Prática de Shadowing: What Reading Out Loud Does to Your Brain - Aprenda a falar inglês com vídeo
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You have never read a word in silence, not once in your life.
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Right now, you're listening to me, but when you read on your own, there's a voice doing that too.
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It's yours, but you can't hear it.
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In 1958, researchers placed electrodes on people's throat muscles and asked them to read silently,
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not whispering or mouthing the words, just reading normally in their hands.
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The thing is, the muscles activated anyways.
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So as you read, even in silence, you're speaking at a volume that nobody can hear, including you.
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So there's already a voice in there doing something useful.
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So what happens when you stop hiding it and just say the words out loud?
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Quite a lot, it turns out.
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There are a ton of benefits to reading out loud, and in this video, I'll show you how to use it on purpose.
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But first, I have to take you back about 4,000 years.
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We have to understand that reading in silence is actually a new concept.
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If we go back around 4,000 years and read the clay tablets of ancient Iraq and Syria,
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we will see that the most common words for reading actually meant crying out loud or to listen.
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There's even this one letter from that period that starts with, I am sending a very urgent message.
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Listen to this tablet.
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They didn't quite have the word for reading.
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It was all about listening.
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In that world, reading was normally something you could hear across a room.
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And someone reading in silence was unusual.
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Let's take a look at the ancient Greeks.
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They actually wrote in zigzags.
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It's called the booster feedon, literally meaning like a cow turning.
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There was no punctuation, no spacing, or even end of a line.
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The zigzag actually has a close relationship to speaking, because every time you start a line, your eye has to skip back to the beginning of the sentence.
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But if you zigzag, you can just continue without stopping.
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And the Romans did something similar.
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Classical texts were written like this.
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But later on, as silent reading took hold, we started spacing out words, then adding lowercase, and finally punctuation.
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Nowadays, when we think of reading, it's usually to ourselves, like sitting down on a couch, but that was not, for most of history, the case.
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So why do we read out loud for so long?
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Well, let's move to the science now and ask, is there any benefit to reading out loud?
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Let's say you have a list of words.
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You're asked to read half of them out loud and the other half in your head.
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Maybe it's not surprising to you, but you will remember the ones you read out loud better.
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Colin McLeod, a psychologist at the University of Waterloo, has spent much of his career on this topic.
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And we owe most of the research to him.
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In 2010, he and his team coined the production effect.
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That is, that saying words out loud makes you remember them better than reading them in silence.
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Okay, but the question is, of course, by how much?
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Let's start with children.
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In one of McLeod's studies, kids aged 7 to 10 read a list of words where some words were spoken and some were silent.
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Afterward, they correctly recognized 87% of the words they read out loud and 70% of the silent ones.
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That's a 17-point difference.
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And of course, it isn't just a kid's thing.
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It works for adults all the way into their 80s.
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In this study, older adults recalled 17% of the words they had read out loud, but only 10% of those read silently.
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and they performed even better on recognition.
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What I found so cool is that research has actually gotten pretty specific about what helps.
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For example, if you type the words, that has some benefit.
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If you spell them, that also has some benefit.
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If you mouth the words, but without saying them out loud, or even whispering, that has some benefit too.
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But out of all of these, hands down, reading the words out loud is the best for recall.
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The crazy thing is that this even works on words that mean nothing.
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That earlier study on children had a second experiment where they used invented words, things that had no meaning,
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and the production effect still worked just as strongly.
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Meaning had nothing to do with it.
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So there's something else at play here, and this raises the obvious question.
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If we read an entire book out loud, will we comprehend it better?
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Well, it's not so simple.
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We'll come back to that, and the answer is going to be the most useful thing in this video.
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But before we get there, we have to talk a little bit more about the production effect.
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Okay, let's talk more about the methodology.
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The experiments are set up where you read half a list out loud and half in your head.
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So you could expect that if you read all of them out loud, you would remember them all even more, right?
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Well, it's actually the opposite.
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A cloud study found that if you read all the text out loud, most of the advantages that we saw before disappeared. But why?
