Shadowing Practice: Critical Thinking Lecture: an introduction to critical thinking - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hello and welcome to my short lecture today on an introduction to critical thinking at university.
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So just to begin, I think I should say
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that critical thinking is a huge area and to cover all elements will take a significant amount of time,
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so I'm just going to look at the basic key aspects associated with reading and writing at university.
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Now I've divided my lecture today into five key parts.
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I'll begin by defining critical thinking, then I'll use recent research to discuss alternative thinking styles.
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I'll then use Bloom's Taxonomy to highlight higher order thinking skills,
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which leads into a simple approach to help activate your critical thinking.
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And finally, I'll demonstrate critical thinking questioning on this lecture.
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OK, so let's begin with a definition.
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Thank you.
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Critical thinking is a systematic evaluation of the arguments, ideas and theories of others.
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The basic premise of critical thinking involves asking critical questions to form an educated opinion of whether
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or not those resources are credible.
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On a basic level, we are questioning the things we read and hear to see if they are objective
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truthful and supported by appropriate evidence.
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However, one of the main challenges is
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that each of us carries a set of beliefs and opinions that may interfere with our willingness to alter these beliefs,
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even when faced with concrete evidence that refutes them.
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Generally, everyone has an opinion about most things, but of course these opinions can be founded in unreliable and invalid information.
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OK, so moving on to my second point, which is alternative thinking styles.
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I'm going to refer to the research by Brown
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and Keely 2013 as in my opinion their analogy provides a clear explanation of thinking types.
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So, according to them, there are two distinct thinking styles: the sponge and panning for gold.
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So, the sponge involves the basic premise of passively absorbing information without the use of critical thinking.
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The two benefits of this style are
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that the person can absorb large amounts of information to view the world from different perspectives
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and it does not require huge amounts of mental exertion.
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However, this process of thinking offers no dependable procedure for determining which opinions or information to trust and which ones to reject.
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The second approach which is referred to as panning for gold
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uses the river mining metaphor of separating particles of gold from soil by washing in a pan with water.
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It highlights that critical thinking is carefully inspecting and examining the information you read.
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This process is beneficial as it asks active readers
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and listeners to frequently ask critical questions and take time to contemplate whether the information is reliable and factual.
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Obviously, this type of thinking is challenging and often repetitive,
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but failure to do this will lead to a passive acceptance of ideas without critical analysis.
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Okay, this leads nicely into Bloom's taxonomy.
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This is a classification pyramid of learning levels which maps the way we think and process information.
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The lower levels of learning are remembering, understanding and applying.
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These can be seen as the sponge or lower order thinking skills, where information is given and absorbed.
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The higher order thinking skills are analysing, evaluating and creating.
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These are planning for gold or your critical thinking skills.
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So let's focus on the higher order thinking skills starting with analysing.
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So, analysing is breaking the information down into separate components and looking for relationships between ideas and overall structures.
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Through analysing content, you will recognise unstated assumptions, logical reasoning and relevancy of data.
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So, at this level, you can answer questions like why, how and what if.
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Moving on to Evaluating.
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Evaluating is judging, assessing and criticising information through using what you know to make a decision and support your views.
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To be successful at this, you need a profound understanding of the topic or idea you are evaluating.
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At this level you can answer questions like "So what?" and "What's next?"
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Creating is the highest level where you combine all elements of the taxonomy to produce new or original work.
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It requires inventiveness and originality to form new opinions and structures.
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At this level you can answer questions like: How can it be improved or how can it be changed or adapted?
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Now, there are many critical thinking question sheets and resources on the internet
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and in your universities that are all very beneficial and helpful.
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But, I find it more productive to focus on analysing
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and evaluating rather than going through a whole list of questions
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every time I find a point in a text I want to question.
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So, my advice is this: when starting out with critical thinking, just use the simple question tools of analysing which are why,
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how and what if.
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and evaluating which are 'so what' and 'what's next'.
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This keeps your critical thinking strategies simple, focused and effective.
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And more importantly, Analysis and evaluation are key components of university assessment criteria.
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However, it is important to remember that critical thinking is a higher level skill and needs time to develop and mature.
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It is not something you will become good at overnight as it can take months
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or even years of practice to fully develop this skill.
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In fact, recent research by Stanford University 2018 states that critical thinking is a lifelong process.
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Okay.
