Shadowing Practice: Education gap: The root of inequality - Learn English Speaking with Video
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70 sentences
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Educational inequality is probably more than anything else the fundamental root of broader inequality.
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If we look at inequality and access to particular careers, inequality and income and wealth,
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inequality in the nature of political participation,
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all those things are mitigated by equalizing the skills that education produces.
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Not only the academic skills but the dispositions, the frames of minds, the the conscientiousness, the diligence, the sense of agency.
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And so I think there is nothing more important we could do
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to produce the type of society we want
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than to raise outcomes in the field of education so that knowing somebody's race or ethnicity
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tells you nothing at all about what their test scores or grades or occupation might be.
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Boston is a place where I think we are a national leader on many educational fronts,
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But the story is really that we're not doing everything that we want to be doing.
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We aren't delivering on all of the outcomes that we want to deliver.
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And it's really an educational equity issue.
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So we do see the disparities by gender and by race in educational outcomes in Boston.
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And if we're really going to get to for all results, which is where
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Boston wants to get, we've got to dig in on educational equity issues.
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There's not just one challenge to face when we talk about achievement gaps.
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Even if we just talk about racial achievement gaps, we have students of color in high -income suburban districts that are lagging their white classmates.
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We have inner -city school districts that are high poverty, have a difficult time attracting teachers.
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So the work
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that needs to happen is to figure out how in each of these contexts we can make the changes
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that are necessary to produce the excellence to which we aspire.
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Their needs, the kids in the inner cities have, the people in upper income suburbs never even imagine.
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But the most effective schools and teachers in the inner city adapt to those needs.
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They meet the kids where they are.
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They establish person environment fit for these kids as they pass through the school.
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And if we can do that at some greater scale,
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it truly is plausible that we can have much less poverty in the next generations
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and that we can have the society with regard to race that we want in the future.
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Achievement gaps by race, gender, and socioeconomic status are stark in the national data by the age of two.
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So we can't wait till school starts.
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There's an initiative we've just launched in Boston called the Boston Basics, where we've got five basic ideas about early childhood parenting, five propositions
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that we want everybody in the city to know
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we're saturating the city with what young parents of young children need to know in order
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that their kids don't fall behind by the age of two.
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It's not just about giving information, it's about building that niche of social support around them so
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that they know that the grandparents and the relatives and the minister
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and the barber all know this is important and that they are being supported to do these things.
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You can do it with materials that are already in the house
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and there's nothing in here that is particular to any particular racial, ethnic or socioeconomic group.
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This is human stuff.
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This is stuff that everybody in the community can benefit from.
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The second thing that excites me these days is the youth culture piece of it.
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Schools have two curricula.
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They have the curricula the teachers teach and the ones the kids teach.
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Part of what we're picking up is a lot of the misbehavior is instances where kids are doing things
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they don't even want to do.
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They're just trying to fit in.
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And so the idea of intervening into the youth culture
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and helping kids to develop the culture they really want in their school.
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They've already got the right values.
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They don't have the social opportunities to live out those values.
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You just have to like help students want to help each other.
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It takes student leadership to give people permission even to say what they would think is cool.
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So are you a student leader?
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I tried.
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You try to be?
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How plausible is it
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that you could organize a project at the school where you would get students to talk honestly about the way
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they really wanted to be?
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If you could, we can tell your story.
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You can help other people at other places.
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There's no choice but to try to make the things happen that we know need to happen.
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Because it's too scary what would happen if they don't happen.
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These days are so reminiscent of the 60s and early 70s.
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All those issues are coming back.
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There was a period where you thought we'd gotten over that.
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But there are enough instances where people have produced lots of progress in inner city schools to think
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that if we really want to do it, if we really have the political will to make it happen, we can.
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Because it's our generational responsibility to work on it no matter whether we're optimistic or pessimistic.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Education gap: The root of inequality”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: happen, inequality, educational, Boston, student. This video has 70 sentences and 875 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:29. The speaker talks at a natural 159 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 89% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| inequality noun | /ˌɪn.ɪˈkwɑ.lɪ.ti/ | A condition or state (of social, cultural, or legal matters) that is not equal; especially, such a condition that is thereby also unfair. |
| gap noun | /ɡæp/ | An opening in anything, made by breaking or parting. |
| achievement noun | /əˈt͡ʃiːv.mənt/ | The act of achieving or performing; a successful performance; accomplishment. |
| outcome noun | /ˈaʊtkʌm/ | That which is produced or occurs as a result of an event or process. |
| poverty noun | /ˈpɑːvɚti/ | The quality or state of being poor; lack of money |
| skill noun | /skɪl/ | A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate. |
| equity noun | /ˈɛk.wɪ.ti/ | Fairness, impartiality, or justice as determined in light of "natural law" or "natural right". |
| racial adjective | /ˈɹeɪʃəl/ | Of or relating to a race (or a people). |
| curriculum noun | /kəˈɹɪk.jə.ləm/ | The set of courses, coursework, and content offered at a school or university. |
| plausible adjective | /ˈplɑ.zɪ.bəl/ | Seemingly or apparently valid, likely, or acceptable; conceivably true or likely. |
| relative noun | /ˈɹɛl.ə.tɪv/ | Someone connected by blood, marriage, or adoption; someone in the same family. |
| establish verb | /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/ | To make stable or firm; to confirm. |
| scary adjective | /ˈskɛə.ɹi/ | Causing fear or anxiety |
| initiative noun | /ɪˈnɪʃ.ə.tɪv/ | A beginning; a first move. |
| regard noun | /ɹɪˈɡɑːd/ | A steady look, a gaze. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| come back verb | To return to a place. |
| fall behind verb | To be late (for a regular event) |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. |
| get over verb | To overcome. |
| live out verb | To not reside on the premises of one's employer (used especially of domestic staff such as nannies, cooks, maids, etc.) |
| pass through verb | To go through, to travel through, to transit or lie across a place or from one place to another. |
| pick up verb | To lift; to grasp and raise. |
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 | we've just launched · have produced |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are mitigated · being supported |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 17 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, don't, we've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: ethnic /ˈɛθ.nɪk/, ethnicity /ɛθˈnɪsɪti/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: racial /ˈɹeɪʃəl/, establish /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/, initiative /ɪˈnɪʃ.ə.tɪv/, participation /pɑːˌtɪs.ɪˈpeɪ.ʃən/, occupation /ˌɑkjʊˈpeɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: inequality /ˌɪn.ɪˈkwɑ.lɪ.ti/, curriculum /kəˈɹɪk.jə.ləm/, initiative /ɪˈnɪʃ.ə.tɪv/, fundamental /ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/, participation /pɑːˌtɪs.ɪˈpeɪ.ʃən/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like inequality, gap, achievement.
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.