Shadowing Practice: TOEFL Listening Practice | Academic Talk | 2026 - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
1
Transcribed by
2
ESO, translated by — In child development,
3
one of the most important milestones is a concept called object permanence.
4
This is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched.
5
According to the psychologist Jean Piaget, infants usually develop this skill during the first two years of life.
6
For a very young baby, the world is essentially out of sight, out of mind.
7
If you show a four-month-old a colorful toy and then cover it with a blanket, the baby will act as if the toy has simply vanished.
8
They won't try to lift the blanket because, to them, the toy no longer exists.
9
However, as the child grows, they begin to maintain a mental image of the object.
10
By the age of eight or nine months, if you hide that same toy, the baby will reach out and move the blanket to find it.
11
This shows they understand that the toy is still there even though it is hidden.
12
Developing object permanence is a crucial step
13
because it allows children to move on to more complex tasks like symbolic play and language development.
14
Thank you.
15
Thank you.
16
Thank you.
17
Let's take a look at plate tectonics.
18
For a long time, scientists noticed that continents, like South America and Africa, seem to fit together, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
19
In the early 20th century, the theory of continental drift was proposed.
20
It suggested that millions of years ago, all land was joined in a single supercontinent called Pangaea.
21
Over time, this landmass broke apart and the continents drifted away.
22
But how do continents move?
23
The Earth's outer shell is not one solid piece.
24
It is broken into sections called tectonic plates.
25
These plates float on a layer of hot, semi-liquid rock deep inside the earth.
26
As plates move, they interact.
27
At divergent boundaries, plates pull apart and molten rock rises to create new crust.
28
At convergent boundaries, plates collide.
29
This pressure pushes the land up to form mountain ranges like the Himalayas.
30
these movements explains why we have earthquakes and volcanoes.
31
Thank you.
32
Thank you.
33
Thank you.
📺 Same Channel
B23
TOEFL Listening Practice | Lecture | Arachnophobia
TOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B21
TOEFL Listening Practice | Choose a Response Practice with Answers
TOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C13
TOEFL Listening Lecture | Machine Learning
TOEFL PrepUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B12
TOEFL Listening Practice | Conversation #28 | Student Orientation
TOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B26
TOEFL Listening: Are You Ready for the New Announcements?
TOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C14
TOEFL Listening Practice | Lecture | The Warrior Gene (M.A.O.A.)
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C13
TOEFL Listening Practice 2026 4 Academic Talks Answer Key
TOEFL PrepUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C1TOEFL Listening 2026: Academic Talk Practice to Level Up Test Day
TOEFL PrepUniversity Students
✨ Recommend Video
B28
70 sentences
TOEFL 2026 Listening Practice 1
TOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C12
120 sentences
What is Plate Tectonics: Crash Course Geology #10
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B22
330 sentences
If You Can Understand This News Article, Your English is Excellent!
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepCambridge Exam Prep
B221
7 sentences
How To Keep a Skyscraper From Falling Over
American AccentIELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
C11
153 sentences
TOEFL Listening Practice #3 | Academic Lecture + Questions & Answers
TOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B22
33 sentences
TOEFL 2026 Listening Practice: Listen to 2 Academic Talks
TOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B23
70 sentences
Thor Heyerdahl very | IELTS LISTENING TEST | SECTION-3
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B22
33 sentences
The Ocean Is Deeper Than You Think. We Need Better Maps.
American AccentIELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B21
78 sentences
TOEFL 2026 Complete a Sentence Task: Step-by-Step Strategies and Practice (Part 1)
TOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B21
13 sentences
⭐TOEFL Speaking Task 1 - Listen & Repeat Practice #320 (⭐Advanced)
TOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B225
14 sentences
TOEFL Speaking 2026 Task 2 | Interview Practice #190 | Sample Answers
TOEFL PrepUniversity Students
B16
28 sentences
READING EXPLORER 1 UNIT 4A LIFE BEYOND EARTH
IELTS PrepTOEFL PrepUniversity Students
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This C1 speaking lesson is built on the video “TOEFL Listening Practice”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: plate, toy, object, continents, blanket. This video has 33 sentences and 359 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:44. The speaker talks slowly, about 63 words per minute, so there is time to copy every sound. Only 77% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| continent noun | /ˈkɑntɪnənt/ | One of the main contiguous landmasses, separated by water or geological features, on the surface of a planet, sometimes including its continental shelves and… |
| blanket noun | /ˈblæŋ.kɪt/ | A heavy, loosely woven fabric, usually large and woollen, used for warmth while sleeping or resting. |
| permanence noun | /ˈpɜɹmənəns/ | The state of being permanent. |
| drift noun | /dɹɪft/ | Anything driven at random. |
| collide verb | /kəˈlaɪd/ | To impact directly, especially if violent. |
| convergent adjective | /kənˈvɜː.d͡ʒənt/ | That converges or focuses; converging |
| divergent adjective | /daɪˈvɜː.d͡ʒənt/ | Growing further apart; diverging. |
| jigsaw noun | /ˈd͡ʒɪɡ.sɔ/ | A power saw with fine teeth and a narrow blade which can cut curves in wood or metal. |
| landmass noun | /ˈlænd.mæs/ | A large, continuous area of land surrounded by sea or contiguous with another landmass. |
| supercontinent noun | A very large continent that split into smaller ones in the Earth’s geologic past. | |
| tectonic adjective | Of or relating to construction or to architecture. | |
| tectonics noun | The study of crustal plates and other large-scale structural features of the Earth. | |
| transcribe verb | /trænˈskɹaɪb/ | To convert a representation of language, typically speech but also sign language, etc., to a written representation of it. The term now usually implies the… |
| vanish verb | /ˈvænɪʃ/ | To become invisible or to move out of view unnoticed. |
| crust noun | /kɹʌst/ | A more solid, dense or hard layer on a surface or boundary. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| break apart verb | To dismantle something into its base components. |
| fit together verb | To put the appropriate parts of (something) into a whole; to combine pieces that go together to create a finished object. |
| pull apart verb | To become separated as a result of pulling. |
| reach out verb | To extend one's hand(s) forward; to reach for something. |
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like continent, blanket, permanence.
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.