Shadowing Practice: IELTS ASMR Podcast #02 - Luyện nghe thụ động | Phụ đề Anh & Việt - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Section 1 Beechon Festival Office?
282 sentences
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Section 1 Beechon Festival Office?
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Oh, hello.
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I want to check some details about the festival.
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I know tickets are running out fast,
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and I haven't got access to the internet at present.
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My computer's down.
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OK.
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Well, the first activity is on June 19th at 7pm,
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and it's a concert with local musicians performing.
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Oh, lovely.
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Is it in the theatre, like last year?
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Yes, that's right.
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And for the next activity,
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on the 20th, the time's changed.
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Is that the tour?
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Yes.
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Now, it does say on the tickets that it's a 3.40 start,
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but that's an error.
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There wasn't time to update them,
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unfortunately, so it should say 4.30 instead.
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The correct time is on the website, though.
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Oh, right.
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Because one of my friends wants to go on that,
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to see Beechon with an expert and find out about the town and its history.
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Does she need to get a ticket in advance?
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No, just turn up at the station where the guide will be waiting.
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They'll start from there, and I think the plan is to stop for a break in the park.
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And there's no charge for the tour.
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And the tour will finish with a visit to the 16th century mill where they used to make flour.
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It's recently been restored.
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Fine.
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And then on the 21st,
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there's an all-day event for children.
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Oh, that could be good for my visitors.
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They're bringing theirs, you see.
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Right.
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Well, the plan was to have a painting competition for the kids,
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but it's now going to be cooking instead,
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and there'll be prizes for all the different age groups.
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Oh, great.
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And it's in Beechon Community Centre.
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Oh, yes, I know where that is.
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They don't need to bring any ingredients,
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but they'll need to have a plate to put whatever they've made on
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so they can display it and then take it home.
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Sounds good.
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And are they going ahead with the fireworks in the evening,
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or is that cancelled?
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There was an article in the paper after last year's display which suggested it might not be happening again.
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That's right, no, that's still on.
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It's getting more popular each year
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and having it in the town square was starting to be a bit difficult because of the numbers,
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which is why it's next to the river this time.
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It'll be easy for large numbers of people to get to.
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Yes, of course.
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I'm sure there's lots to look forward to.
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OK, now I just want to check how it's going to impact on me as a local resident.
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I mean, some people last year thought it was too noisy at night.
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Yes, I know.
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And that's why this year,
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evening events won't go on beyond 11.15.
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I know previously some activities lasted until 11.45,
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and the new time applies now to all the events, every evening.
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OK.
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And another change, perhaps you know about this already,
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is that because of high visitor numbers,
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parking in the town centre isn't going to be allowed.
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It'll be outside town.
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Oh, yes, to keep the streets clear,
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I suppose, for all the visitors.
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I did know, actually, and it's not really going to be a problem for me.
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Right.
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I mean, I could just walk into town from my home.
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OK.
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Well, anyway, if you want to check any more details about the festival,
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once you're back online, you can look at www.events.com.
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And you'll be able to comment on what activities you enjoyed.
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And what would really help the organisers would be
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if people could use the website to give feedback about what they enjoyed and that kind of thing.
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This will help them plan for next year.
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That's probably a good idea.
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Section 2 Well, good evening, everyone.
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My name's Gary Payne, and I'll be the leader for your walking holiday in Spain.
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And the purpose of this evening's meeting is for us all to get to know each other in advance,
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and for you to ask any questions you may have about the holiday.
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So I'll begin by telling you a little bit about what to expect.
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Now, the ferry crossing from England to Santander in Spain takes about 24 hours.
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We'll be sailing on the Prince Regent,
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which was first launched in the 1980s.
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As well as the crew of 160,
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it can accommodate about 2,000 people and 600 cars,
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and it sails at an average speed of 37 km an hour.
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There'll be an on-board map on one of the decks,
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which charts the ship's progress during the voyage.
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Although our mini-bus will be on one of the vehicle decks in the boat,
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access to these decks is prohibited during the crossing,
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so when you leave our bus you'll have to take everything that you're likely to need with you,
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like toiletries or books and magazines.
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In fact, it's probably a good idea to put these things in a separate bag beforehand.
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You shouldn't need snacks on board as meals are provided,
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and they're quite substantial.
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And if you don't feel well or get a headache,
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you can get tablets from me.
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I always carry an adequate supply.
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Now once we're in Spain,
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we'll be based at a hostel in a small village called La Vega de Libana,
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about 120 kilometres from Santander.
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It's a very picturesque area that's retained a lot of its traditional industry and culture.
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The hostel accommodation's fairly simple.
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There are bunk beds and each room holds four to eight people.
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But the bathrooms and showers are of a high standard.
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The hostel residents have the use of tennis courts nearby,
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if you feel like a game.
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We'll be given breakfast and an evening meal at the hostel.
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In general, the hostel is relaxed,
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but there are a few rules which the owners enforce strictly.
