Shadowing Practice: CONTEMPORARY TOPICS UNIT 9 LINGUISTICS ANIMAL COMMUNICATION - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
64 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
How many of you have pets?
2
They're great, aren't they?
3
I've got a golden retriever myself, and often I feel that my dog is communicating with me.
4
But do animals really communicate like we do?
5
Well, Harvard professor Mark Hauser has identified several types of animal communication.
6
And like humans, they do use sounds and nonverbal behavior to communicate.
7
For instance, they convey information to one another, they establish and maintain social organization, and they express their perceptions of the world.
8
So today we'll look at animal communication through the lens of human language.
9
Specifically, we'll use four basic characteristics of human language to see how animal and human communication styles compare.
10
I think that you'll be surprised at how sophisticated animal communication is.
11
But ultimately, we'll see that human communication is far more flexible and better developed.
12
Now the first characteristic we'll look at is arbitrariness.
13
Arbitrariness means that there's no logical relationship between a sound and its meaning.
14
For example, the word sky has no relationship with the thing it refers to, right?
15
In comparison, a lot of animal communication is not arbitrary.
16
For example, the growl of an angry dog is meant to very directly warn and threaten.
17
There's nothing arbitrary about this message, right?
18
However some animal communication is arbitrary, albeit to a limited degree.
19
For example, meerkats, a small African animal, can make about 20 distinct sounds.
20
They use one alarm call for snakes, another for eagles, and yet another for large cats, just to name a few, okay?
21
This is impressive, but human languages are far more flexible because they have a wide range of sounds.
22
English, for example, has more than 40 distinct sounds, such as ah, kuh, or t.
23
And we can make an unlimited number of arbitrary words by altering these sounds, far more than any animal.
24
The second characteristic of human language we'll compare is displacement.
25
Displacement is communicating ideas about things that are not physically present.
26
For example, if you talk about what you did last weekend, that's displacement.
27
Now, can animals do this?
28
Well, often the answer is they can't.
29
For instance, if your dog doesn't like the neighbor cat, maybe it barks when it sees the cat.
30
But when the cat isn't around, the dog doesn't bark.
31
It doesn't communicate its dislike of the cat.
32
This shows that the dog doesn't have the capacity for displacement.
33
Well, one exception to this is bees.
34
Many types of bees use displacement in their dances.
35
Through these dances, they're able to communicate to other bees the distance, direction, quality, and quantity of a food source.
36
The meaning of the dance is so clear and so precise
37
that even scientists researching bee dances can interpret exactly where the food is.
38
In any case, although I think that the bees is an excellent example of the sophistication of animal communication,
39
in general, animals' use of displacement is extremely limited compared to humans.
40
Think about books, magazines, and the internet.
41
I mean, everything that we read involves displacement, as do most of our conversations.
42
The third characteristic of human language that I want to consider is called cultural transmission, the idea that language is passed from one generation to the next.
43
Now, obviously, humans excel at this, but what about animals?
44
Well, some animals are also fairly skilled at passing language on to their young.
45
A good example of this is the killer whale.
46
They live in groups, and different groups develop different accents, just like people.
47
The accents are passed from older to younger killer whales.
48
Well, this is yet another example of the sophistication of some animal communication.
49
However, once again, what we see is that while animal and human communication share similarities,
50
similarities, the characteristics that we are looking for are far more developed in humans.
51
For example, in addition to accents, humans also pass on extremely large vocabularies and complex grammar.
52
The fourth and last characteristic that we'll talk about today is called discreteness.
53
This means that language is made up of discrete units that can be combined in different ways to create different meanings.
54
As humans, we do this by using sounds to make words and using grammar to arrange those words into sentences.
55
The best example we have of animals using discreteness is from chimpanzees raised in captivity.
56
Using a keyboard, chimps have made requests for food by typing, raisin peanut, which seemed to mean raisins and peanuts.
57
Chimps have also invented phrases that describe things.
58
For example, one chimp called watermelon drink fruit.
59
Clever, huh?
60
But while this is fairly impressive, one major problem with the chimpanzees' use of language is that their word order is quite random.
61
So most linguists would say that the chimpanzees really do not understand and use grammar in the way that humans do, and therefore can't be said to use discreteness.
62
In the use of discreteness, we see that humans have a huge advantage over animals.
63
allows us to make complex words and sentences that communicate an unlimited number of meanings.
64
And this is one of the really impressive, actually amazing aspects of human communication.
