Shadowing Practice: Evaluation of Obesity Studies | Dr. Wendy Bennett - Learn English Speaking with Video
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30 sentences
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Hello, my name is Wendy Bennett
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and I'm an associate professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the School of Public Health.
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Obesity is an enormous public health problem and it affects both children and adults.
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Many of our traditional interventions have focused on the individual's health behaviors like diet and physical activity.
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So the motivation of this project was to understand what are the methods
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that researchers are using in these natural experiment studies on obesity
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so that we can improve our understanding of the types of data sources we're using,
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the data linkages, and the different methods and analytic approaches being used.
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Of the 264 studies we identified,
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53 % of those were natural experiment studies and these again were studies where researchers did not have control over the intervention.
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Most of the studies that we found were conducted in children and in the school setting.
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All of the natural experiment studies used a population -based data source
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and most of them used national level data or state level data.
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Fewer studies had access to looking at community level data.
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Increasingly we find that studies that are assessing physical activity are using accelerometers
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or other types of wearable devices to assess how active people are.
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In the natural experiment studies,
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the most common analytic approach was a cross -sectional comparison where the researchers compared those
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that were exposed to the policy or program
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or built environment change versus those that were not exposed to that change or program or policy.
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So we found that natural experiment studies had overall a high -risk bias,
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and this was mostly due to high losses to follow -up in their studies, as well as high risks of confounding.
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For researchers, we identified several areas where we think that researchers can improve the types of data sources we're using,
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the way we're linking data, and increase the frequency of linking data sources together.
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Policymakers are going to want to use natural experiments
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and evaluations like them to understand whether their policies and programs are effective in reducing obesity as well as preventing obesity.
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Obesity research, this would be very helpful to understand quickly
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which are the studies that are high quality and which are the most effective strategies to reduce obesity and prevent obesity.
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All of this data that we're pulling together can be helpful in future studies
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when we're trying to understand what is most effective in our neighborhoods and communities to impact obesity.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Evaluation of Obesity Studies”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: studies, obesity, experiment, natural, researchers. This video has 30 sentences and 414 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:00. The speaker talks at a steady 138 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 85% 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 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| obesity noun | /ə(ʊ)ˈbiːsɪti/ | The state of being obese. |
| experiment noun | /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/ | A test under controlled conditions made to either demonstrate a known truth, examine the validity of a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of… |
| researcher noun | /ˈɹiˌsɝ.t͡ʃɚ/ | One who researches. |
| helpful adjective | /ˈhɛlp.fl̩/ | Furnishing help; giving aid; useful. |
| intervention noun | /ɪntɚˈvɛnʃən/ | The action of intervening; interfering in some course of events. |
| assess verb | /əˈsɛs/ | To determine, estimate or judge the value of; to evaluate; to estimate. |
| expose verb | /ɪkˈspoʊz/ | To reveal; to uncover; to make visible; to bring to light. |
| compare verb | /kəmˈpɛɚ/ | 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… |
| associate noun | /əˈsoʊʃi.ət/ | A person united with another or others in an act, enterprise, or business; a partner or employee. |
| increasingly adverb | Increasing in amount or intensity. | |
| frequency noun | /ˈfɹiːkwənsi/ | The rate of occurrence of anything; the relationship between incidence and time period. |
| versus | /ˈvɝsəs/ | Against; in opposition to. |
| fewer | /ˈfjuː.ɚ/ | Less; a smaller amount of something non-integral commonly expressed as an integer |
| enormous adjective | /ɪˈnɔː.məs/ | Extremely large; greatly exceeding the common size, extent, etc. |
| motivation noun | /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/ | Willingness of action especially in behavior. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| pull together verb | To unite for a common objective. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 6 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: intervention /ɪntɚˈvɛnʃən/, associate /əˈsoʊʃi.ət/, motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/, evaluation /ɪˌvæljuˈeɪʃn̩/, sectional /ˈsɛkʃənəl/
- Long words — get the stress right: obesity /ə(ʊ)ˈbiːsɪti/, experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, intervention /ɪntɚˈvɛnʃən/, associate /əˈsoʊʃi.ət/, motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/
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 obesity, experiment, researcher.
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.