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Smoking is not allowed anywhere inside the building,
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and food and drink is banned in the dormitories.
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Any chairs or tables which you take outside into the gardens must be returned every evening to their original place.
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Finally, the doors are locked after midnight out of consideration for other guests who are trying to sleep.
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Now that's enough about travel and accommodation.
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But before I move on,
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I should say something briefly about equipment.
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There's a list in the guidebook you've been sent,
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but I'll just elaborate on one or two items.
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First, boots.
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Make sure that the ones you bring have thick soles.
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That's the most important thing.
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Don't bring trainers for walking in.
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Apart from anything else, they're dangerous because they slip.
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It's important to bring spare socks.
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Then, about waterproofs, I'd strongly advise you not to come with anything heavy,
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you know, with a thick lining.
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The ideal things are those lightweight ones,
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because they fold up small,
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and although they do keep the wind out,
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they don't make you too hot.
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Right?
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Next, sun cream.
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This is absolutely essential.
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And regarding the strength, make sure you get what's known as total block.
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Even factor 25 isn't good enough for those latitudes in July.
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Then, let's see, bring a folder to keep your map and other papers in,
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you know, one of those plastic ones.
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It's not very likely to rain,
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but if it does, you'll find it soaks everything.
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So, that's the practicalities over.
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Now let me tell you a little bit about the area
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in Spain where we'll be walking the picos de europa it's a very popular area for tourists
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because of its spectacular peaks
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although they're only 25 kilometers from the sea the highest peaks are more than 2 600 meters high
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and have year-round snow caps on the highest peaks you've got alpine plants
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that are only free of their snow cover for a few months a year then you've got meadows
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that are full of wild flowers at certain times of the year.
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Then the northern slopes are covered by woodlands,
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giving homes to rare species such as wolves and bears.
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Section 3 I can't believe you're still in the library, Sally.
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You've been here all day.
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Are you still working on your peer assessment project?
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Hi Steve.
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Yes, I'm still here and I'm nowhere near finished.
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I'm still processing the reading I've done on peer assessment.
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I'm interested to see if students marking each other's work is beneficial.
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I know a lot of the other students are pretty skeptical about its value as a way of assessing their performance.
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They think the tutors are in favour of it because they don't have to spend so long marking.
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But I disagree.
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I think we can learn a great deal from it.
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Yes, I can see one advantage being that it saves time spent going over things in class.
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Well, initially it doesn't seem to work that way,
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and it can be quite a time-consuming business
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because sometimes things have to be marked again if the tutor thinks the students' assessments aren't reliable.
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The real gain is the fact that the students learn to stand back and assess their own assignments objectively
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because they're much more familiar with the marking system.
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Yes, I can see that.
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It gives them an opportunity to reflect on their own performance.
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And how do they feel about having another student mark their work?
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Is that good for rapport?
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In some cases yes, in some cases no. I think more research is needed to answer that question.
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What happens if a tutor notices that the marks for a particular assignment seem wrong?
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Should the students mark them again?
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That might not make any difference.
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So in that case, the tutor would have to remark all those assignments
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and then go through the marking criteria really carefully with the students on the next assignment with some sample answers.
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Right.
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I've been reading about a research project on peer assessment.
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The researchers invited a group of students from two different universities to attend a one-day conference.
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They also invited some university lecturers to attend.
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Each student gave a short presentation on a project of their choice.
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Each of these presentations was assessed individually by all the participants,
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both students and lecturers.
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To support their marking, they used a set of assessment guidelines
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that had been prepared the day before by a random selection of students.
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So, were the student markers reliable?
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Well, comparisons were made between certain categories of student markers and the group as a whole,
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including the lecturers.
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The findings showed that there were some variations in the way different groups marked.
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Gender did come into play, for example.
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I expect the male students were more generous when marking female presenters, were they?
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Quite the reverse, actually.
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They were harder on the female presenters than on the males,
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which wasn't what I'd expected either.
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Did female students show any bias towards male presenters?
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Interestingly not.
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So, does that suggest women are fairer and more reliable markers than men?
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Well, I wouldn't go that far.
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It's only a small sample.
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But significantly, the results showed that when women marked other women,
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this didn't affect the grades they gave.
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What about age?
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Were you able to come to any conclusions about that?
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Yes, because we had some mature students presenting
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and we found the marks awarded to them by their younger peers were rather more generous.
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Oh, I wonder why that is.
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Now, you said there were groups of students from two universities.
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Did they tend to favour students making presentations from their own universities?
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It didn't seem to influence marking one way or the other,
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which is quite encouraging.
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We'd been interested to see if students' personal relationships affected their objectivity.
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One striking variation, though, was in the students who'd been asked to help devise the criteria for the marking scheme.
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They were actually the toughest markers of all,
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marking consistently below the tutors.
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Really?
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Well, it sounds as if it's generated lots of useful data.
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Section 4 Good morning and welcome back to this series of linguistics lectures.
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Today, I will be talking about the language Bishlama,
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which is a form of pidgin English.
