Shadowing Practice: CET-6 Listening Practice: What Growth Mindset Can and Cannot Do - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Good afternoon, everyone, and let's begin with a simple question.
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Do you believe intelligence is something you're born with, or something you can grow?
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Your answer, it turns out, may shape how you deal with failure.
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That, at least, is the idea behind the work of Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck.
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Dweck distinguishes between what she calls a fixed mindset and a growth mindset.
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People with a fixed mindset see ability as a trait that simply can't be changed.
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Those with a growth mindset, by contrast, believe it can be developed, and they treat failure as feedback.
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In one well-known study from the late nineteen nineties, Dweck and a colleague gave children a set of puzzles.
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Some were praised for being clever, while others were praised for working hard.
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So what happened when they were later offered a harder challenge?
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The children praised for intelligence played it safe, but most of the others went for the harder ones.
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It's hardly surprising, then, that schools around the world embraced the idea so eagerly.
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But here's the catch: a big idea deserves careful testing.
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In twenty eighteen, a team led by Victoria Sisk pooled data from hundreds of thousands of students.
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What they found was rather sobering.
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The link between mindset and grades existed, but it turned out to be surprisingly weak.
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And when mindset lessons were tested directly, the average effect on achievement was tiny.
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There was one important exception, however.
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Students from poorer families seemed to benefit a little more, and so did those already struggling at school.
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A year later, a much larger experiment appeared in Nature, and it tested what happens at a national scale.
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Around twelve thousand ninth graders across the United States completed two short online sessions, lasting under an hour in total.
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Among lower-achieving students, grades rose by about a tenth of a grade point.
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On top of that, more students signed up for advanced maths, a choice that can open doors later on.
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That may not sound dramatic, but given that it took less than an hour, it's far from trivial!
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So, is a growth mindset a miracle cure for poor grades?
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Not according to the evidence we have so far.
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Had the early claims been more modest, the backlash might well have been gentler.
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What it offers is a small, cheap nudge, and it works best where classmates also value taking on challenges.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This C1 speaking lesson is built on the video “CET-6 Listening Practice: What Growth Mindset Can and Cannot Do”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: mindset, grade, students, Dweck, praised. This video has 28 sentences and 401 words to shadow. The speech runs for 2:59. The speaker talks at a steady 134 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 79% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| mindset noun | /ˈmaɪn(d)ˌsɛt/ | A way of thinking; an attitude or opinion, especially a habitual one. |
| classmate noun | /ˈklæs.meɪt/ | A student who is in the same class at school. |
| eagerly adverb | /ˈiɡɚli/ | In an eager manner. |
| grader noun | /ˈɡɹeɪdɚ/ | A machine used in road maintenance, construction, and mining for leveling large surfaces. |
| trivial adjective | /ˈtɹɪv.i.əl/ | Ignorable; of little significance or value. |
| backlash noun | /ˈbækˌlæʃ/ | A suddenly reversed or backward motion, such as of a rope or elastic band when it snaps under tension. |
| trait noun | /tɹeɪt/ | An identifying characteristic, habit or trend. |
| psychologist noun | /ˌsaɪˈkɑl.ə.d͡ʒɪst/ | An expert in the field of psychology. |
| distinguish verb | /dɪˈstɪŋ.ɡwɪʃ/ | To recognize someone or something as different from others based on its characteristics. |
| tenth adjective | /tɛnθ/ | The ordinal numeral form of ten; next in order after that which is ninth. |
| sober adjective | /ˈsoʊ.bɚ/ | Not drunk; not intoxicated. |
| puzzle noun | /ˈpʌzəl/ | The state of feeling confused or mystified because one cannot understand a complicated matter, a problem, etc.; bewilderment, confusion; (countable) often in… |
| colleague noun | /ˈkɒliːɡ/ | A fellow member of a profession, staff, academic faculty or other organization; an associate, a workmate. |
| modest adjective | /ˈmɑdəst/ | Not bragging or boasting about oneself or one's achievements; unpretentious, humble. |
| ninth adjective | /naɪnθ/ | The ordinal form of the number nine. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| turn out verb | To end up; to result. |
Pronunciation to watch
- The “th” sounds: tenth /tɛnθ/, ninth /naɪnθ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: backlash /ˈbækˌlæʃ/, distinguish /dɪˈstɪŋ.ɡwɪʃ/
- Long words — get the stress right: psychologist /ˌsaɪˈkɑl.ə.d͡ʒɪst/, surprisingly /səˈpɹaɪzɪŋli/
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 mindset, classmate, eagerly.
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.