Shadowing Practice: NASA tested my chain theory in space - Learn English Speaking with Video

You know what would be neat,

Steve, if you could beam yourself up here for a weekend and we could just become the perpetual uber geek.

About 10 years ago, I was playing with some beads in my loft when I accidentally discovered this weird chain fountain phenomenon, also known as the mold effect.

No big deal.

And unbelievably, an astronaut just video called me from space so

that we could figure out together whether this one little detail about my explanation of the chain fountain is correct,

because this one little detail can only be tested in zero G.

And along the way, we discovered that chain behaves a lot more weirdly than either of us had predicted.

More on how all this came about later.

But first, what is this thing that we were testing?

Well, my explanation of the chain fountain is generally considered to be correct following a six video argument with Mehdi from Electroboom.

He was right.

But one part of my explanation had to kind of just be accepted as true without really testing it because, well, it can't be tested properly in gravity.

Now this might make me sound like a sole winner, but I really just wanted to prove this last little bit experimentally.

And anyway, assuming it is right, I just knew that it would look insanely cool in space.

But what is this crucial part of the explanation that we're all just accepting?

Well, in the absence of gravity, like on the ISS, if you were to release some chain, it should just float there in whatever random shape it was given.

But what if you were to tug on one end of the chain?

Would it flatten out or would it hold its shape and flow like this?

We need it to hold its shape for my explanation of the chain fountain to be right, but why?

Well look, I can highly recommend a series of videos by me and Mehdi if you want the full explanation, link in the card in the description for that.

But in short, the chain rises above the pot in a fountain because of an extra upward force coming from the pot.

How strong does that force need to be though?

Well it needs to be able to overcome the weight of this arc of chain that would obviously fall under gravity.

And that's it, that's all you need.

But you might look at this system and think, well no, the extra upward force from the part needs to be much greater than that,

because look, the chain is being yanked downwards by this large bit of chain down here.

But that's the crazy thing, according to the maths, that yanking of the chain has no influence on the arc at all.

If gravity wasn't a factor, the arc would be fixed there in space even though it was being yanked downwards at one end.

Or at least that's the theory, that's what we want to test.

We want to test the theory

that a chain moving at constant speed will flow through its own shape

so long as it isn't acted on by an external force like gravity.

What I really wanted to test was this, you've got a chain floating stationary in space and you tug on one end, let's see what happens.

But it turns out it's impossible to get a chain to be stationary in space.

I actually think that setup wouldn't have been fruitful anyway, because the behavior that we're looking for only works in steady state, not while the chain is speeding up.

And the whole chain would have had to speed up from zero movement in this setup anyway.

A side note on how chaotic the movement of the chain is, Don likened it to the movement of molecules.

We tend to model these like slowly moving blobs, but there's a lot of energy down there.

And just like in zero-g, there's nowhere for the energy to go, so the molecules sort of wiggle and writhe about just like the chain here.

Anyway, my other idea to test the theory was to hold the chain in something analogous to a pot.

In other words, just have it all bunched up somewhere

and then pull one end of the chain out of that bunched up mess at a constant speed.

And as you're pulling it, if you give it a shape, then it should hold that shape in space as it's leaving the pot.

It should just add into what you've already created without that shape changing.

The problem with that is it's basically impossible to pull something at a constant speed

and the clumped up beads just get tangled and they start to float apart.

And by the way, we only had 25 minutes for the call because a satellite was gonna go out of view.

Actually, a bit of a tangent about the tech behind the video call.

I put some Skype sounds in at the start of this video because I thought it was funny.

But of course, you can't use Skype to talk to someone in space because...

I mean, you need to think about satellites and how are you going to...

It was Microsoft Teams.

It was a Teams call.

And like, there was basically no lag.

I don't understand how they did it.

But anyway, I had one more idea for how to test the theory.

What if we turn the chain into a loop and then put the loop into a non-circular shape like a rectangle?

My idea was to then grab the opposite sides of the rectangle and then like pull them like that.

So that you're not throwing the chain anywhere, you're just giving the chain motion like around the loop of chain.

Intuitively you would expect it to pop out into a circle, but if my theory is right then it should hold that rectangular shape.

Third hand we're making a triangle and we're gonna release it together.

One, two, three.

Three.

It's really...

It's impossible.

But obviously we couldn't actually get the chain to form that shape and hold that shape without anyone touching it,

because chain just doesn't do what you want it to do in zero gravity.

On Earth it's so easy to get something to stop moving, you just put it down.

And when you took your hand away from the bead chain there was just so much energy in there already, it just kind of spreads out.

But we just needed to get some non-circular shape and we needed to get the chain flowing.

Yes.

Hey, look at that.

It's almost a circle now.

That's very cool, isn't it?

Yeah, it is.

Which is actually interestingly not what I expected because I was expecting it not to pop out into a circle.