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Linguists use the term pidgin to describe new languages that are created by combining two or more existing languages,
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often in a simplified form.
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The study of pidgin languages is important because it provides us with information about language change and modification.
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The pidgin English known as Bishlama is used in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu,
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a group of islands where 81 first languages are still regularly used by the local people people.
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There are a further 17 local languages that are in danger of dying out and 8 that have been identified as extinct.
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This gives a total of 106 first languages in all,
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a very high number for a small country with a population of just 200,000 people.
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Then thinking about foreign languages,
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English is the most important and has official status largely because it is the medium for all education purposes.
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However, it is Bishlama that is the most widely spoken language in the country,
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used regularly by more than 90% of the population.
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We should note here that in earlier times some people had negative feelings towards the language.
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In fact, for many years it was commonly referred to as a broken language and its use was discouraged.
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But attitudes have changed dramatically and today the people of Vanuatu are very proud of this unique language.
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It is only when we understand the historical context that we can comprehend just why Bishlama developed in Vanuatu.
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The first form of pidgin English in this region can be traced to around 1800
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when foreign traders arrived and local people were recruited to work as sailors.
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On board multilingual ships, there was an obvious need for a common tongue and Pigeon English was born.
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This early form of Bishlama continued to spread as trade in the Pacific developed in sandalwood and other local commodities.
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Then from about 1860, a lot of people from Vanuatu travelled to Australia to work on the new plantations as labourers.
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Again, because of the multilingual nature of these workplaces,
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it was very important to have a common language.
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Finally, in modern times, there have been other pressures that have maintained the need for a common language.
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Like many other parts of the world from about the 1950s,
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Vanuatu experienced a significant migration of its people from small villages into the city,
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and it has been here that Bishlama has really established itself as the country's first language.
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So then, how can we describe the language itself?
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In general terms, pidgin languages can be defined as extremely simple versions of the original language.
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However, this is not a satisfactory definition in this case,
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and linguists prefer to describe Bishlama as a developed pidgin,
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because it has more rules and ideas than most simple pidgin languages found in other parts of the world.
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Let's think first about the vocabulary.
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Because Britain was the colonial power,
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the majority of Bishlama's vocabulary is derived from English.
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However, some care needs to be taken here.
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For example, the word from in Bishlama can also mean because of,
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so we need to be aware that words can have a wider range of meanings in Bishlama.
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Indeed, there are numerous other potentially misleading terms,
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and English is not the only contributor to the vocabulary.
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Again, because of the region's history there are some words,
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around 5-10% that are derived from French.
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Then, a relatively small number of words have been taken from local, Pacific languages.
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Usually this is the case where there is no English equivalent for naturally occurring phenomena
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or to describe some aspect of the culture that is unique to the country.
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Finally, a word about grammar.
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Although the vocabulary is based largely on English,
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it's important to note that the grammatical structure of Bishlama is derived from patterns common in the local languages of Vanuatu.
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So, for example, there are two distinct pronouns meaning we.
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One means I and you,
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and another means I and some others, but not you.
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confusing in English, but in the local languages such distinctions are common.
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A different example concerns the word long.
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It is almost the only preposition in Bishlama
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and may be used in place of a whole range of English words such as at,
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to, with, on, in and so on.
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Context & Background
The transcript features a conversation between a customer and a festival office representative about the Beechon Festival. The dialogue captures essential details concerning the festival's schedule, activities, and logistics, reflecting real-world communication in English. This context is perfect for learners interested in enhancing their listening and speaking skills in a practical setting. The setting not only illustrates day-to-day queries but also serves as a fantastic resource for shadow speech exercises, enabling learners to immerse themselves in a variety of conversational scenarios.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- “I want to check some details about…” - Useful for inquiring about event specifics or information.
- “Is that the tour?” - A common question structure for seeking clarification.
- “Does she need to get a ticket in advance?” - Great for asking about preparation and requirements.
- “That sounds good.” - A positive affirmation validating another person's suggestion.
- “Are they going ahead with…” - Ideal for querying if plans will proceed, especially relevant in uncertain situations.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To effectively tackle the listening and speaking challenges presented in this video, follow these structured steps:
- Listen Actively: Play the video and listen carefully to the conversation. Focus on the intonation and pronunciation of the speakers.
- Transcribe Key Segments: Write down short dialogues or sentences that resonate with you. This enhances comprehension and retention.
- Shadow Speech: While listening, try to repeat what you hear immediately. This shadowing technique will significantly improve your English pronunciation and fluency.
- Text-to-Speech Practice: Use the phrases extracted above to practice sentence construction. Repeat them aloud in different contexts.
- Record Yourself: After a few shadowing sessions, record your voice and play it back. Compare your pronunciation with the original speakers and identify areas for improvement.
Utilizing the shadow speaks method in this engaging format will not only bolster your speaking skills but also enhance your confidence when engaging in conversations about various topics, helping you become more fluent in English.
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.
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