Shadowing Practice: Don't Shadow English, Do THIS Instead - Learn English Speaking with Video

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If you want to sound more natural when you speak English, you've probably been told to try shadowing.
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You listen to a native speaker, you copy what they say, and the more you do it, the more natural you sound.
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But if all you do is copy the speaker,
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you could spend months shadowing and still sound a little bit stiff and robotic when it's your turn to speak by yourself.
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So today I'm going to show you my four -step routine to help you make faster progress
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and speak English much more smoothly and naturally, including one final step that most learners miss.
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Okay, let's begin.
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The first step is humming.
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First, you need a short piece of audio.
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Today, we're going to use this sentence from day one of my seven -day speaking challenge.
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If you'd like to try the challenge yourself, the link is in the description.
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Here's the sentence.
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it gets any worse.
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Okay so your first job is to listen to each short part, pause the recording and then hum what you hear.
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So you're not supposed to be saying the words yet,
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you're just supposed to be copying the tune of English and you can just hum like this.
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Let's try it together.
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Listen to each short part then copy the sound without saying the words.
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If I were you, I'd apologize to him before it gets any worse.
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If I were you, I'd apologize to him before it gets any worse.
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So what you're listening for here is the melody of the sentence.
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Which parts are quicker or slower?
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Which parts are louder?
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Or where does my voice rise or fall?
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By leaving out the words, you can give your full attention to the sounds.
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You don't have to think about how to pronounce certain words
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and you don't have to remember all the words in the sentence at the same time.
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This exercise is quite useful because sometimes learners give every word the same amount of stress.
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If I were you I'd apologize to him before it gets any worse.
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It could be quite an unnatural thing for you to try
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because I don't think every language has intonation and tone changes exactly like English.
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So I definitely think it's a useful exercise to try.
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Okay let's try the whole sentence now.
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We're going to listen to it first and then I want you to hum it yourself.
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If I were you, I'd apologize to him before it gets any worse.
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Okay, now your turn.
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If it helps, you can even close your eyes whilst you're listening and humming.
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It could even be helpful to try doing this without reading the sentence.
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That way you're just totally focused on the sound.
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Okay, once you start getting used to that rhythm, we're going to start bringing the words in and you're going to try
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and keep the music of the sentence like we just practiced.
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Okay, step two is imitating.
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This time you're going to listen, pause and repeat the actual words.
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I want you to try and copy the way I say them as closely as you can.
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You're still paying attention to the rhythm, the stress and the intonation, but now we're just going to add the words back into the sentence.
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So for this first attempt, just focus on what you can hear.
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You don't really need to be worrying about the meaning of the sentence at this point.
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Let's use the same three parts.
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I'll say each one, leave a space for you, and then I'll say it again so you can compare.
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Ready?
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Three, two, one.
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If I were you, if I were you,
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I'd apologize to him, I'd apologize to him before it gets any worse.
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Before it gets any worse.
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Notice how the words run together.
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I didn't say I'd apologize to him.
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I'm saying I'd apologize to him.
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I'd apologize to him.
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Try to copy that whole group of sounds, including the quieter words between the stressed parts.
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Now let's try putting that sentence together.
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If I were you, I'd apologize to him before it gets any worse.
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Okay, your turn.
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If I were you, I'd apologize to him before it gets any worse.
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So we started by humming the sentence and now we've brought back in the words whilst trying to keep the same rhythm.
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Okay, so now before we move on, make sure you understand what the sentence means.
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The meaning matters because it can affect which words you stress and how you say them.
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In this imaginary example, maybe your friend has upset someone and you think they should say sorry soon.
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If I were you, I'd apologize to him before it gets any worse.
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So when you're practicing with the other recordings, make sure you can understand the meaning before you go to the next step.
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Step three is shadowing.
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So now we're finally ready to shadow.
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The main difference between shadowing and imitating is when you speak.
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When you imitate, you listen.
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then you stop the recording and then you repeat.
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When you shadow, the recording keeps playing and you're speaking along with it.
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You'll usually be just a little bit behind the speaker so you can hear the sounds and follow along with them.
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Okay, so now we're putting together what we've learned in step one and step two, but we're following along with the speaker's timing.
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So let me show you.
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Ready?
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Three, two, one.
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If I were you, I'd apologise to him before it gets any worse.
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You can hear that I'm speaking while the recording is still playing, so I'm not waiting for it to finish first.
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Now you try.
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I want you to follow my voice through the sentence without pausing for any parts.
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Ready?
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Three, two, one.
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If I were you, I'd apologize to him before it gets any worse.
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Okay, let's try that one more time.
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If I were you, I'd apologize to him before it gets any worse.
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Okay, good job.
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Try to follow the rhythm as well as the words and if you lose your place and it's too fast,
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just listen again and have another go.
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If one part is giving you trouble, maybe just pause it, imitate it a few times and then try again to shadow the whole complete sentence.
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One thing is that you should always try to shadow sentences at natural speed without slowing them down
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because this is how sentences are formed by native speakers and you need to practice forming these sounds at this natural speed.
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Okay, step four, the final step is retrieval.
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Now we're going to stop using the audio and we're going to see if you can use the sentence yourself.
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So you've practiced copying it, but this time we're going to change a few words in the sentence so that it means something personal to you.
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Let's look at the original sentence again.
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If I were you, I'd apologize to him before it gets any worse.
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So let's keep the beginning.
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If I were you, I'd.
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But think of someone you know
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and try to think of some advice you could give them that would change the meaning of this sentence.
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For example, maybe someone in your family has a problem with their car.
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You could change the sentence to, if I were you, I'd get the car checked before it breaks down.
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The structure of the sentence stays the same, but because you're changing the meaning to something personal to you, it makes it much easier to remember.
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Okay, so now it's your turn.
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So try to think of your own situation and what you could change the sentence to.
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Maybe try and think of who you're speaking to, what's the situation and what you would do if you were them.
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Okay, so now pause the video and say your sentence out loud starting with, if I were you, I'd...
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Okay, if you did it, good job
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and you can put your sentence in the comments below because I want to see how creative everybody was.
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Okay, one more tip is that you should record yourself whenever you can
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because it's quite hard to actually hear how you sound whilst you're speaking.
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But if you do record yourself and then listen to it back,
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you can hear where you sound different and what you might need to work on next.
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And you can do this very easily with the recordings in my seven day speaking challenge, which is where today's example came from.
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Day one from the seven day challenge has over 200 short example sentences like the one we used in today's lesson.
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Every exercise on every day of the challenge has recordings of my British voice
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and a space for you to upload your own recording where you can compare the two directly.
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The other six days give you different speaking exercises to help you build your confidence and your fluency.
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There's also a progress tracker that fills up as you complete the week.
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It's aimed at B1 and B2 intermediate learners but even
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if you're C1 or C2 you're going to learn something new and improve your speaking.
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And I've had lots of lovely reviews from all the people who've already tried my seven day speaking challenge.
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So thank you so much for supporting me and if you'd like to join them the link is in the description.
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Okay and you'll also find the free pdf for today's lesson down below as well.
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And if you enjoyed this video about outshadowing
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and you'd like to go a bit deeper into the techniques that I've taught you today, then watch this video next.

