Shadowing Practice: 7 tips for staying motivated when learning a language - Learn English Speaking with Video
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In language learning process is the reward, that sense of achievement, that sense of, wow, I understand things that I didn't understand before.
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All of these things can give us a sense of enjoyment.
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Is motivation a myth in language learning or is it a necessary condition of success?
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That's what I'm gonna talk about today with reference to the Motivation Myth by Jeff Haden, a popular book.
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Obviously motivation is a key to language learning success: motivation, and time spent with the language, I often say that.
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What does it mean?
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Motivation is not just saying, I am motivated to learn a language, I am motivated to become fluent, uh, I am motivated to make money.
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You don't get there by being motivated by the final goal, motivation is something that feeds on itself.
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It feeds on a sense of achievement, a sense of success, a sense of reward, and I'm gonna talk about some of these things.
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I'm gonna talk about seven key factors in acquiring motivation and maintaining motivation in language learning.
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You know, I was struck by the fact that here in Vancouver, not many people learn foreign languages.
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In fact, very often if I speak to someone whom I come across in a store or somewhere in, you know, Chinese, Persian, Spanish, whatever, people will often ask me, where are you from?
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Because the average person here in this English speaking environment, in fact, doesn't speak foreign languages.
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They aren't motivated to learn foreign languages.
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A big part of the reason is that the experience in school with French learning is very unmotivating or demotivating.
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However, there are exceptions to this.
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Every time I meet someone here, a young person who has been through the French immersion program, they are motivated to use their French.
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When they hear that I'm interested in languages, they will immediately start speaking to me in French, even though very often the French level of french immersion, you know, graduates isn't that high.
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Why is that?
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Because they have a sense of achievement, a sense of confidence, a sense of knowing something.
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They want to use it because they feel confident.
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This is a part of who they are.
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So how do we get people started so that they are less concerned about the obstacles?
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A person living in Vancouver, you could argue, has no need for French, and therefore they're not motivated to learn French.
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However, those kids who have been through French immersion are motivated because they have achieved some level of success.
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They have had a reward from their language learning or from their exposure with another language, in this case French.
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I think the same thing is true in Sweden where kids in early childhood are exposed to English language television, or even people in general in areas where there are opportunities to hear other languages, be it in Singapore or in countries in Europe, so they have a greater sense of confidence in their ability to acquire that language.
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So less resistance, less concerned about how difficult the task is, and more realization that in fact, learning another language can be a rewarding activity.
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So if the first point is that motivation is that sense of enjoyment, that sense of power, that feeling that this is something that you can do and therefore you're motivated to do it, we like doing things that we're good at, or at least have some sense that we can succeed at, the second point is that, as Jeff Haden points out, motivation is not a matter of reaching for the sky.
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Motivation is a matter of process, establishing certain habits, certain activities where methodically we move forward and by moving forward methodically, we start to achieve that sense of we can accomplish this task, as I mentioned in in the first point, as the people like the French immersion kids here in Vancouver who have a sense that they can do this thing, which helps them not only in their French, using their French, but also I think gives them a more positive attitude, greater sense of motivation when it comes to learning other languages.
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I'm reminded of the example that I heard in the podcast that I'm listening to, Parseh by Abbas Seyedin of the likelihood of someone, let's say, who is in a room where they have, let's say, a limited amount of time to crack the combination, 10 -digit combination in order to get outta this room before they run out of air.
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And if they run through all the possible combinations, it will take them forever and they will eventually die.
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However, if every time they choose a number randomly, which is a correct number, they get a positive feedback.
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So now instead of 10 digits, then they're dealing with only nine digits.
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And if they get another positive feedback, it's eight digits.
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And in this way now it becomes practical for that person to crack the code and get outta the room.
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The point is, as Heraclitus or however he's pronounced said, we never step in the same river twice.
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So when we're learning a language, we are in fact accumulating expertise, we are changing ourselves, we are becoming more confident, we are becoming more expert.