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Well, this 22 study can shed some light.
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Researchers compared free recall between a group that read words out loud and the other one that read the same words silently.
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The curve here can tell us what went wrong.
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We can see that from the words around 5 to 8, they recalled more than the silent ones because the words were still echoing in their head.
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The problem is that the earlier words were recalled less accurately, because as we're reading words out loud,
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we're suppressing the things that we were putting in our memories right before that.
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So even though there was a benefit at the end, there was no benefit with the beginning words.
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And on average, those who read out loud and silently walked away even.
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Now watch what happens position by position when people alternate.
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A loud, silent, a loud, silent.
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The recall curve zigzags.
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Every spoken word spikes and every silent word sags.
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So we can see that in this case, it seems like memory is rewarded by contrast.
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A spoken word stands out because the words on either side of it were silent.
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Later, when you reach for it, it arrives with a mental and vocal note attached.
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You remember, oh, I said that one.
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You can check it against your own record.
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But the silent words have no such tag, so they lose the comparison.
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Okay, so what can you actually take away from this?
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Reading everything out loud will benefit you, but the benefit might be small.
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Reading the parts that matter out loud, on the other hand, will give you a large advantage you will likely memorize it better.
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And that's actually convenient because it's unlikely you're going to read a whole chapter out loud anyway.
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But we're not quite done with the practical advice.
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In 2018, researchers designed an experiment with four conditions.
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They had almost 100 students come in and record themselves reading a list of words.
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And then they came back two weeks later.
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In that second session, they studied the words in four different ways.
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1. Reading them aloud.
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2. Listen to a recording of their own voice.
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3. Listen to someone else's recording of the words.
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And lastly, reading the words in silence.
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Then they tested them on recognition.
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Read aloud, 77%.
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Hearing your own voice, 74%.
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Hearing someone else, 69%.
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69 and reading in silence
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65% that's a clean trend you can see the obvious staircase
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and You can see that the gap between hearing your own voice and somebody else's was the largest Why?
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Well research shows that your brain marks self referential material as worth keeping in a way It doesn't flag a stranger
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The authors conclude that, quote, This may well underlie why rehearsal is so valuable in learning and remembering.
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We do it ourselves, and we do it in our own voice.
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So you might think, well, this sounds like pretty bad news for audiobooks and lectures, right?
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Well, what listening does is a whole separate story, and we have a whole video on it.
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Link in the description.
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Now, I've made reading out loud seem like a magical learning tool.
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And honestly, it is.
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But there's a big catch.
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Because reading aloud seems pretty great for memory.
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But does that translate into really understanding what you're reading?
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Well, the data shows that largely,
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no. A 2024 study ran four experiments using reading comprehension passages.
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People read them aloud or in silence, then answered two kinds of questions.
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Some asked for specific details they remembered, basically looking for words or facts in the text.
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The other questions asked whether they'd grasped what the passage was arguing.
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And the study aligned with everything I've told you so far.
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Reading aloud helps with memory questions.
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But on comprehension, it just wasn't reliable.
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Even though people could remember more, they actually couldn't understand or comprehend what the text was saying.
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This all reminded me of that feeling when you're driving with music, but you turn it down so that you can see better.
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It's kind of like this.
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Sometimes you need an undivided mind, without voice, without sound, in silence, to understand what you are reading.
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And that's what we'll see next.
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The power of reading in silence.
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That voice from when you read silently has a name, sub-vocalization.
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It feeds a piece of working memory that psychologists call the phonological loop, the part that holds sound in place while you think.
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The measurements actually go back to the 50s.
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In 1958, scientists ran electromyography on the laryngeal muscles during silent speech and found that the muscle activity tracked reading.
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Silent reading then borrows the same speech system and runs it below the threshold of hearing.
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And brain imaging agrees.
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Reading aloud and reading in silence activate largely the same networks with adding motor and auditory regions on top.
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But silent reading is a new thing.
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There's a new type of reading that pushes this even further.
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Speed reading.
