Shadowing Practice: Why great thinkers ask divergent questions | Natalie Nixon - Learn English Speaking with Video
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- Not all questions are created equally.
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If you want to get a different output, you've got to ask a different set of questions.
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Asking questions is absolutely a discipline that we all need to master.
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- 'Alicia. - What is Alaska?
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- That's right.' - One of my superpowers is my ability to help people rethink the ways that they think- and the reason this matters is that so many of us are churning at work, and we're actually not pausing to think about the ways that we're thinking.
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And if we don't pause to rethink, we're not going to shift our behaviors, and ultimately, we won't change culture.
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We're all trying to innovate; we're all pursuing innovation.
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And from my perspective, creativity is the engine for innovation.
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My name is Natalie Nixon.
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I'm the author of "The Creativity Leap," and I help leaders transform their business models through creativity.
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A main component of creativity is inquiry: Inquiry is about building curiosity.
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And what is curiosity?
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Well, Ian Leslie has a great definition of curiosity.
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He says that, "Being curious is the product of an information gap." You need to know just a little bit about something to be curious.
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Inquiry is all about a shift away from 'only with certain' to asking new and different sorts of questions.
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And we really want to encourage those really big picture, expansive questions.
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There is what I call a "Taxonomy of Questions." There are 'diverging questions,' questions such as "Why?" and "What if...?" and "I wonder...?" I think there's literally nothing bad that follows the phrase "I wonder..." The other group of questions are what I would call more 'convergent questions.' They help us to get more tactical, so questions such as "What?" and "Where?" and "When?" And in some of our organizations, those tend to be the sorts of questions that we focus on, but we wanna be able to really integrate both of those categories of questions to build curiosity.
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We live in incredibly ambiguous times, and in our educational systems and a lot of our corporate environments, we want to lean into certainty.
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We want to lean into: 'What is the answer?' But the reality is we don't have all the answers.
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The challenge when we're only myopically focused on what is the right answer, is that we lose sight of opportunities that are right in front of us.
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Technology is ubiquitous, and in a lot of ways, we as humans, will be replaced by automation, robotics, etc.
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We're constantly saying that we want to innovate, but if we want to innovate in a consistent and sustainable way what I think we need to remember is that what makes us uniquely human is creativity.
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If we want to get greater, more innovative output, we must be willing to ask new and different questions, and we must embrace creativity.
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We can model and practice inquiry in some really practical ways.
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I recommend that more of us should become clumsy students of something, of anything.
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So for example, I am a clumsy student of ballroom dance.
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And one of the gifts of dance is that you only learn through deep observation, not only of your teacher and your instructors, but also of your peers and students who are a lot better than you.
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And you'll only advance if you ask for help, and if you ask questions.
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If we are clumsy students of something in our personal lives, we will discover that we will be a lot more confident in asking new and different sorts of questions.
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The world will not come to a screeching halt if I ask a question that seems obvious to others, but not to me.
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Asking questions is a way of thinking, and it's a discipline that we can all practice, and get a lot better at.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 33 sentences and 662 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:51. The speaker talks at a steady 136 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 82% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| creativity noun | /kri.eɪˈtɪv.ᵻ.ti/ | The ability to use imagination to produce a novel idea or product. |
| inquiry noun | /ɪnˈkwaɪ(ə)ɹi/ | The act of inquiring; a seeking of information by asking questions; interrogation; a question or questioning. |
| curiosity noun | /ˌkjʊɹ.iˈɑ.sə.ti/ | Inquisitiveness; the tendency to ask and learn about things by asking questions, investigating, or exploring. |
| curious adjective | /ˈkjʊɹ.i.əs/ | Tending to ask questions, or to want to explore or investigate; inquisitive; (with a negative connotation) nosy, prying. |
| output noun | /ˈaʊtpʊt/ | Production; quantity produced, created, or completed. |
| innovation noun | /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/ | The act of innovating; the introduction of something new, in customs, rites, etc. |
| discipline noun | /ˈdɪsəplɪn/ | A controlled behaviour; self-control. |
| lean verb | /ˈliːn/ | To incline, deviate, or bend, from a vertical position; to be in a position thus inclining or deviating. |
| pause noun | /pɔːz/ | A temporary stop or rest; an intermission of action; interruption; suspension; cessation. |
| consistent adjective | /kənˈsɪs.tənt/ | Of a regularly occurring, dependable nature. |
| practical adjective | /ˈpɹæk.tɪ.kəl/ | Relating to, or based on, practice or action rather than theory or hypothesis. |
| encourage verb | /ɪnˈkʌɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/ | To mentally support; to motivate, give courage, hope or spirit. |
| hungry adjective | /ˈhʌŋ.ɡɹi/ | Affected by hunger; having the physical need for food. |
| discover verb | /dɪˈskʌvə/ | To find or learn something for the first time. |
| equally adverb | /ˈiːkwəli/ | In an equal manner; in equal shares or proportion; with equal and impartial justice; evenly |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 14 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, don't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: rethink /ɹiːˈθɪŋk/, thinker /ˈθɪŋ.kɚ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: innovation /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/, observation /ˌɑbzɚˈveɪʃn̩/, automation /ˌɔ.təˈmeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: creativity /kri.eɪˈtɪv.ᵻ.ti/, inquiry /ɪnˈkwaɪ(ə)ɹi/, curiosity /ˌkjʊɹ.iˈɑ.sə.ti/, innovation /ˌɪn.əˈveɪ.ʃən/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/
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 creativity, inquiry, curiosity.
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.