Shadowing Practice: 5 Surprising Ways to Speak English Fluently - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Everyone says practice makes perfect.

Yes, but what if you're practicing the wrong way?

Ha ha!

So let me show you five surprising but powerful ways to become a fluent English speaker.

Hello, it's Keith from the Keith Speaking Academy and the English, and the what?

And the YouTube channel, English Speaking Success.

Here to help you become a more confident speaker of English like me.

So listen, today I'm going to show you five awesome ways to become a fluent speaker of English.

Now, some of these may surprise you, but I think they will delight you.

And look out for number five, because it's something that I think most students don't do, but it works like magic.

So look out for that.

Also, if you're on the PDF of all of these tips, you can just click on the link in the description.

You can download that for free.

I do just ask for your email, and that's just to help me send you more tips and resources that can help you with your English.

I do spend time on my emails.

They are quality emails.

And listen, you can unsubscribe at any time if you want.

So it's a win-win.

Okay, with that, let's begin with number one.

It's a good place to start, right?

Number one?

Yes.

Okay, number one is read more.

Wait, what?

Read more?

To speak more fluently?

Yes, read more.

And by reading, I mean read things like news articles,

magazines, novels, graded readers, even cookbooks.

Because the thing is, when you're reading, Well, there are two ways of reading.

Read for fluency or read to build vocabulary.

I want you to read for fluency more.

Reading for fluency is where you're reading something, but you're not looking up the words.

You're maybe guessing the words, but you just keep on reading.

You're not building vocabulary, just reading for fluency.

Why is this important?

Because what happens is when you're reading, it's a bit of an internal dialogue with the book.

When you read, you're speaking without speaking the words.

You're saying the words in your head and you're starting to think in English.

It's the first step towards thinking in English as you read.

And if you read more, you're allowing yourself the chance to think more in English.

And if you're thinking in English, then when you're speaking, you're going to be more fluent.

Think about it.

If you're thinking in English, you're not translating.

Translating slows you down.

Thinking in English helps you become more fluent.

And reading for fluency is the first step to thinking more in English.

So read more.

Got it?

Great.

Number two.

Right.

Number two, speak more to yourself.

Why has he got a toothbrush?

I'll come back to that.

So the thing is, a lot of students think I need to speak to a teacher

or a native speaker to give me feedback, to correct me.

Actually, no. Actually, you don't need to be speaking to other people all the time.

You can speak more to yourself to get the practice.

Fluency is about producing language, okay?

Not just learning it, about producing it.

I mean, if you're a teacher, think of Swain's output hypothesis, speaking is going to help you with your fluency.

So in many ways, it's better to speak to yourself because you haven't got the pressure of speaking to somebody else.

You're not going to be afraid of making mistakes.

You'll be more relaxed.

Think of Cration's effective filter if you're a teacher, research-based.

And that's going to help you with your fluency.

So you could, for example, just talk to the mirror.

A classic example, in the mornings when you're brushing your teeth, right?

You can talk to yourself.

There's also a very simple three-point framework that you can use.

And it is basically, I have done this.

Now I'm doing this.

and after this, I will do that.

Okay, super simple.

I use it all the time when I'm trying to do this in Chinese or in French.

For example, sound effects.

Right.

I've had breakfast.

Now I'm brushing my teeth.

After this, I'll go to work.

Right.

Super simple.

Three-step framework.

Start using that right away.

And the great thing about all of this is you start to build a habit

and then you'll get that daily speaking practice.

Super simple.

That's it.

Let's move on to number three.

Okay, number three, stop learning new vocabulary.

Oh, all right.

Okay, I don't mean completely stop learning new vocabulary, but change your focus from collecting new words to practicing what you know,

using what you've learned already.

Fluency is not really about knowing new words.

It's about being able to use the words you've studied already.

So when you're practicing and speaking, don't be trying to use new vocabulary all the time.

Using new vocabulary is a high-level game.

Just practice the words you know.

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It's a different game.

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It's actually easier.

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and just build up your fluency, activating the words you've already been studying.

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I think we have a tendency as human beings to collect things.

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We buy an online course and before we begin, we buy another one.

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We go to the shop and we buy a book.

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Good book, by the way.

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Put it down.

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Think, oh, that's interesting.

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Yeah, I'll read that next week.

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next week I'm at the shops again.

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Ooh, I'll buy another book.

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Great.

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Put it down.

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Haven't read them yet.

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Why?

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Because we like to collect things.

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It's exciting when you buy something and you collect it.

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But I haven't read them.

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And it's the same.