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There's a whole industry built on it, and the pitch is that the inner voice is a bad habit left over from learning to read as a kid.
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Some even claim that at some point you have to dispense with sound if you want to speed read.
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However, a major review reveals that speed reading comes at the cost of comprehension.
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Because when you speed read, you're skimming.
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And on difficult material, that inner voice is the thing that holds the sentences together.
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So as we've seen, it seems that every new development of modern reading has been actually making us quieter.
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and it's convenient, but it's not free.
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Just side note, if you're more interested in speed reading or reading techniques, the risks, or how to apply them better, let me know in the comments, I'll be happy to make a video.
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Okay, silent reading has its place and I'll get to where it wins, but let's not forget about the voice underneath.
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Now, we have to go back to the historical aspect because it's important.
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We have to ask, how did we start reading in silence to begin with.
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Silent reading was always possible for people who knew how or were good at it.
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It just wasn't common.
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And there's a famous scene.
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We're in Milan around the year 384.
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A young man walks into a bishop's study.
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That young man is Augustine, not yet a saint.
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And he finds the bishop, Ambrose, sitting with a book.
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And Augustine stops because something about the scene strikes him as worth writing down and he writes in his confessions.
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When he read, his eyes would travel across the pages and his mind would explore the sense.
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But his voice and tongue were silent.
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And then he later says, but whatever his reason for reading silently, that man undoubtedly had a good one.
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Now scholars have argued about this scene for a century and I'll leave that to them, but something changed in writing,
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and it's what we talked about at the beginning of this video.
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We started putting in something called punctuation.
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Punctuation literally means putting in points.
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It wasn't there at the beginning, and through most of the middle ages, it barely functioned.
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Scribes copying the same manuscript would punctuate it differently from one another, which is why for most writers working more than a couple of centuries back,
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modern editors have to put the punctuation in themselves.
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Just think about what a coma is.
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It's a mark telling you where to breathe, and a period telling you where to stop.
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Nearly every convention that lets you read in silence began as an instruction for a voice,
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and the reason anyone bothered writing them down is that the voice was on its way out.
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And in the universities, a lecture was literally a reading.
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Lectio, a master, stood at the lectern
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and read a book out loud to a room
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because a single manuscript was expensive
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and reading it out loud was the only way to get a text into a hundred heads at once.
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So every time you use the word lecture, you're using the Latin word for reading.
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And what makes it so convincing is that you see this all over, not just in Europe.
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In China, for example, classical education ran on recitation, chanting the text until they were in you.
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There's even the saying, 讀书百变,其一自减。 Read a text a hundred times and the meaning appears by itself.
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For the ancients, reading out loud was not a memory trick or a learning hack, it was just the way they read.
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But then it stopped because we got cheap print, mass literacy, spaces between words,
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comas, and so reading became the inward private thing that most of us do now.
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Okay, now I want to quiz you before we move on.
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What do we call the effect for when we read something aloud that leads to better retention?
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What's the effect called?
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I mentioned it about 10 minutes ago many times.
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Don't go back.
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If you remember, great.
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But if you didn't, that's actually more useful because now you can practice exactly what I've been talking about.
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It's called the production effect.
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Saying words out loud makes you remember them better than reading them in silence.
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You can pause the video and read it out loud with your voice, not in your head.
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Then you can check tomorrow if you still remember it.
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It's more likely that you will.
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So this gives us the first practical tip.
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Read material out loud when you need something to stick.
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It could be names, definitions, vocabulary, formulas, or even things you need to do tomorrow.
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Basically, vocalize what you need to keep.
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But as we mentioned, deciding what's worth saying out loud also takes discernment.
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If you speak everything, you've spoken nothing.
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And in English, we actually have an exact word for this.
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But in ancient times, it had a different meaning.
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The Latin verb behind our word intelligence comes from inter, among, plus legere, to gather,
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to pick out from the chaos, from among things.
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So it's not accumulating, but it's choosing.
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That's intelligence.
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And silence is a better tool when you really need to think.
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Use silence when wrestling with difficult material, an argument you have to follow, or anything where you need to stop and go back.
