Shadowing Practice: Reading & Spelling Teacher Training Section 9 #logicofenglish #scienceofreading #reading #spelling - Learn English Speaking with Video

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As we conclude the Logic of English teachers training, I want to present to you some of the exciting research that has been done on literacy.

This research, I think, will help you to understand how vital this knowledge is to our society

and to changing how reading is taught.

First of all, I was presented with information about longitudinal studies that have been done about reading education in the United States.

Now, longitudinal studies include thousands and thousands of students.

This slide was shared with me by Dr. Readline,

one of the leading experts in reading education and a professor of neurology at Southern Methodist University.

This slide shows us some studies that have been done, and on the left side you'll see the researcher's name,

then you'll see the number of hours of instruction as well as how many students were in those classes

or in those groups.

After that you'll see a column showing the number of students reading below the 30th percentile before instruction,

and you'll notice that it's about 30 % of students.

In the final column, you will see that there can be dramatic changes in as little as 80 hours of systematic instruction.

Now, I believe that all students in the United States have the right to learn to read.

I believe that it is a basic skill and

that we should be teaching reading from the beginning at the earliest ages

so that everyone can master it and everyone can go on and to succeed in school.

There's also been some additional studies that are very exciting.

Functional MRI studies are done where a student is reading in an MRI machine, and what they can track is blood flow and oxygenation.

What they have found is that students who are struggling readers are using the front right side of their brain.

Students who are strong readers are using the back left side of their brain primarily.

Now, the back left side of the brain is called Broca's area, and this area is the same areas we used for speaking and for listening.

It is our speech areas.

There's also a little bit of activity in strong readers in the visual sections.

What they have found is that when struggling students are taught systematically how the language works,

phonograms, rules, how to read when they're actually instructed in reading and not just left to guess,

that in as little as 80 hours of systematic instruction, not only do their test scores go up, not only do they become better readers,

their brains go to look like that of strong readers.

And this is really remarkable and incredibly encouraging.

It means that for struggling readers, usually there is nothing organically wrong with them.

It means that this is probably just a teaching issue.

The way that student has been taught has not made sense to them.

Now, I asked a leading researcher this after I heard him speak.

I asked him, what is the brain doing

when it is using the front right side of their brain of the struggling readers?

What is that about?

And the researcher said he didn't know, but what they do know is that area of the brain is higher order thinking and visual centers.

And it immediately connected to me that what I had been teaching many, many years ago were reading strategies.

I was told to tell students that if they didn't know a word, they should reread the passage.

If they still didn't know, they should reread a little farther back.

If they still didn't know, they should look at pictures.

And if they still didn't know, they should go on.

These students were taught to guess.

And that is what a lot of students in our schools think that reading is it's about guessing.

And so it's no wonder they're using higher order thinking areas of their brain.

When we teach them the sounds and the phonograms, we make connections to the auditory parts of the language

and they're able to transition and see

that the written language is all about something that someone could have or might have spoken.

It's the stories and the words.

It's auditory communication in a visual form.

It's also exciting to know that the brain can be rewired through explicit teaching.

We don't have to feel hopeless.

There is hope.

As we conclude this training course,

I want to talk about the findings of the National Reading Panel and how they relate to the logic of English.

The National Reading Panel identified five strands of reading instruction that are essential to developing strong readers and spellers.

The first is phonemic awareness.

You'll notice that in this training we dealt with phonemic awareness in depth and I provided you ideas.

Many, many students are stuck at this level and it is vital that teachers understand it.

This course is also delved deeply into systematic phonics.

That is really what the logic of English is about.

It's about how the language works on a linguistics level.

We've also talked extensively about vocabulary development and morphology and how to develop a student's vocabulary.

The fourth area that the National Reading Panel identified was fluency.

Now fluency is very important, but you'll notice that we did not talk about it in this training.

I'd like to give you a few tips right now on developing fluency.

The biggest way that we can develop fluency in students is practice.

Lots of practice.

First, we practice having them read words, then phrases, then sentences, then books.

Have those students read aloud.

Have them read the same passage aloud multiple times and work on fluency.

There is not a lot of magic to developing fluency other than lots and lots of practice.

And practice that builds from easier contexts to more and more difficult contexts.

The fifth area is reading comprehension.

Now reading comprehension is vital to the success of students in learning how to read.

However, I did not address reading comprehension in this training video.

I'd like to say that reading comprehension should be taught systematically.

We need to teach students how to find the main idea.

We need to teach them how to infer.

We need to teach students the strategies for comprehension, and this is really vital for students who struggle with auditory processing.

Those students will need a lot of help helping to understand how texts are organized and how to better comprehend them.

However, the reason I did not spend time on that in this training series is one, it's beyond the scope of the series,

and two, I really believe that many of the problems

that we have in our society with reading is because we start here.

I know many kindergarten programs that began on day one or day two with reading instruction with reading comprehension.

And we forget that the first four parts build into the skills needed to learn the skills for reading comprehension.

So you can watch from the logic of English in the future.

There'll be more information for you on reading comprehension, but I really want to focus teachers

and parents' attention to the foundational building blocks of reading that build up to this stage.

I also want to give parents and teachers a little tip.

Many of our nation's students are struggling, and those students, as we have said, experience tremendous amounts of shame in regards to reading.

Learning the rules and the phonograms can transform lives.

It can transform how students read.

But to be honest, the most difficult part of teaching a student who's struggling how to read is getting beyond the emotional barrier.

And so I'd like to talk to you about a few things

that you can do if you have an older student who is struggling.