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You go on the internet and Facebook, Instagram, you're collecting all these 20 idioms, PDF of 100 IELTS words.

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Great.

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How many of them can you use?

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Oh, not many, actually.

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So stop collecting new vocabulary and focus on practicing the ones you already have, right?

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How do you practice them?

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I mean, very, very simple.

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For example, if you watch my live lesson on a topic, you get a PDF, repeat the words, repeat the phrases, change a word,

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change the tense, just practice.

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Use chat GBT and just say, I'm going to have a conversation with you.

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I'm going to use these five words and just reply to me and just start practice using them.

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And then you'll start to activate them.

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Later, you can think about collecting new vocabulary, but try and activate more the ones you have.

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Other things you can do is you can mimic accents on the TV.

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You can shadow podcast, video clips, shorts are very good for shadowing.

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So that repetition, shadowing, mimicking, it's all good, good practice.

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And that way you're focusing more on fluency and you will build your fluency.

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Great, let's move on.

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Number four, practice with strangers.

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Now, I don't mean just walk up to people in the street and start talking to them.

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Although you could do that if you're in an English-speaking country.

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I don't recommend it, though.

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However, it is easier online.

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You can practice with people online.

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There are lots of apps where you can do that.

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Or if you're on a course, like the Gold course, you can speak to other students on the course.

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The thing is you don't have to practice with a teacher or a native speaker.

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You can just practice with other people.

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I know I said earlier, practice with yourself.

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That's good.

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This is a compliment.

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Goes together.

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But practice with strangers, with other people.

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And it's great because it prepares you for the unexpected.

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You have to have a natural conversation where you just respond to the situation.

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And here's the secret, right?

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I think you need to balance prepared talks and impromptu talks.

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So yes, you need a balance.

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You need to practice where you've prepared something and you've thought about it and you've got some ideas and you're talking.

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But you must also practice impromptu, improvised, without preparing, where you just speak out.

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Because that's where you build the flexibility.

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That's more difficult.

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But if you're doing both of those, you will become more confident and flexible as a speaker.

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Speaking to other students is a great way of doing it.

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There's no pressure, but it's unpredictable, which is what you want, because that builds flexibility.

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And with flexibility comes fluency, believe it or not.

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It will help you enormously with your fluency.

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Right.

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Let's move on to the last one.

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The one that most students don't do, but actually works like magic.

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I think some of it is magic.

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Let's have a look at number five.

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OK, number five, use music to learn full chunks.

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Now, chunks, of course, is just two or three words that typically go together.

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Recently, I did a live lesson on leisure activities, and a lot of vocabulary, we just picked out chunks, right?

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Leisure activity, that's a chunk.

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Here are some more hang out, hang out with friends, do yoga.

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What else?

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A low budget activity.

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All of these are simple chunks.

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If you listen to songs, then it can help you learn these chunks.

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And here's the real magic is that if you sing along, you can not only listen to the chunks and learn them,

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but you're also going to improve your word stress, sentence stress and rhythm as you're speaking or singing.

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Now, I know you're saying, well, Keith, I can't sing.

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Well, hello, me neither.

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I can't sing.

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But it doesn't matter because sometimes in the privacy of my little room, I turn on a song and I sing along just like that.

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Whatever the language, French, Chinese, English, and I sing along okay, I'm out of tune, but it doesn't matter.

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It's not about perfect pitch.

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It's about getting the chunk, getting the stress, getting the intonation, getting the rhythm.

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And it's an amazing way of doing it.

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Now, in the old days, you used to have to look for a song that was clear,

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easy lyrics, relevant to your topic.

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So maybe you're looking at the Beatles or Adele.

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and it was quite, you had to do a bit of searching.

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Now we have something magical called AI.

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You can create your own song.

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You can go to suno.com, put in some of these chunks and just create your own song and then sing along in the privacy of your room,

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if you like.

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And what I'll do, I'm going to show you how to do this.

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Now, I don't know if this is going to work exactly as I think.

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But let's try on the fly.

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Let's take these over here, these chunks, right?

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They're taken from the leisure activities topic that I want to practice, hanging out with friends, doing yoga and playing football and so on.

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Follow me.

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I'm going to put these into Suno and let's see what happens.

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Okay.

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So we've come into Suno.

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You need to register an account.

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I already have one.

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And then you come into create.

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Okay, we're going to create a song.

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So yes, we're going to go into the auto tab.

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Actually, simple, custom, go into custom, and where it's got auto, you're going to paste the phrases and just say,

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make a song using these phrases.

