Shadowing Practice: Is it better to focus on READING or LISTENING? - Ask Ethan - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Now we have the question from Sumo Slam that I hinted at.

And this is, should you focus on reading or listening more?

This is in reference to Matt's newsletter that he sent out a while ago.

I don't actually know exactly when.

But the writer was very intrigued by what he was talking about essentially.

It's a very long question i'll try to summarize it just to make it go quicker

but um oh no this is actually the whole ah this is the whole email that's why it's

so long it's a very long question they copied it here for reference it's basically about it says

that if you focus a lot more on reading

or just reading and listening at the same time

because reading is easier you will get a lot better at

that a lot faster and then you'll build everything on top of that model of the language

rather than a more listening sound focused one

which is how native speakers tend to do it is sort of the idea here um

and so skipping out at the bottom

and like the the statement here at the end is never

let your reading ability get better than your spoken ability right

and then a lot of people talk about having their reading

ability be not too far ahead of their listening ability

but to get the best possible results that's not enough you need to have your reading view worse

then you'll be saying abilities for the spoken language to become

like your full base model of the language sure um

and i those questions started looking at our thoughts on it why do we have reading pretty high up there

and our reasoning for

that sort of thing yeah yeah sumo asked this in um one of the servers

and i wrote a pretty long um written response to it

so i think uh we should probably publish

that as a blog post afterwards so we'll add

that to the to-do list but the short answer here is

that we don't really have enough data to definitively say whether a primary reading focus is more

or less effective than a primary listening focus.

The number of people who achieve really high levels in language learning are few, so it's very anecdotal,

and it's not like those people treated their language learning as an experiment by trying to control all the confounding factors.

So it's really hard to draw conclusions there.

Matt in particular, he and I discussed this a lot when we were writing the roadmap

because his approach to Japanese was very reading focused and then it caused a whole bunch of problems later on.

He basically ignored listening, he ignored pitch accent, he ignored like studying the sounds of the language until he was already reading the fluid.

And then he had to undo a lot of stuff later and had to deliberately study and practice.

So I definitely agree with Matt that you should not allow your reading to completely and totally outstruck your listening.

That does seem to cause problems later on.

People do develop sort of bad habits and bad fossilization of pronunciations and the way things

sound to them that then cause problems later on.

So we agree on that.

His approach at this point has been to take the exact opposite of perspective.

It's like, okay, well, if that doesn't work, then we should completely switch to listening as the primary focus.

That's what natives do, that's what babies do, so we should try and emulate that.

I'm less convinced about that argument.

I think that there are positive examples in both a reading-focused paradigm in terms of learning

and there are positive examples in a listening-focused paradigm, and there are negative examples in both of those as well.

So I don't think we can draw significant conclusions across

either one to say it has to be this one or it has to be this one.

From our perspective, our focus as a company is to increase the success rate of learners.

And when we say success rate, we mean the number of people who achieve their goal of functional fluency,

meaning they can like comfortably integrate into a culture and use the language in their day-to-day life.

They don't just start learning for 10 minutes a day and then burn out in a couple weeks and just to say, oh, I guess I'm not cut out for Spanish or whatever.

Right.

So we're really, really focused on that success rate, meaning

that they can stick with it they can be sustainable with

it uh we're not going for speed we're not even going

for like native level we are just going for how many

people can we get to this high level of fluency

and then if they want to go beyond that that's great um

and if they want to like try

and get there as quickly as possible that's great too but we're really focused on just that success rate

And from our perspective, reading is so much easier than listening

that the fastest way that you can get to a point where you enjoy yourself, and we believe that enjoyment is key to being able to do it sustainably,

the fastest way to enjoy yourself is to use the written language just because it makes the process so much easier.

You don't have to deal with the ambiguity of listening.

However, we do completely respect the fact that reading alone, pure reading without any listening at all can cause serious problems later on,

which is why we promote listening and reading together through as much of the early process as possible,

which is why subtitles and TV shows are sort of a great mix or podcasts with transcripts are a great mix.

And we call this multi-channel input or dual channel input.

So we've tried to weigh the pros and cons of all these different configurations to optimize for a success rate, for a higher success rate in language learning.