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We are acquiring a better and better sense of the patterns and the words that are necessary for that language.
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And so we need to, in terms of motivation, recognize that however much, it's frustrating at times that we keep forgetting and we keep being unable to recall, in fact, we are not that same person.
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We are gradually increasing our grasp of the language, and that should be a source of motivation.
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So if we can accept that we are improving simply by being in the river, by being engaged with the language we're building on what we know, then the next thing is how can we in fact, make sure we stay on task.
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So we have to accept that we're constantly improving, even if we're not aware of our improvement.
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But we also, and this is the third point, we need to have habits.
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This gets back to Atomic Habits, a book that I've mentioned before, and it's part of Jeff Haden's message.
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We have to have not reach for the sky, ambitious, you know, motives or objectives, we need to have specific habits.
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For example, I have been in the habit of getting up in the morning and listening to the language that I'm learning.
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I am in the habit of listening When I'm in the car, I have habits, for example, of making sure that I spend half an hour or so on LingQ on my iPad, so I have certain habits that keep me going, even if my intrinsic motivation towards the language may sag, I have habits that keep me going.
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Of course, if we have these habits and the habits enable us to achieve slowly success in the language, this reinforces our motivation because motivation, as Haden points out, it's largely a matter of success and reinforcing that sense of achievement that makes us motivated in many languages.
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There is a saying that the first step is the job half done.
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In other words, it's very important to just even get going, get started, even if you may not be tremendously motivated to learn the language or you're concerned that you won't succeed if you can at least get started.
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Take that first step and keep moving forward in small steps, atomic steps, small steps.
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Gradually you will build up that sense of achievement or enjoyment.
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As I've said before, the French expression, the appetite comes with the eating.
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You will build up that sense of achievement and confidence, which is in itself very motivating.
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Now the next point is that there are other ways that we can maintain our motivation, to call it external factors.
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And these are, for example, nudges from goals or milestones, and that's what our statistics at LingQ are all about.
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Before I went to Turkey, I had six months.
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I said, I'm going to increase my known word total from, I think it was 8,000 words to 15,000 words, leaving aside what the actual meaning of known words might be, which depends on the language.
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However, it was an objective goal that I set myself, and so I made sure that every day I achieved enough of a sort of increase in my known words, total, so that eventually I would reach, actually I went to 35,000 known words, and that was a very sort of objective goal, external goal.
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But the net result was that when I went to Turkey, I was able to communicate in Turkish.
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So the sort of external milestone, nudging goal pushed me, motivated me to achieve what I wanted to achieve, and that was a sufficient improvement in my Turkish so that I could be effective when I was in the country.
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Now. Another thing with regard to motivation is motivation can come from any source.
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It can be a relative, it can be a romantic involvement, it can be a trip to the country, or it can be these small steps of a sense of achievement, but we have to be open or I try to be open to these sources of inspiration.
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For example, I was cleaning up my library here, putting some order into my library.
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And of course I have a lot of books in many different languages, some of which I have read, some of which I have not read.
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So I found this book here, Herman Lindqvist in Swedish on Napoleon.
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I got into Napoleon because I was listening to Parseh podcast about Napoleon's conquest of Egypt, and that got me interested in Napoleon, and so I'm reading some books on Napoleon, then I find this Swedish book.
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Then I go to my Swedish audiobook ebook website called Bokon.
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Unfortunately, there's no ebook there, but there is an audiobook, so I downloaded it and I've been listening to it.
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So I'm exposing myself to this opportunity of enjoyment with the language, which I think is important because I have books, I have the opportunity to do the same thing in a number of languages.
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In other words, getting involved with languages has opened me up to a variety of sources of enjoyment, rewards in my language learning activities, and you have to work your way through to get there.
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But the other interesting thing is that I find now having been in Persian and other languages, having not done much with Swedish for a long, long time, I find that I understand this book, whether reading it or listening to it better than I think I was able to understand Swedish before, so I just mentioned that in passing.
