Shadowing Practice: Bài 10 - Văn Phòng Không Gian Mở - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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This is 6 Minute English from bbclearningenglish.com.
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Hello, I'm Rob.
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Welcome to 6 Minute English.
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I've got Finn with me today.
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Hello, Finn.
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Hi, Rob.
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How's it going?
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Oh, right.
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You might notice it's a bit noisier than usual.
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That's because we're in our open-plan office.
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Yes, it's a big room full of desks with no walls between them,
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them and as I look around I can see maybe about 50 colleagues working very hard at their computers.
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And today we're talking about open plan offices and learning some language related to office life.
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That's right, Rob, but shall we just go back into the studio where it's a bit quieter?
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Good idea.
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Let's go.
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Right, come in here.
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That's better.
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That's good isn't it?
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Yes.
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Right.
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Rob, a question?
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OK.
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OK.
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You know a lot about sound, don't you?
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Well, a bit.
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OK.
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So, what do we call the kind of noise that contains the full range of sounds that humans can hear?
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Is it A.
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White noise, B.
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Green noise, or C.
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Pink noise?
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Good question.
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I'm only familiar with the term white noise, so I'll go for A, white noise.
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OK, well, we'll see if you're right at the end of the programme.
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So, shall we continue talking about offices?
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Yes.
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Millions of people, like us, work in open plan offices these days, but they're not new.
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Do you remember Henry Ford, the American industrialist from the late 19th century and early 20th century?
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Yes, he owned factories and he made the famous Ford cars.
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He's also one of the main names in the story of open plan offices.
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Yes.
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Now, Henry Ford was really concerned with efficiency, wasn't he?
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Yes.
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Efficiency is one of the main reasons for open plan offices.
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They increase communication and collaboration among staff.
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Now, a company's staff, its employees, they work together for the same goals.
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They collaborate, exchanging information and ideas.
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Now, this can be nice, but there can be too many of us in a small space.
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Franklin Becker, social psychologist at Cornell University in the US, thinks the reason open plan offices have become acceptable and popular,
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or, as he says, the reason they have taken root, is different.
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What reason does he give?
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The fundamental reason why open plan has taken root has nothing to do really with communication or collaboration or even flexibility.
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It has to do with the fact
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that you can reduce the amount of space per person in an open plan versus any kind of a closed cellular office.
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Well, it's all about saving space and money.
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He says it takes less space per person in an open plan office than it does in a cellular office.
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Now that's an office which is made up of lots of small closed rooms.
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In those offices, the space for each individual per person is limited, which is why open plan offices have taken root.
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So, some very good reasons for open plan offices, but what about the noise?
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Ah, the noise, yes.
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Although open plan offices can save a company money, they have hidden costs.
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Sound expert Julian Treasure explains what they are.
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He uses a very important word for business.
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Which word is it?
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Nobody can understand two people talking at the same time.
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We have bandwidth for about 1.6 people talking.
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Now, that's key when we're talking about open plan offices, because if I'm trying to do work, it requires me listening to a voice in my head to organise symbols,
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to organise a flow of words and put them on paper, for example.
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And if you're talking at the same time, then you're taking out one of my 1.6, and I'm left with 0.6 in my head.
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That doesn't work very well.
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It reduces my productivity dramatically.
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Ah, so the word right at the end there was productivity.
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Workers in open plan offices get distracted when others speak,
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and their ability to produce work, their productivity, is reduced.
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The expert says we can concentrate on 1.6 voices saying different things at the same time.
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That's not even two people.
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No, well, not really.
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There's one voice.
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He says, one voice is in your head to organise the flow, the movement of words and ideas when you think and write.
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And the other is, well, people like you on the phone all the time.
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Oh, come on, Rob.
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I suppose I do speak on the phone quite a lot.
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But I didn't know I was disturbing your work.
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You are.
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Well, sorry.
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Shall we go back to the question I asked earlier?
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OK.
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Well, I asked you about the colour of noise that contains the full range of sounds that humans can hear.
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Was it white, green or pink noise?
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Yes, and I went for white noise.
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The answer is, in fact, pink noise.
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That's the name scientists give noise.
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Interesting colour.
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The full range of audio frequencies or sounds that humans can hear.
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OK.
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Well, it's almost time to go, but could you remind us of some of the English words we heard today? Of course.
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We heard...
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Thanks, Finn.
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Well, that's it for this programme.
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Please join us again soon for 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English.
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Bye.
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Bye.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Bài 10 - Văn Phòng Không Gian Mở”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: noise, word, Rob, sound, English. This video has 103 sentences and 873 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:04. The speaker talks at a steady 144 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow. 16 of its 103 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| organise verb | Non-Oxford British standard spelling of organize. | |
| productivity noun | /ˌpɹɒdʌkˈtɪvəti/ | The state of being productive, fertile, or efficient. |
| cellular adjective | /ˈsɛl.ju.lə/ | Of, relating to, consisting of, or resembling a cell or cells. |
| collaboration noun | /kəˌlæbəˈɹeɪʃən/ | The act of collaborating. |
| industrialist noun | A person involved in the ownership or management of an industrial enterprise. | |
| collaborate verb | /kəˈlæb.ə.ɹeɪt/ | To work together with others to achieve a common goal. |
| disturb verb | /dɪˈstɜːb/ | to confuse a quiet, constant state or a calm, continuous flow, in particular: thoughts, actions or liquids. |
| bandwidth noun | /ˈbændwɪdθ/ | The width, usually measured in hertz, of a frequency band. |
| noisy adjective | /ˈnɔɪzi/ | Making a noise, especially a loud unpleasant sound |
| distract verb | /dɪˈstɹækt/ | To divert the attention of. |
| psychologist noun | /ˌsaɪˈkɑl.ə.d͡ʒɪst/ | An expert in the field of psychology. |
| dramatically adverb | In a dramatic manner. | |
| colleague noun | /ˈkɒliːɡ/ | A fellow member of a profession, staff, academic faculty or other organization; an associate, a workmate. |
| flexibility noun | /ˌflɛksɪˈbɪlɪti/ | The quality of being flexible, whether physically or metaphorically. |
| concentrate verb | /ˈkɑn.sən.tɹeɪt/ | To bring to, or direct toward, a common center; to unite more closely; to gather into one body, mass, or force. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. |
| look around verb | To inspect a building or area. |
| take out verb | To remove. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- You might notice it's a bit noisier than usual.
- That's because we're in our open-plan office.
- You know a lot about sound, don't you?
- Shall we go back to the question I asked earlier?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have become · have taken · has taken |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was really concerned · is made · is limited |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | office which is · limited, which is |
| Present continuous am/is/are + -ing — something happening right now or around now | we're talking · you're talking |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 19 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, we're, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: productivity /ˌpɹɒdʌkˈtɪvəti/, collaboration /kəˌlæbəˈɹeɪʃən/, collaborate /kəˈlæb.ə.ɹeɪt/, psychologist /ˌsaɪˈkɑl.ə.d͡ʒɪst/, flexibility /ˌflɛksɪˈbɪlɪti/
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 organise, productivity, cellular.
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.