Download App
Everything you need to speak fluently
AI PronunciationScore every sentence
IPA PracticeMaster every sound
VocabularyBuild your word bank
Vocab GameLearn while playing
Same Channel
B215
CONTEMPORARY TOPICS UNIT 10 ECONOMICS THE EVOLUTION OF MONEY
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
B211
CONTEMPORARY TOPICS 2 UNIT 11 BIOLOGY DNA TESTING
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepCambridge Exam Prep
C18
CONTEMPORARY TOPICS UNIT 7 TECHNOLOGY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B22
CONTEMPORARY TOPICS 2 UNIT 6 HISTORY THE SILK ROAD
Cambridge Exam PrepHigh School StudentsUniversity Students
C18
CONTEMPORARY TOPICS 2 UNIT 12 PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION RISK MANAGEMENT
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C17
CONTEMPORARY TOPICS UNIT 3 SOCIOLOGY ONLINE COMMUNITIES
Daily ConversationUniversity Students
FOR YOU
Recommend Video
C11
97 sentences
Pragmatics: Crash Course Linguistics #6
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C19
58 sentences
Luyên nghe tiêng anh- buổi 4- the ecological importance bees
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C13
21 sentences
44 Audio Track
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C115
76 sentences
Contemporary Topics 2 Unit 2 Lecture with Powerpoint
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepCambridge Exam Prep
C14
69 sentences
Steven Pinker: Linguistics as a Window to Understanding the Brain | Big Think
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B26
207 sentences
IELTS ASMR Podcast #10 - Luyện nghe thụ động | Phụ đề Anh & Việt
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B22
36 sentences
Luyện tư duy qua đề thi mẫu hskk " Thời đại thức ăn nhanh "
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C18
51 sentences
IFO | Bài phát biểu xứng tầm 9.0 của sinh viên trường Thanh Hoa | Full Eng-Vie sub
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C15
48 sentences
Linguistic Relativity: How Language Shapes Thought
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B25
116 sentences
Vocabulary for IELTS - Unit 6 Effective Communication II (Band 5.5 ~ 6.5+) 🔔
IELTS PrepUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C14
88 sentences
Contemporary Topics 2 Unit 5 Lecture with Powerpoint
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepCambridge Exam Prep
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 64 sentences and 853 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:50. The speaker talks at a steady 146 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 82% 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 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/ (verb) — To impart or transmit (information or knowledge) to someone; to make known, to tell.
- displacement /dɪsˈpleɪsmɪnt/ (noun) — The act of displacing, or the state of being displaced; a putting out of place.
- characteristic /ˌkæɹ(ə)ktəˈɹɪstɪk/ (noun) — A distinguishing feature of a person or thing, a part of mental or physical behavior.
- bee /ˈbiː/ (noun) — A flying insect, of the clade Anthophila within the hymenopteran superfamily Apoidea, known for its organised societies (though only a minority have them), for…
- arbitrary /ˈɑː.bɪ.tɹə.ɹi/ (adjective) — Based on individual discretion or judgment; not based on any objective distinction, perhaps even made at random.
- impressive /ɪmˈpɹɛsɪv/ (adjective) — Making, or tending to make, a positive impression; having power to impress.
- compare /kəmˈpɛɚ/ (verb) — To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things [“to compare X with Y”]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it…
- grammar /ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/ (noun) — A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general.
- accent /ækˈsɛnt/ (noun) — A higher-pitched or stronger (louder or longer) articulation of a particular syllable of a word or phrase in order to distinguish it from the others or to…
- killer /ˈkɪlɚ/ (noun) — One who or that which kills.
- distinct /dɪˈstɪŋkt/ (adjective) — Capable of being perceived very clearly.
- flexible /ˈflɛk.sɪ.bəl/ (adjective) — Capable of being flexed or bent without breaking; able to be turned or twisted without breaking.
- unlimited /ʌnˈlɪm.ɪ.tɪd/ (adjective) — Limitless or without bounds; unrestricted.
- whale /ˈweɪl/ (noun) — Any large cetacean, usually with the exclusion of dolphins and porpoises.
- peanut /ˈpiˌnʌt/ (noun) — A legume resembling a nut, the fruit of the plant Arachis hypogaea, native to South America.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- look at (verb) — To observe or watch.
- talk about (verb) — Used to draw attention to the speaker's characterization of someone or something.
- call for (verb) — To shout out in order to summon (a person).
- live in (verb) — To reside on the premises of one's employer (used especially of domestic staff such as nannies, cooks, maids, etc.)
- look for (verb) — To seek.
- pass on (verb) — To go forward.
- think about /ˈθɪŋk əˌbaʊt/ (verb) — To ponder.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 18 contractions and reduced forms, such as we'll, doesn't, can't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: establish /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/, exception /əkˈsɛpʃən/, transmission /tɹænsˈmɪʃən/, perception /pɚˈsɛpʃ(ə)n/, sophistication /səˌfɪs.tɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/, characteristic /ˌkæɹ(ə)ktəˈɹɪstɪk/, arbitrary /ˈɑː.bɪ.tɹə.ɹi/, unlimited /ʌnˈlɪm.ɪ.tɪd/, similarity /ˌsɪm.ɪˈlæɹ.ɪ.ti/
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 communicate, displacement, characteristic.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is meant · is called · are also fairly skilled |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has identified · have made · have also invented |
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.