Shadowing Practice: Glow in the Dark Lava Lamp! - Learn English Speaking with Video
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60 sentences
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Have you ever wondered why do highlighters seem to glow so brightly?
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We are going to learn about all of this and more today with my glowing lava lamp experiment.
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Hi everyone, I'm Emily Calandrelli,
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MIT engineer and host of Emily's Wonder Lab on Netflix and on my channel we learn about all things science and space.
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So grab those highlighters and those black lights
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because this kitchen is about to glow for this one
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you're going to need a glass of water filled about
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three -fourths the way up a yellow highlighter pliers oil to
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fill your glass the rest of the way up a black light
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and a fourth cup of salt adults
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and parents you'll want to do this one take your pliers
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and grab the inside of the end of your highlighter and just bend it in, bend it towards the center and pop, it comes right off.
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Now, I'm gonna wear gloves for this one.
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You don't need to because it is just highlighter ink after all, but I don't want my fingers to get stained, so I'm going to.
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So go ahead and take the tube that's inside the highlighter out.
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This contains your highlighter ink.
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Now, what you wanna do is squeeze it inside your glass of water.
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Three, two, one.
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Doesn't that look so cool?
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Now you'll notice that the highlighter seems to glow even though we don't have our black light on.
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Why is that?
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Well, it's because highlighter contains phosphors and phosphors make this fluorescent.
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That means it has the ability to absorb ultraviolet light and reinvent some of that light as visible light,
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light we see with our eyes basically it means it glows
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but where is the ultraviolet light right that usually comes from our black light
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but we don't have that on there is always ambient ultraviolet light in any room
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that you're in and
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that is what is making our highlighter glow next you want to take your oil
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and fill your glass the rest of the way up
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so you'll notice that the oil is rising to the top this is because oil is less dense than water.
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So it's going to float right on top of the water.
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And now we can make this glow.
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Three, two, one.
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Oh, look at that.
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So you can see everywhere that the highlighter is, is glowing.
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It is actually fluorescing.
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And now we can transform this into a lava lamp with our salt.
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So what you want to do is just take a handful of salt.
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I'm going to go ahead and turn my light on so it's glowing as we do this.
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And you may need this much, you may not.
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It depends on how many times you want to do your lava lamp.
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But just go ahead and take a handful of salt and sprinkle it all across the top.
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The salt is denser than the oil and the water
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and as it falls down through the oil it grabs on to some of
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that oil bringing the oil down to the bottom
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but then the salt dissolves and that oil is released back up to the top
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because remember oil is less dense than water
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so it rises back up to the top creating
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that lava lamp effect another way to create your lava lamp effect is with alka -seltzer tablets just go ahead
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and throw these in just like this and those bubbles are bubbling to the top.
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Now if you want to experiment within the experiments you can try different oils, you can try sugar instead of salt,
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and you can try different highlighter colors just to see what happens.
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If you try any of these let me know what you find.
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Thanks for making glow -in -the -dark lava lamps with me.
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If you like this one check out my best -selling
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Stay Curious and Keep Exploring series for 99 more science experiments that are fun for the whole family.
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I'm Emily Calandrelli.
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Subscribe to learn about all things science and space.
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And remember to stay curious and keep exploring.
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I'll see you next time.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Glow in the Dark Lava Lamp!”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: highlighter, oil, glow, salt, lava. This video has 60 sentences and 693 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:11. The speaker talks at a natural 166 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| glow verb | /ɡloʊ/ | To emit heat and light without a flame. |
| lamp noun | /ˈlæ̝mp/ | A device that generates light, heat, or other electromagnetic radiation. Especially an electric light bulb. |
| lava noun | /ˈlɑvə/ | The molten rock ejected by a volcano from a vent such as a crater or fissure; magma that has breached the surface of the earth. |
| 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… |
| dense adjective | /ˈdɛns/ | Having relatively high density. |
| curious adjective | /ˈkjʊɹ.i.əs/ | Tending to ask questions, or to want to explore or investigate; inquisitive; (with a negative connotation) nosy, prying. |
| explore verb | /ɪkˈsploɹ/ | To examine or investigate something systematically. |
| bubble noun | /ˈbʌbəl/ | A spherically contained volume of air or other gas in a liquid, commonly a soapy liquid. |
| bend verb | /bɛnd/ | To cause (something) to change its shape into a curve, by physical force, chemical action, or any other means. |
| handful noun | /ˈhæn(d)fʊl/ | The amount that a hand will grasp or contain. |
| finger noun | /ˈfɪŋɡɚ/ | A slender jointed extremity of the human hand, (often) exclusive of the thumb, and the corresponding part, irrespective of including a thumb, in many other… |
| visible adjective | /ˈvɪzɪb(ə)l/ | Able to be seen. |
| tube noun | /tuːb/ | Anything that is hollow and cylindrical in shape. |
| depend verb | /dɪˈpɛnd/ | To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition |
| tablet noun | /ˈtæblət/ | A slab of clay, stone or wood used for inscription. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| go ahead verb | /ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/ | To proceed with; to begin. |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). | |
| fall down verb | /fɔl ˈdaʊn/ | To fall to the ground. To collapse. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Have you ever wondered why do highlighters seem to glow so brightly?
- Doesn't that look so cool?
- I'll see you next time.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Comparatives -er than / more … than — comparing two things | less dense than · denser than |
| Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form | Keep Exploring |
| Present continuous am/is/are + -ing — something happening right now or around now | is making · is rising · is glowing |
| Future with “going to” be going to + verb — a plan or something you can see coming | are going to learn · you're going to need · gonna wear |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 18 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, you'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, ultraviolet /ˌʌltɹəˈvaɪələt/
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 glow, lamp, lava.
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.