Look at that.

It started, it's still rotating and I think the radial acceleration is going to straighten this thing out.

Let's just keep it going.

You've done stuff with like a drop of water and a bubble and things like that haven't you?

Where you've got this you've got this surface tension that's turning into a sphere or a circle.

You don't have that here.

So I don't think it ever will turn into a circle.

That's the thing that is hopefully going to demonstrate this weird thing about chains.

How cool is that though?

It does seem to be holding its shape.

Look, even from this angle, you can see part of the chain was actually bent out towards Don

and that part of the chain shape is holding too.

But Don has a point actually, the chain does seem to be very slowly turning into a circle, or at least it's becoming more rounded.

So does that mean I'm wrong?

Well, the mathematical analysis assumes that there is no friction between the joints of the chain.

And I had a suspicion that that might be why the real chain is slowly becoming circular.

So I asked my friend Martin to simulate different scenarios for me.

Here, there's no friction between the joints.

But look what happens when we turn friction on.

Over time, the chain becomes more and more circular.

So I think it's fair to say that the chain is behaving how we would expect.

Actually we discovered a few other really interesting things on the call.

100

You are so right this behaves totally different than a string

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because of the lack of friction at every joint

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and thread for sewing it sticks out fairly straight It's inherent stiffness shows up.

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But here with these low friction joints between every segment, it's amazing what this thing does.

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It's so interesting, isn't it?

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How many things behave completely differently when you remove gravity.

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I had no idea that rope and string would just straighten out because of the elasticity in it.

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So you've got an intuition for how string and rope behaves on the ISS.

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And then the chain doesn't behave like that.

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You see, I could actually steer the string around by torquing on the yoya,

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but a beaded chain has the mind of its own.

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It responds to air current.

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Yeah.

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It responds to gravity gradient.

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If you don't have air currents, it'll end up stretching out in the direction of the gravity gradient if you leave it alone.

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No. It's really quite amazing.

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It doesn't work the way we thought it was going to work, but then that's what it's like when you're doing a discovery.

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So this is around the world, and then this is the tether of cyst.

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So when you are in weightlessness, you get to make up your own yo-yo trick names.

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And then let's see if I can make it come better.

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There we go.

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Prior to the call, Don was experimenting with static charge, which meant we could loosely hold one end of the chain in place.

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Whoa!

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Whoa!

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See?

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It's...

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Oh, that's crazy.

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Yeah.

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And I have video of this with a nice black background.

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Circular wave.

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Hold off again.

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And notice now with one free end,

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it's really tough to control it, send a wave down.

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Each bead here is about three millimeters.

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I put a string of French clips together, and these are 50 millimeter links.

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And I just want to show you that this behaves just like the beaded chain,

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but the leg scale is 3 millimeters to 50 millimeters.

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You might be wondering how all this came about, by the way.

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Well, after I made that video in my loft, I've been milking it ever since.

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In fact, you could argue that my entire career is built on a flailing chain of beads.

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Like, at one point, I held the world record for the tallest chain fountain, but eventually it was taken by a TV show in China, until I took it back.

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Three, two, one.

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What the hell happened there?

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And I guess at some point a three-story high sculpture was erected in Guatemala.

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And of course I got into a real public feud with that scoundrel electro-boom about it.

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And it was during that video argument that I mentioned the behaviour that we've been looking for here.

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So in that video I asked if anyone knows how to get the attention of someone on the International Space Station,

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let me know know well stefan ennis from the european space agency got in touch thanks stefan

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and eventually samantha christopheretti climbed aboard a rocket with four meters

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of bead chain in her pocket unfortunately she was quite busy what with being the commander of

150

that mission so she didn't really have an awful lot of time to be fiddling about with beads.

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But she got the chain up there, and that's an important first step.

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And brilliantly, she put me in touch with another astronaut, Don Pettit.

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Now, the great thing about Don is you can nerd snipe him.

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Oh, look at that.

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Look at that.

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I mean, there's a lot of great things about Don.

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But anyway, I explained about the bead chain currently languishing on the International Space Station.

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And he really got into it.

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And he said he'd look for the beads next time he was up there.

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And then at some point we were emailing about the experiments.

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And he said, you know, look, it's hard to really communicate over email.

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Let's have a video call.

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I was like, yes, that would be amazing.

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Just on a personal note, this was obviously a once in a lifetime experience.

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Just unbelievable.

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There was a period as a kid where I wanted to be an astronaut.

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But the job that I ended up having, which is making science videos on YouTube, somehow means that I ended up having a video call with one.

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And like we were doing science together.

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science that had never been done before you know it just I almost can't believe it happened

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but yeah beads in space I think I peaked literally a huge thank you to Issa

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and Samantha and Don

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and NASA for making it happen an extra big thank you

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to John Stevens the person on the ground at NASA who put the video call together, made sure that all worked because honestly,

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like I was pretty nervous about it because we only had one shot.

