Shadowing Practice: Is success genetic? | Kathryn Paige Harden - Learn English Speaking with Video
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There's this classic thought experiment about two gardens.
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So imagine one garden and it has the perfect amount of sunlight and then you plant different flowers in that garden.
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And you can look and say, well the differences between them and these plants heights is about the seeds that I planted.
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They all have the perfect environmental conditions.
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The differences between them are genetic.
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Now imagine another garden and it is neglected.
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If you looked at that and you said, all those plants are stunted and dead.
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And then you said, ah, the difference between these two gardens is
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that these plants in the neglected garden are genetically shorter than these plants in the rich wealth resource garden.
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We can't then say that all of the differences between tall
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and short plants across very different environments are in fact due to genetics.
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It's a really obvious thing when it comes to plants,
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but it's a really difficult thing for people to keep in mind when we're talking about individual versus group differences.
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This relationship between heritability and response to the environment is a complicated one.
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Heritability is the proportion of variation in a population that's due to genetic differences between people.
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It's a confusing term because people misinterpret heritable to mean genetically determined, unmodifiable by the environment, or innate.
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And it doesn't mean any of those things, but it's hard for us scientists to describe why.
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The thing about factoring in environment and genetic studies is that we already face an enormous statistical power problem.
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Do you have enough people?
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Do you have enough observations?
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Do you have enough data to be able to reliably say
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that what you're picking up on is real and not just random chance?
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Genetic studies that ignore the environment
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and are just looking for the quote -unquote main effects of
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genes are already requiring sample sizes in excess of one million people.
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So when you start to factor in gene by environment interaction, the power problem gets even bigger.
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Statistics is hard, biology is hard, a lot of times people haven't had exposure to this since high school, if at all.
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In the larger conversation, we're trying to make sense of information about race, we're trying to make sense of information about genes, about education, about inequality.
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I think it's really understandable that people have a hard time thinking about how all these things go together.
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Portability is this idea that what we've discovered in one sample or one group of people,
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how much can we port that over to a new group of people
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and trust that things are going to work in the same way.
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So we see this all the time with our social science effects.
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A minimum wage change in one state doesn't have the same effect is a minimum wage change in another state.
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What I think people often miss is that genetic causes can operate in the same way.
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So just because a gene influences the probability of an outcome in this group of people, to the extent that that's probabilistic rather than deterministic,
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to the extent that that genetic effect is moderated by the environment,
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we're not going to be able to expect it to be portable when we study a new group of people.
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When I say that something's heritable, I mean that within a group of people that have experienced roughly equivalent environmental conditions,
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genetic differences between them are related to the phenotypic differences between them.
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The genes of the seeds are related to the height of the flowers, but that doesn't allow us to make the leap
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that differences between groups that have experienced really different environmental legacies are due to genetics.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Is success genetic?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: genetic, difference, garden, environment, plant. This video has 30 sentences and 613 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:52. The speaker talks at a natural 159 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| genetic adjective | /d͡ʒəˈnɛt.ɪk/ | Relating to genetics or genes. |
| gene noun | /d͡ʒiːn/ | A theoretical unit of heredity of living organisms which may take several values and (in principle) predetermines a precise trait of an organism's form… |
| extent noun | /ɪkˈstɛnt/ | A range of values or locations. |
| wage noun | /weɪd͡ʒ/ | An amount of money paid to a worker for a specified quantity of work, usually calculated on an hourly basis and expressed in an amount of money per hour. |
| flower noun | /ˈfloʊɚ/ | A reproductive structure in angiosperms (flowering plants), often conspicuously colourful and typically including sepals, petals, and either or both stamens… |
| seed noun | /siːd/ | Any propagative portion of a plant which may be sown, such as true seeds, seed-like fruits, tubers, or bulbs. |
| genetics noun | /dʒəˈnɛt.ɪks/ | The branch of biology that deals with the transmission and variation of inherited characteristics, in particular chromosomes and DNA. |
| neglect verb | /nɪˈɡlɛkt/ | To fail to care for or attend to something. |
| genetically adverb | /d͡ʒəˈneɾɪkli/ | In a manner relating to genes or genetics. |
| ignore verb | /ɪɡˈnɔː/ | To deliberately not listen or pay attention to. |
| complicated adjective | /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/ | Difficult or convoluted. |
| exposure noun | /ɪkˈspəʊ.ʒə(ɹ)/ | The condition of being exposed, uncovered, or unprotected. |
| discover verb | /dɪˈskʌvə/ | To find or learn something for the first time. |
| resource noun | /ɹɪˈzɔːs/ | Something that one uses to achieve an objective, e.g. raw materials or personnel. |
| 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… |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| go together verb | To be in a relationship. |
| pick up on verb | To notice, observe, learn, or understand, especially something otherwise overlooked. |
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 | haven't had · we've discovered · have experienced |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is neglected · are stunted · is moderated |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 13 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, doesn't, gonna. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: exposure /ɪkˈspəʊ.ʒə(ɹ)/, interaction /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/, observation /ˌɑbzɚˈveɪʃn̩/, proportion /pɹəˈpɔɹʃən/, variation /ˌvɛəɹiˈeɪʃn̩/
- Long words — get the stress right: genetically /d͡ʒəˈneɾɪkli/, complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/, experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, interaction /ˌɪn.təˈɹæk.ʃən/, biology /baɪˈɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/
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 genetic, gene, extent.
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.