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And if a sentence doesn't make sense, just say it out loud.
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And while watching this video, you might have thought or wondered, what about language learning?
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The answer is yes.
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Language learners get two benefits at once here.
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You get the memory benefit and also free pronunciation practice.
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With language learning especially, just say things out loud.
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And one last piece of advice, before you send anything you've written, read it back to yourself out loud.
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Speaking will force you to go through every word, instead of letting your eye just glide over what you meant to write.
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And almost every writer and editor that I know does it.
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And with children, read to them as much as you can.
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There's so much research that is just really good for them, from vocabulary to phonology to understanding concepts.
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There's a real consensus behind it, which is kind of rare in this field.
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And also, have them read to you.
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Researchers in Perugia sent students to read extracts from novels aloud to a group of elderly people with dementia.
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Afterward, the listeners did better on memory tests than they had before.
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Researchers believe this is because following a story is not a passive act,
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it pulls you into your own memories and imagination and makes you rethink your past and how it connects to the future.
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And that is a good way to strengthen your memory muscles.
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And these participants described a feeling of being given a gift of someone's time, attention, and of course, their voice.
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So try this sometime this week.
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Pick something you like, a book, a poem, an article, and read it out loud to somebody.
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It could be your kid, your partner, a friend, or even your parents.
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It could be over the phone, that's fine.
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If you're not used to this, it might feel strange, but then it becomes natural.
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You will slow down and notice things that you might not have caught before.
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And if there's nobody around, read it out loud anyway.
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That's the whole finding, really.
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It was never about having an audience.
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It was about using your voice.
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It was about being the one who said it.
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Thank you so much for watching.
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If this in any way changed the way you think about reading or comprehension, please leave a like.
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And also let me know, what are you going to try reading out loud tonight? night.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulário e dicas de fala para esta lição
Esta aula de conversação de nível B2 usa o vídeo “What Reading Out Loud Does to Your Brain”. As palavras que mais se repetem: reading, word, loud, voice, silence. Este vídeo tem 246 frases e 3000 palavras para praticar shadowing. A fala dura 20:54. O falante mantém um ritmo estável de cerca de 143 palavras por minuto, confortável para o shadowing. 86% das palavras estão entre as 3.000 mais comuns do inglês; vale a pena estudar o restante antes de começar.
Vocabulário principal deste vídeo
As 15 palavras mais avançadas do vídeo, com pronúncia e significado:
| Palavra | Pronúncia | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| aloud advérbio | /əˈlaʊd/ | em voz alta |
| silently advérbio | /ˈsaɪləntli/ | silenciosamente |
| punctuation substantivo | /ˌpʌŋk.t͡ʃuˈeɪ.ʃən/ | pontuação |
| researcher substantivo | /ˈɹiˌsɝ.t͡ʃɚ/ | pesquisador, pesquisadora |
| zigzag substantivo | /ˈzɪɡ.zæɡ/ | ziguezague |
| comprehension substantivo | /ˌkɑmpɹɪˈhɛnʃn̩/ | compreensão |
| lecture substantivo | /ˈlɛk.t͡ʃə/ | conferência, palestra |
| comprehend verbo | /ˌkɑmpɹɪˈhɛnd/ | compreender |
| coma substantivo | /ˈkoʊmə/ | coma |
| activate verbo | /ˈæktɪˌveɪt/ | ativar |
| psychologist substantivo | /ˌsaɪˈkɑl.ə.d͡ʒɪst/ | psicólogo, psicóloga |
| vocabulary substantivo | /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/ | vocabulário |
| manuscript substantivo | /ˈmæn.jəˌskɹɪpt/ | manuscrito |
| tablet substantivo | /ˈtæblət/ | tabuleta |
| curve substantivo | /kɚv/ | curva |
Phrasal verbs que você vai ouvir
| Palavra | Pronúncia | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| go back verbo | voltar | |
| come back verbo | voltar | |
| hands down advérbio | com uma mão nas costas, com uma perna às costas | |
| set up verbo | /ˌsɛt ˈʌp/ | preparar |
| slow down verbo | desacelerar | |
| turn out verbo | terminar | |
| write down verbo | anotar |
Frases que vale a pena repetir
Frases curtas e completas do vídeo que você pode usar na conversa do dia a dia:
- It's yours, but you can't hear it.