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It was 25 minutes and my internet at home was terrible.

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So I had to, you know, set up somewhere else that had good internet.

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And John just made it all really smooth, put my mind at ease.

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The full conversation unedited plus Don's extra footage that he filmed for me outside of the video call,

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unedited, is available over on my Patreon.

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Link in the description for that.

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Oh, also thank you to Rohan Francis from Medlife Crisis because he was all over this, even before I got in touch with Esaf.

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Look at him go.

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So there you go, that's the evidence that we have from space.

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What do you think?

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Does it prove that a chain will flow through a fixed shape in the absence of gravity?

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Does it change your opinion of my explanation of the chain fountain?

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It was a great demonstration seeing it pass through the same path through the loop

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and your explanation about why it would eventually turn into a full circle due to friction was pretty adequate.

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So I guess I agree with everything you said in your video and don't have to embarrass myself making another debunk video.

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Although you didn't quite demonstrate if the path will remain the same if the chain wasn't in a loop.

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Another stimulation might be nice,

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but what would be better is to take 100 meters of chain into space and drag it behind you in a spacewalk. Do it!

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We just got the rug pulled out from under us, Steve.

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It's been so interesting, so interesting to see it.

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yeah it is and and it was been really good actually talking to you so i could understand

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you know what we want to look for it looks like

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we're just gonna walk off the end of our keu band

198

and then i'm gonna have to vacate because i think that's it okay wow oh

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43 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “NASA tested my chain theory in space”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: chain, shape, space, bead, gravity. This video has 198 sentences and 2564 words to shadow. The speech runs for 15:02. The speaker talks at a natural 171 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

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

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
bead noun	/ˈbiːd/	Each in a string of small balls making up the rosary or paternoster.
fountain noun	/ˈfaʊn.tɪn/	A natural source of water; a spring.
behave verb	/bɪˈheɪv/	To conduct (oneself) well, or in a given way; to conform.
friction noun	/ˈfɹɪkʃən/	The rubbing of one object or surface against another.
circular adjective	/ˈsɜɹ.kjə.ləɹ/	Of or relating to a circle.
yank verb	/ˈjæŋk/	To pull (something) with a quick, strong action.
astronaut noun	/ˈæstɹəˌnɔt/	A member of the crew of a spaceship or other spacecraft that travels beyond Earth's atmosphere, or someone trained to serve that purpose.
float verb	/fləʊt/	To be supported by a fluid of greater density (than the object).
downwards adverb	/ˈdaʊnwɚdz/	Towards a lower place; towards what is below.
gradient noun	/ˈɡɹeɪdiənt/	A slope or incline.
rectangle noun	/ˈrɛktæŋɡl̩/	Any quadrilateral having opposing sides parallel and four right angles.
straighten verb	/ˈstɹeɪtn̩/	To cause to become straight.
unedited adjective		Not having been altered from the original version; not edited.
loft noun	/lɔft/	An attic or similar space (often used for storage) in the roof of a house or other building.
stationary adjective	/ˈsteɪʃəˌnɛɹi/	Not moving.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
end up verb		To bring to a conclusion.
call together verb		To request that (certain people) assemble; to gather (certain people) for a meeting.
fall under verb		To belong to for purposes of categorization.
figure out verb		To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
hold off verb		To delay (someone or something) temporarily; to keep at bay.
make up verb	/ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/	To constitute, to compose.
pass through verb		To go through, to travel through, to transit or lie across a place or from one place to another.
set up verb	/ˌsɛt ˈʌp/	To make ready for use.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

I don't understand how they did it.
That's very cool, isn't it?
Let's just keep it going.
You don't have that here.
So does that mean I'm wrong?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	If you don't have air currents, it'll end · if the path will remain
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	I've been milking · we've been looking
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	be tested · be accepted · was given
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	you've already created · You've done

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 46 contractions and reduced forms, such as you've, don't, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: tether /ˈtɛðəɹ/, writhe /ɹaɪð/, mathematical /ˌmæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪ.kəl/, mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: friction /ˈfɹɪkʃən/, stationary /ˈsteɪʃəˌnɛɹi/, languish /ˈlæŋ.ɡwɪʃ/, intuition /ˌɪn.tjuːˈɪʃ.ən/, stimulation /stɪm.jʊˈleɪ.ʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: stationary /ˈsteɪʃəˌnɛɹi/, analogous /əˈnæl.ə.ɡəs/, elasticity /ɪ.læsˈtɪs.ɪ.ti/, intuition /ˌɪn.tjuːˈɪʃ.ən/, rectangular /ɹɛkˈtæŋɡjəlɚ/

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 bead, fountain, behave.

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: NASA tested my chain theory in space - Learn English Speaking with Video

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