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So now I'm going to demonstrate how you may apply the critical thinking questioning of analysing and evaluating to this lecture today.
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So let's start with analysing and the why questions.
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The kind of questions you may ask could be, why did he do this lecture?
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Why did he choose the Brown and Keely research and Bloom's taxonomy?
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Why were only three sources used?
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And then you go on to the how questions.
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Possible questions are: How do we know this is reliable?
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How is this similar to other critical thinking concepts?
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How does this apply to me and my university study?
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And then the what if questions.
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Examples are: What if these concepts are wrong?
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And what if it is too simplistic?
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Then we move on to the evaluating questions.
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And examples of so what would be Is this significant to me?
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Is this convincing?
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Do I agree?
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What's wrong with it?
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And then the what's next questions such as, will I use what I have learnt today?
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How can it be improved?
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And has this been disproved?
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Okay, let's move on to the summary.
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So today I have provided a basic definition of critical thinking.
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I've used recent research to highlight the two alternative thinking styles of the sponge and panning for gold.
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I focused on Bloom's taxonomy pyramid and drawn attention to the top three levels of higher thinking skills.
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And in this part, I have focused on the importance of questioning words like Why,
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How, What If, So What and What's Next to aid critical analysis.
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The last part was to apply the higher thinking skills to today's lecture.
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So, I hope today's lecture has been really beneficial in simplifying critical thinking skills for use in reading and writing at university.
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My final point today is that I'd like to finish with something that was mentioned earlier.
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It is to try to be consciously aware of our own beliefs and preconceived opinions, as these are the thoughts that prevent true criticality.
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Thank you for listening to my lecture today.
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Goodbye.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This C1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Critical Thinking Lecture: an introduction to critical thinking”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: thinking, critical, skill, analysing, evaluating. This video has 103 sentences and 1238 words to shadow. The speech runs for 9:57. The speaker talks at a steady 124 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. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| analyse verb | UK standard spelling of analyze. | |
| evaluate verb | /ɪˈvaljʊeɪt/ | To draw conclusions from examining; to assess; to appraise. |
| taxonomy noun | /tækˈsɑnəmi/ | The science, technique, or process used to make a classification. |
| sponge noun | /spʌnd͡ʒ/ | Any of various marine invertebrates of the phylum Porifera, that have a porous skeleton often of silica. |
| absorb verb | /æbˈsɔɹb/ | To include so that it no longer has separate existence; to overwhelm; to cause to disappear as if by swallowing up; to incorporate; to assimilate; to take in… |
| beneficial adjective | /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/ | Helpful or good to something or someone. |
| pyramid noun | /ˈpɪɹ.ə.mɪd/ | An ancient massive construction with a square or rectangular base and four triangular sides meeting in an apex, such as those built as tombs in Egypt or as… |
| premise noun | /ˈpɹɛm.ɪs/ | A proposition antecedently supposed or proved; something previously stated or assumed as the basis of further argument; a condition; a supposition. |
| contemplate verb | /ˈkɑn.təmˌpleɪt/ | To look at on all sides or in all its aspects; to view or consider with continued attention; to regard with deliberate care; to meditate on; to study, ponder… |
| criterion noun | /kɹaɪˈtɪɹ.i.ən/ | A standard, test, or requirement by which individual things or people may be compared and judged; a gauge. |
| criticality noun | /ˈkɹɪtɪˌkælɪti/ | The state of being critical. |
| dependable adjective | [dɪˈpɛndəbəɫ] | Able, or easily able to be depended on. |
| disprove verb | /dɪsˈpɹuv/ | To prove to be false or erroneous; to confute; to refute. |
| exertion noun | /ɪɡˈzɝʃən/ | An expenditure of physical or mental effort. |
| inventiveness noun | The quality of being inventive; the faculty of inventing. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
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 | can be founded · is referred · can be seen |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've divided · have learnt · have provided |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | point, which is · approach which is · analysing which are |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 10 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'll, I'm, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, exertion /ɪɡˈzɝʃən/, assumption /əˈsʌm(p).ʃ(ə)n/
- Long words — get the stress right: taxonomy /tækˈsɑnəmi/, beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, criterion /kɹaɪˈtɪɹ.i.ən/, criticality /ˈkɹɪtɪˌkælɪti/, dependable [dɪˈpɛndəbəɫ]
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 analyse, evaluate, taxonomy.
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.