Shadowing Practice: The Poverty Trap - Learn English Speaking with Video
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The poverty trap represents the set of events likely to keep an individual in poverty unless an external force, like winning the lottery, intervenes.
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Why does this trap exist?
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Let's make it personal.
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Imagine you're a college student, which you probably are.
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You may be fortunate enough to own a desktop or laptop computer to help you complete your college assignments.
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Being able to complete your assignments allows you to complete the course.
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Completing all your courses allows you to graduate from college and then potentially get a well-paying job.
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This means that your current investments in things like education will have a positive effect on your future income.
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In fact, once you graduate, your future income might come close to the highest level it will reach in your life.
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This means that the money you make today will have an exponential increase on your ability to make money in the future.
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For each dollar you make, you are able to save and even invest that dollar for the future.
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In this case, you are investing that dollar in education.
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However, what would happen if your computer broke and you had to get it fixed?
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Even as a poor student, you would probably be able to find a way to pay to get your computer fixed.
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You might have to borrow money or sell something.
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Regardless, you have many more opportunities to handle financial woes than someone who lives in poverty in a less developed country.
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For people in extreme poverty, current investments in things like education will not have an immediate positive effect on future income.
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As you can see from the new graph, money someone makes today doesn't help them make money in the future until they make a certain amount.
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But why is this different for someone living in poverty in a less developed country?
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Consider Grace, a poor farmer in Tanzania who raises chickens and sells them to other people in the village.
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Grace uses the money from selling chickens to pay school fees for her children, and to buy food and clothes for them and her husband who has been sick and unable to work.
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What little she has left over she puts into feeding and caring for the chickens, buying medicine to keep them healthy, and maybe even buying baby chicks if she can afford to.
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In this state, Grace will be able to survive and perhaps even grow her business.
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She could eventually raise her family out of poverty.
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Unfortunately, however, things seldom remain stable.
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The chicken coop will need maintenance, or a child will become sick and need to go to the doctor.
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School fees will increase, or the cost of food will go up, or the house will need repairs.
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In most cases throughout the developing world, there is no health insurance, home insurance, or welfare programs to help Grace with these unexpected costs.
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In any of these situations, because Grace has very little money saved and few options for borrowing, she might have to sell all her chickens or take her children out of school to cover unexpected costs.
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This puts her back in a similar or worse situation than the one she was in before her financial woes began.
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This is the poverty trap.
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It means that if you are very poor, the money you make in the present
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or the education you receive in the present doesn't necessarily help you make more money in the future
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because you have no resources to fall back on in the case of a financial setback.
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Every time something goes well and you are able to save a little money, something comes along and you need to use that money to survive.
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Many people in the developing world are likely to be stuck in this trap and not able to get out, unless some other type of intervention occurs.
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What this intervention looks like is highly contested among academics, politicians, and even business experts.
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But one thing is for sure, the poverty trap is real and creates major problems for billions of people, not to mention our entire global economy.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 38 sentences and 689 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:24. The speaker talks fast, about 202 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
15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- poverty /ˈpɑːvɚti/ (noun) — The quality or state of being poor; lack of money
- trap /tɹæp/ (noun) — A machine or other device designed to catch (and sometimes kill) animals, either by holding them in a container, or by catching hold of part of the body.
- invest /ɪnˈvɛst/ (verb) — To spend money, time, or energy on something, especially for some benefit or purpose; used with in.
- intervention /ɪntɚˈvɛnʃən/ (noun) — The action of intervening; interfering in some course of events.
- unexpected /ʌnɪkˈspɛktɪd/ (adjective) — Not expected, anticipated or foreseen.
- assignment /əˈsaɪn.mənt/ (noun) — The act of assigning; the allocation of a job or a set of tasks.
- necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/ (adverb) — Inevitably; of necessity.
- regardless /ɹɪˈɡɑɹd.lɪs/ (adverb) — Without attention to warnings or indications of bad consequences.
- stable /ˈsteɪ.bəl/ (noun) — A building, wing or dependency set apart and adapted for lodging and feeding (and training) ungulates, especially horses.
- occur /əˈkɜː/ (verb) — To happen or take place.
- welfare /ˈwɛlˌfɛɚ/ (noun) — Health, safety, happiness and prosperity; well-being in any respect.
- repair /ˈɹiːpɛɚ/ (verb) — To restore to good working order, fix, or improve damaged condition; to mend; to remedy.
- potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/ (adverb) — In a manner showing much potential; with the possibility of happening in a given way.
- resource /ɹɪˈzɔːs/ (noun) — Something that one uses to achieve an objective, e.g. raw materials or personnel.
- laptop /ˈlæp.tɑp/ (noun) — A laptop computer.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- live in (verb) — To reside on the premises of one's employer (used especially of domestic staff such as nannies, cooks, maids, etc.)
- back in (verb) — To reverse a vehicle into a space.
- care for (verb) — To attend to the needs of, especially in the manner of a nurse or personal aide.
- come along (verb) — To accompany.
- fall back on (verb) — To turn to as a substitute; to rely on as a backup.
- get out (verb) — To leave or escape.
- go up (verb) — To move upwards.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 3 contractions and reduced forms, such as doesn't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: intervention /ɪntɚˈvɛnʃən/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, politician /ˌpɑ.ləˈtɪʃ.ən/
- Long words — get the stress right: intervention /ɪntɚˈvɛnʃən/, unexpected /ʌnɪkˈspɛktɪd/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, politician /ˌpɑ.ləˈtɪʃ.ən/
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 poverty, trap, invest.
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 · has left |
| Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain | may be · might come · might have |
| Future with “will” will + verb — a decision, promise or prediction | will have · will reach · will not have |
| Obligation: must / have to / need to saying that something is necessary | had to get · have to borrow · need to go |
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.