First of all, I really encourage you to guard their hearts.

Do that by helping them to understand that it's not their fault.

I know that one of my children was struggling and he couldn't read at the beginning of third grade,

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and that is part of how I discovered the logic of English.

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But there was a day when I had to go to him and I had to say to him,

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I am really sorry that you were taught in a way that didn't make sense to you.

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And I have since learned some things that I believe will be really helpful to you.

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In that conversation, it was really neat to see that the weight came off and he began to go,

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you know, you're right, it didn't make sense to me.

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And he began to internalize it as something that was mistaught rather than something that he had done wrong.

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Now, I want to be careful here because teachers

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and parents too often internalize a lot of shame and responsibility themselves in this situation,

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but I want you to understand you cannot teach what you do not know.

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So if this is new information to you, just be thankful that you have it and move forward

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and understand that there's nothing you can do about being able to teach something that you didn't know in the first place,

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but you can become part of transformation.

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The next suggestion I have for you with those struggling students is to not torture read.

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Now, sometimes I share this with public schools and I've actually had teachers gasp when I explain what I mean by this.

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So just hold your breath if you're a public school teacher or a teacher who might be shocked.

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But if you have a student in third, fourth, fifth grade, or an older student who is struggling with reading,

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I would ask you to stop having that student read aloud

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or requiring them to read texts until you have taught them the rules and phonograms.

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You can teach the rules and phonograms to students in four to eight weeks of intensive instruction.

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And what you do is you give

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that student's heart a little bit of time to.. heal a little bit of time to stop wrestling

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so much and then you provide them the tools so

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that they can read well and Then you present them texts again

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and now when they have a text in front of them that they're struggling with you can say oh

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Here's the C is before an E So what is it going to say

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and it's going to relate to the rules and the answers

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that they have been taught and in this way they can move forward.

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And I just challenge you to think, you know, if they have been struggling for three, four, five, six years,

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taking a few weeks off from reading texts and trying to comprehend them is not going to hurt them.

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It's not going to impede their development.

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Rather, spend that time learning the rules and the phonograms.

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If the Logic of English teachers training videos have changed how you think about language,

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And if you believe that this is part of the solution to changing the literacy crisis in the English -speaking world,

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I encourage you to join us in becoming part of the solution.

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I encourage you to tell your neighbors and your friends the spelling rules that are most exciting and interesting to you.

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It might sound terribly geeky to go to your neighbor and say that, I learned that English words don't end in V,

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therefore I need to add a silent final E.

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But until everybody knows this information, we as a nation and as a culture are going to struggle with reading and spelling.

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We have to change the misconception that English is illogical and impossible and full of exceptions,

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and we're only going to do this when all of us take responsibility for educating those around us.

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I'd encourage you also to share the information that you've learned on social media,

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to work on Facebook and Twitter and all the different avenues that you have,

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blogs, write reviews of uncovering the logic of English, share these videos.

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You can become part of social change and you can become part of reversing the literacy crisis in this generation.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Reading & Spelling Teacher Training Section 9”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: student, reading, struggling, English, teacher. This video has 144 sentences and 2039 words to shadow. The speech runs for 11:54. The speaker talks at a natural 171 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 86% 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
reader noun	/ˈɹi.dɚ/	A person who reads.
comprehension noun	/ˌkɑmpɹɪˈhɛnʃn̩/	A thorough understanding.
instruction noun	/ɪnˈstɹʌkʃən/	The act of instructing, teaching, or providing with information or knowledge.
encourage verb	/ɪnˈkʌɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/	To mentally support; to motivate, give courage, hope or spirit.
vital adjective	/ˈvaɪtəl/	Relating to or characteristic of life.
skill noun	/skɪl/	A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate.
literacy noun	/ˈlɪtəɹəsi/	The ability to read and write.
systematic adjective	/ˌsɪs.tɪˈmæt.ɪk/	Carried out according to a planned, ordered procedure.
aloud adverb	/əˈlaʊd/	With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly.
awareness noun	/əˈwɛɹ.nəs/	The state or level of consciousness where sense data can be confirmed by an observer.
column noun	/ˈkɒləm/	A solid upright structure designed usually to support a larger structure above it, such as a roof or horizontal beam, but sometimes for decoration.
slide noun	/ˈslaɪ̯d/	An item of play equipment that children can climb up and then slide down again.
passage noun	/ˈpæsɪd͡ʒ/	A paragraph or section of text or music with particular meaning.
relate verb	/ɹɪˈleɪt/	To tell in a descriptive way.
transform verb	/tɹænsˈfɔɹm/	To change greatly the appearance or form of.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
move forward verb	To cause to make progress.
come off verb	To become detached.
go up verb	To move upwards.

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 done · have been done · There's also been
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	has been done · is taught · was presented
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	students who are · students who struggle · student who is

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 32 contractions and reduced forms, such as didn't, you'll, I'd. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: breathe /bɹiːð/, thankful /ˈθæŋkfəl/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: comprehension /ˌkɑmpɹɪˈhɛnʃn̩/, instruction /ɪnˈstɹʌkʃən/, shock /ʃɔk/, transition /tɹænˈzɪʃ.ən/, exception /əkˈsɛpʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: literacy /ˈlɪtəɹəsi/, systematic /ˌsɪs.tɪˈmæt.ɪk/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, systematically /ˌsɪs.təˈmæt.ɪ.kli/, primarily /ˈpɹaɪ.mə.ɹə.li/

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 reader, comprehension, instruction.

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 →