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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección

Esta lección de conversación se basa en el vídeo “Don't Shadow English, Do THIS Instead”. Las palabras que más se repiten: sentence, apologize, word, worse, sound. Este vídeo tiene 130 frases y 1625 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 9:09. El hablante habla a un ritmo natural de unas 178 palabras por minuto, cercano a una conversación cotidiana. El 89 % 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

15 palabras del vídeo que vale la pena aprender, con su pronunciación y significado:

PalabraPronunciaciónSignificado
apologize verbo/əˈpɑləˌd͡ʒaɪz/disculparse [with con], pedir(le) perdón [with a]
shadow sustantivo/ˈʃædəʊ̯/sombra
pause sustantivo/pɔːz/pausa
rhythm sustantivo/ˈɹɪð.əm/ritmo
distress sustantivo/dɪˈstɹɛs/distrés, distress
hum verbo/ˈhʌm/canturrear, tararear
audio adjetivo/ˈɔ.di.oʊ/de sonido, de audio
lesson sustantivo/ˈlɛs.ən/lección
compare verbo/kəmˈpɛɚ/comparar, parangonar
tone sustantivo/ˈtəʊn/tono
naturally adverbio/ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/naturalmente, a natura
technique sustantivo/tɛkˈniːk/técnica
helpful adjetivo/ˈhɛlp.fl̩/servicial, adyuvante
routine sustantivo/ɹuˈtin/rutina
tune sustantivo/tjuːn/melodía

Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar

PalabraSignificado
break down verbodescomponerse, averiarse
fill up verbollenar, repletar
leave out verbodejar de lado
put together verboconstruir, elaborar

Frases que vale la pena repetir

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

  • That way you're just totally focused on the sound.
  • Let's use the same three parts.
  • I didn't say I'd apologize to him.
  • I'm saying I'd apologize to him.
  • Let's look at the original sentence again.

Gramática en este vídeo

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

EstructuraEn el vídeo
Oraciones condicionales if + oración, will/would + verbo — una condición y su resultadoIf I were you, I'd apologize · If I were you I'd apologize · If I were you, I'd apologise
Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahorayou've probably been told · we've brought · we've learned
Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hacebeen told · are formed

Pronunciación a tener en cuenta

El hablante usa 67 contracciones y formas reducidas, como I'd, you're, we're. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.

  • Los sonidos de “th”: rhythm /ˈɹɪð.əm/, smoothly /ˈsmuːðli/
  • Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/, intonation /ɪntəˈneɪʃən/
  • Palabras largas — cuida el acento: apologize /əˈpɑləˌd͡ʒaɪz/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, intermediate /ɪn.tə(ɹ)ˈmi.di.ət/, imaginary /ɪˈmæd͡ʒɪˌn(ɛ)ɹi/, intonation /ɪntəˈneɪʃən/

Sonidos difíciles para hispanohablantes:

  • s + consonante al inicio — sin añadir una “e” delante: stiff /stɪf/, smoothly /ˈsmuːðli/
  • /z/ — sonora, no /s/: apologize /əˈpɑləˌd͡ʒaɪz/, pause /pɔːz/
  • /dʒ/ — no es la “y” ni la “ch”: apologize /əˈpɑləˌd͡ʒaɪz/, imaginary /ɪˈmæd͡ʒɪˌn(ɛ)ɹi/

Cómo practicar con este vídeo

  1. Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
  2. Empieza a velocidad 0,75×, haz shadowing frase por frase y vuelve a la velocidad normal cuando te resulte fácil.
  3. Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como apologize, shadow, pause.

¿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 →