So from our perspective, totally fine to be reading, totally fine to have reading be the

paradigm that you base things on as long as you are consistently integrating listening throughout the process.

That being said, definitely more research to be done.

People are completely free to pursue whichever paradigm they think is best.

I cannot say, given the data that I've seen and given the examples that I've seen, that one of them is definitively better or worse than others.

But if your focus is, I just want to make sure that I'm successful in the long term, I want to make sure that this is sustainable, a reading paradigm is going to be easier for you.

If your focus is, I really, really want that high level of listening ability, I really, really want to be sounding super native, then perhaps a listening focus paradigm would be more suitable for you.

Though again, data is still out, jury's still out on whether that really matters in the long term or not.

It's almost like it's a really big question and problem to solve.

Yeah, language learning is weird like that.

It's pretty hard to create these very,

very targeted studies that actually can remove the confounding factors and really focus in on what is causal and what is correlation.

So it's a big field of study

and I'm definitely excited to continue to engage with that and continue to do our own research on it.

But know we're probably gonna be researching this for the next you know two decades only or longer

good all right well thank you for the question to muslim and i already actually put it on our

to-do list for to post the blog post about this that goes into a little bit more depth about it

and so we'll share that when that's when that's ready to go sounds good

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145 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Is it better to focus on READING or LISTENING? - Ask Ethan”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: reading, listening, language, learning, focus. This video has 109 sentences and 1609 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:41. The speaker talks fast, about 185 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 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

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
paradigm noun	/ˈpæɹ.ə.daɪm/	A pattern, a way of doing something; especially a pattern of thought, a system of beliefs, a conceptual framework.
confound verb	/kənˈfaʊnd/	To perplex or puzzle.
definitively adverb	/dɪˈfɪnɪtɪvli/	In a way that is not only decisive, but also conclusive and final.
fluency noun	/ˈfluːənsi/	The quality of smoothness of flow.
learner noun	/ˈlɜɹnəɹ/	One who is learning; one receiving instruction.
sumo noun	/ˈsuːməʊ/	A stylised Japanese form of wrestling in which a wrestler loses if he is forced from the ring, or if any part of his body except the soles of his feet touches…
integrate verb	/ˈɪn.tɪ.ɡɹeɪt/	To include as a constituent part or functionality.
sustainable adjective	/səˈsteɪnəbəl/	Able to be sustained.
ambiguity noun	/æm.bɪˈɡjuː.ɪ.ti/	The state of being ambiguous; the state of leaving room for more than one interpretation.
anecdotal adjective	[ˌænɪkˈdəʊ̯tɫ̩]	Of the nature of or relating to an anecdote.
causal adjective	/ˈkɔːzəl/	Of, relating to, or being a cause of something; causing.
emulate verb	/ˈɛm.jʊ.leɪt/	To copy or imitate, especially a person.
fossilization noun		The process of converting, or of being converted, into a fossil.
intrigue noun	/ˈɪntɹiːɡ/	A complicated or clandestine plot or scheme intended to affect some purpose by secret artifice; conspiracy; stratagem.
optimize verb	/ˈɑptɪmaɪz/	To act optimistically or as an optimist.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
check out verb		To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
clear up verb	/klɪəˈɹʌp/	To clarify, to correct a misconception.
come up verb		To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly.
figure out verb		To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
send out verb		To issue, dispatch or transmit.

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	has been · we've tried · I've seen
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	people who achieve

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 29 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, we're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, correlation /ˌkɔɹ.əˈleɪ.ʃən/, configuration /kənˌfɪɡ.əˈɹeɪ̯.ʃən/, publish /ˈpʌblɪʃ/, confusion /kənˈfjuːʒən/
Long words — get the stress right: definitively /dɪˈfɪnɪtɪvli/, sustainable /səˈsteɪnəbəl/, ambiguity /æm.bɪˈɡjuː.ɪ.ti/, personalize /ˈpɜː.sə.nə.laɪz/, sustainably /səˈsteɪ.nə.bli/

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 paradigm, confound, definitively.

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Is it better to focus on READING or LISTENING? - Ask Ethan - Learn English Speaking with Video

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