ʃəs/, exposure /ɪkˈspəʊ.ʒə(ɹ)/, notification /ˌnoʊtɪfɪˈkeɪʃn̩/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, conclusion /kənˈkluːʒən/
Long words — get the stress right: simultaneously /ˌsaɪmlˈteɪnɪəsli/, complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/, experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, repeatedly /ɹɪˈpiːtɪdli/, notification /ˌnoʊtɪfɪˈkeɪʃn̩/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like podcast, simultaneously, whilst.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?