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But I mentioned it also because we have to be open to different things that can give us a bit of a dopamine kick.
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It might be a new interest, it might be going back to material that's easy and doing that for a while before going forward into more difficult material.
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But we have to be open to the possibility that these language activities can give us a sense of reward and in language learning.
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As I've said before, the process is the reward.
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In other words, that sense of achievement, that sense of accessing other culture, that sense of, wow, I understand things that I didn't understand before, all of these things can give us a sense of enjoyment.
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And those steps along the way at different stages of our learning are what keeps us motivated or at least what keeps me motivated.
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And I guess that's the sort of overarching point that I wanted to make.
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And that is, in language learning, the motivation is varied.
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The motivation can be something intrinsic in terms of an interest in the language, it can be external things that nudge us forward, it can be an accidental encounter.
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If I'm in a store and I see someone who's a Farsi speaker, Persian speaker, and we have a conversation, and I do better than I thought I was going to do in the language, have a great feeling of achievement.
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The motivation, things that trigger our motivation can be any number of things, but we have to be open to these things and we have to be prepared to accept small victories along the way rather than thinking that motivation has to be in terms of, I wanna be fluent, I wanna make a million dollars, that sort of long term goal shouldn't be the motivation.
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Rather, it should be that willingness to engage, to set up procedures, processes, habits that keep us moving along in the direction of eventually getting to some degree of fluency, but an openness to all of the different things that can motivate us and keep us going.
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So I don't think motivation is a myth.
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But the motivation has to be along the lines of what Jeff Haden says in his book: it's a series of habits, it's processes, it's giving yourself credit for what you achieve.
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And in that way, motivation can be a powerful force for language learning success.
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Oh, and by the way, what's this t-shirt?
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So one of my activities or activities over the course of my career has been in lumber marketing, lumber, but also we developed a, um, ERP system for sawmills and for companies in, uh, lumber distribution.
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So I thought I would do some cross marketing here.
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So, Woodmart, Woodhub, these are those, the systems that we have sold in various overseas countries and here in Canada.
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Thank you for listening.
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Why Staying Motivated Matters for English Learners (and How to Do It)
Learning English can feel like a uphill battle—especially if you’re prepping for IELTS speaking practice or just trying to hold a conversation. The video we’re breaking down today gets real about motivation: it’s not about big goals, but small wins. Think of the French immersion kids in Vancouver who love using their French because they felt successful early on. The same goes for you: when you feel capable, you’ll want to keep going. And that’s where practical tools like the shadowing technique come in—they help you build confidence step by step.
Useful Chunks to Boost Your Speaking
- "Feeds on itself" – Motivation grows when you celebrate small wins. Example: "My progress feeds on itself now that I practice daily."
- "Methodically move forward" – Stay consistent, even with tiny steps. Example: "I methodically move forward by doing 10 minutes of shadowing each morning."
- "Sense of achievement" – That "I did it!" feeling. Example: "Nailing a new phrase gives me a huge sense of achievement."
- "Reinforces our motivation" – Success makes you want to try more. Example: "Understanding a YouTube video reinforces my motivation to learn English."
Your Shadowing Challenge: Try "Shadowspeak" Today
Ready to turn motivation into action? Grab your phone and pick a short clip from a YouTube video (yes, learn English with YouTube works!). Play a 5-second segment, then pause and repeat it immediately—mimic the tone, speed, and stress. This is shadow speak (or "shadowspeak") in action. For IELTS speaking practice, focus on clear pronunciation and natural rhythm. Do this 5 times, then try a 10-second clip. You’ll be surprised how quickly you start to feel "good" at it—and that’s when motivation kicks in. Remember: small habits, big results.
Motivation isn’t a myth—it’s a skill you build by doing. Start with shadowing, celebrate every win, and watch your confidence (and English skills) soar.
¿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.