- Let's say you have a list of words.
- Because when you speed read, you're skimming.
- It's more likely that you will.
- If you speak everything, you've spoken nothing.
Gramática neste vídeo
As estruturas que o falante mais usa, com as palavras exatas do vídeo:
| Estrutura | No vídeo |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + particípio passado — uma ação passada que ainda importa agora | have never read · has spent · has actually gotten |
| Voz passiva be + particípio passado — o foco está no que acontece, não em quem faz | were written · were spoken · are set |
| Orações relativas who / which + oração — informação extra sobre uma pessoa ou coisa | those who read · people who knew · another, which is |
Pronúncia para ficar de olho
O falante usa 38 contrações e formas reduzidas, como you're, I'll, we're. Diga-as na forma curta, do jeito que você ouve.
- Os sons de “th”: rethink /ɹiːˈθɪŋk/, methodology /ˌmɛθ.əˈdɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, threshold /ˈθɹɛʃ(h)oʊld/, strengthen /ˈstɹɛŋ(k)θən/, underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/
- Os sons de “sh” e “zh”: punctuation /ˌpʌŋk.t͡ʃuˈeɪ.ʃən/, comprehension /ˌkɑmpɹɪˈhɛnʃn̩/, recitation /ˌɹɛsɪˈteɪʃən/, referential /ɹɛfəˈɹɛnʃəl/, vocalization /voʊk(ə)l(a)ɪˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/
- Palavras longas — acerte a sílaba tônica: punctuation /ˌpʌŋk.t͡ʃuˈeɪ.ʃən/, psychologist /ˌsaɪˈkɑl.ə.d͡ʒɪst/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, accumulate /əˈkjuːmjʊˌleɪt/, audiobook /ˈɔdi.oʊbʊk/
Sons difíceis para falantes de português:
- Consoante final — sem acrescentar um “i” depois: aloud /əˈlaʊd/, zigzag /ˈzɪɡ.zæɡ/, comprehend /ˌkɑmpɹɪˈhɛnd/, activate /ˈæktɪˌveɪt/, psychologist /ˌsaɪˈkɑl.ə.d͡ʒɪst/
- /l/ final — a língua toca o céu da boca, não vira “u”: laryngeal /ləˈɹɪn.d͡ʒəl/, phonological /ˌfɑnəˈlɑd͡ʒɪkəl/, referential /ɹɛfəˈɹɛnʃəl/, wrestle /ˈɹɛs(ə)l/, vocal /ˈvoʊ̯.kəl/
- /h/ — um sopro suave, diferente do “r”: comprehension /ˌkɑmpɹɪˈhɛnʃn̩/, comprehend /ˌkɑmpɹɪˈhɛnd/, whisper /ˈ(h)wɪspɚ/, rehearsal /ɹɪˈhɝsl̩/, threshold /ˈθɹɛʃ(h)oʊld/
Como praticar com este vídeo
- Ouça o vídeo inteiro uma vez sem falar e anote as palavras que você não conhece.
- Faça shadowing frase por frase na velocidade normal, repetindo cada uma até o seu ritmo ficar igual ao do falante.
- Grave a sua voz e compare com o original, prestando atenção a palavras como aloud, silently, punctuation.
O que é a Técnica de Shadowing?
Shadowing é uma técnica de aprendizado de idiomas com base científica, originalmente desenvolvida para o treinamento de intérpretes profissionais. O método é simples, mas poderoso: você ouve áudio em inglês nativo e repete imediatamente em voz alta — como uma sombra seguindo o falante com 1-2 segundos de atraso. Pesquisas mostram melhora significativa na precisão da pronúncia, entonação, ritmo, sons conectados, compreensão auditiva e fluência na fala.