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Because you've got a limit of 200 words.

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And it's going to create a song.

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You can choose a style.

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I can say maybe Brit, pop, singer, songwriter.

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Depending on your.. you can have two or three different styles.

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Put a name here.

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Let's call it leisure time.

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I put in already and let's just press create.

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And let's see what it comes up with.

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So in less than a minute it'll come up with a couple of versions, two different versions but with the same lyrics.

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Right so these are the lyrics it came up with.

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Interesting.

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And it came up with two different versions of the song.

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Let me play the first one for you.

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See what you think.

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Hanging out with friends.

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We laugh and play.

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Hanging out with friends.

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Sing along.

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Chasing sunlight till it fades away.

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Doing yoga and playing football too.

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It's a bit of a slow one that, right?

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Let's try the second one.

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That's better.

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That's better.

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Doing yoga and playing football too feels like freedom wrapped in sky

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so blue so you can sing along obviously I can't sing

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but great for you stress intonation rhythm and you know what it's just a bit of fun as well.

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Make it quite enjoyable.

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I think the secret is also in the whole creative process, creating your own materials that you can then use in any way you want.

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You can just listen, you can sing along, but learning full chunks with music, great idea.

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And now it's so easy.

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Go and check it out.

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Go and try some things yourself.

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Maybe in the comments, leave some links and, you know, if you make your own song and let us all listen together.

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I'll play those songs as we go out at the end of the video.

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Stay with me.

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Next.

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So there you've got it.

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Five surprising ways that can help you become more fluent in English.

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I have a bonus tip for you and it's called the fake accent challenge.

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And this is something I try and do sometimes is when you're repeating English or whichever language, try and imitate the accent.

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So try and pretend to be American or Australian or British or Scottish, whatever it may be.

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When you listen, just try and see where the sound comes from.

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Is it coming from the mouth?

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Is it coming from the throat? and pick up that because when you try and listen to an accent,

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pause and repeat.

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It's great for kind of muscle practice and throat practice, sound practice, if that exists.

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But most of all, it's just a bit of fun

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and it can really be a nice way of picking up natural intonation and rhythm as well.

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So have a go.

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The fake accent challenge.

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So I'm curious, which of these tips always surprised you the most?

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Let me know down in the comments.

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And also, if you go away and try and make a song, leave a link in the comments below.

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Let us share the song and listen to it as well.

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Remember, for the PDF, you can download this in the description below

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and start practicing or trying out some of these ways to help you become not only a more confident speaker,

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but a more fluent speaker of English.

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If you want to practice speaking more, come and join us on the IELTS Speaking Gold course.

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We have daily speaking practice rooms where you can practice speaking with other students.

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For everybody else, watch the next video because coming up is a great video all about how to think in English, right?

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How to really think in English watch that video.

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It's coming up soon.

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In the meantime, let's play out with that song again about the leisure activities.

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And listen, thank you so much for watching.

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As always, it's great to spend this time with you.

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And I'll see you in the next video.

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Here we go.

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Ooh.

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Remember to subscribe.

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Turn on notifications.

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I'm on the offbeat.

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Sing along.

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The links to the songs are down below.

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Go and check them out.

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I need to start reading.

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Stop collecting.

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Start activating.

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Thanks so much for watching.

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Take care everybody.

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See you next time.

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Bye bye.

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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección

Esta lección de conversación de nivel B1 se basa en el vídeo “5 Surprising Ways to Speak English Fluently”. Las palabras que más se repiten: practice, English, speaking, word, song. Este vídeo tiene 297 frases y 2611 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 20:00. El hablante mantiene un ritmo constante de unas 131 palabras por minuto, cómodo para el shadowing. El 87 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés, por lo que el vocabulario es fácil de seguir.

Vocabulario clave de este vídeo

Las 15 palabras más avanzadas del vídeo, con su pronunciación y significado:

Palabra	Pronunciación	Significado
fluency sustantivo	/ˈfluːənsi/	fluidez, fluencia
chunk sustantivo	/t͡ʃʌŋk/	trozo, pedazo
vocabulary sustantivo	/vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/	vocabulario
fluent adjetivo	/ˈfluənt/	fluyente, fluente
leisure sustantivo	/ˈlɛʒə(ɹ)/	ocio
accent sustantivo	/ækˈsɛnt/	acento léxico
activate verbo	/ˈæktɪˌveɪt/	activar
distress sustantivo	/dɪˈstɹɛs/	distrés, distress
rhythm sustantivo	/ˈɹɪð.əm/	ritmo
yoga sustantivo	/ˈjoʊ.ɡə/	yoga
intonation sustantivo	/ɪntəˈneɪʃən/	entonación
flexibility sustantivo	/ˌflɛksɪˈbɪlɪti/	flexibilidad
phrase sustantivo	/ˈfɹeɪ̯z/	frase
impromptu adjetivo	/ɪmˈpɹɑmp.t(j)u/	impromptu
mimic verbo	/ˈmɪm.ɪk/	arremedar, remedar

Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar

Palabra	Pronunciación	Significado
come up with verbo		ingeniar, ingeniarse
come up verbo		salir a relucir
pick up verbo		coger, asir
go away verbo		irse, marcharse
look up verbo	/ˌlʊk ˈʌp/	mejorar
speak out verbo		expresarse
try out verbo		probar, ensayar

Frases que vale la pena repetir

Frases cortas y completas del vídeo que puedes reutilizar en la conversación diaria:

Yes, but what if you're practicing the wrong way?
You're not building vocabulary, just reading for fluency.
When you read, you're speaking without speaking the words.
How many of them can you use?
How do you practice them?

Gramática en este vídeo

Las estructuras que más usa el hablante, con las palabras exactas del vídeo:

Estructura	En el vídeo
Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahora	have done · I've had · you've learned
Verbo + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbos seguidos de la forma en -ing	stop learning · stop collecting · start talking
Posibilidad con “might / may” might/may + verbo — algo posible pero no seguro	may surprise · may be
Present continuous am/is/are + -ing — algo que ocurre ahora o en estos días	you're practicing · you're reading · you're speaking

Pronunciación a tener en cuenta

El hablante usa 87 contracciones y formas reducidas, como you're, I'm, don't. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.

Los sonidos de “th”: rhythm /ˈɹɪð.əm/, throat /ˈθɹoʊt/, toothbrush /ˈtuːθ.bɹʌʃ/, hypothesis /haɪˈpɒθɪsɪs/
Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: leisure /ˈlɛʒə(ɹ)/, intonation /ɪntəˈneɪʃən/, brush /bɹʌʃ/, repetition /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/, toothbrush /ˈtuːθ.bɹʌʃ/
Palabras largas — cuida el acento: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, intonation /ɪntəˈneɪʃən/, flexibility /ˌflɛksɪˈbɪlɪti/, automobile /ˈɔː.tə.məˌbil/, repetition /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/

Sonidos difíciles para hispanohablantes:

/v/ — no es /b/: los dientes tocan el labio inferior: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, activate /ˈæktɪˌveɪt/, improvise /ˈɪm.pɹə.vaɪz/, whichever /wɪt͡ʃˈɛvɚ/
/z/ — sonora, no /s/: phrase /ˈfɹeɪ̯z/, translate /tɹænzˈleɪt/, improvise /ˈɪm.pɹə.vaɪz/, pause /pɔːz/
/dʒ/ — no es la “y” ni la “ch”: stranger /ˈstɹeɪnd͡ʒɚ/, enjoyable /ɛnˈd͡ʒɔɪ.ə.bl̩/, magical /ˈmæd͡ʒ.ɪ.kəl/

Cómo practicar con este vídeo

Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
Haz shadowing frase por frase a velocidad normal, repitiendo cada una hasta que tu ritmo coincida con el del hablante.
Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como fluency, chunk, vocabulary.

¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?

Shadowing es una técnica de aprendizaje de idiomas respaldada por la ciencia, desarrollada originalmente para la formación de intérpretes profesionales y popularizada por el políglota Dr. Alexander Arguelles. El método es simple pero poderoso: escuchas audio en inglés nativo y lo repites en voz alta de inmediato, como una sombra que sigue al hablante con solo 1-2 segundos de retraso. A diferencia de la escucha pasiva o los ejercicios de gramática, el shadowing obliga a tu cerebro y músculos de la boca a procesar y reproducir simultáneamente patrones de habla reales. Las investigaciones muestran que mejora significativamente la precisión de la pronunciación, la entonación, el ritmo, el habla conectada, la comprensión auditiva y la fluidez al hablar, convirtiéndola en una de las metodologías más efectivas para la preparación del IELTS Speaking y la comunicación en inglés en el mundo real.

Técnica de shadowing: lee la guía completa paso a paso →

Shadowing Practice: 5 Surprising Ways to Speak English Fluently - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección

Vocabulario clave de este vídeo

Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar

Frases que vale la pena repetir

Gramática en este vídeo

Pronunciación a tener en cuenta

Cómo practicar con este vídeo

¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?