Shadowing Practice: English Phrases for Daily Conversation (Practice Small Talk!) - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hello, I'm Emma from mmmEnglish.
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This video is perfect for intermediate to advanced English learners who want to improve their conversation skills.
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I'm going to share the exact phrases and expressions
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that are used during small talk and if you're wondering what is small talk again?
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It's polite conversation about unimportant everyday topics
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but it really helps you to connect with other people and to get them to trust you and to like you.
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Knowing how to do small talk is essential in social situations
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but it's also incredibly important in professional situations as well when you're getting to know your colleagues,
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when you are building rapport with your customers and your clients,
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when you're meeting new people at networking events or at conferences, it's so useful.
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So I'm going to share the exact questions and phrases
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that you need to keep your small talk and your English conversations going.
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Small talk is such a big part of the English language and of English culture generally.
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We really like to ease into conversations with a little bit
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of small talk first rather than dive straight into something deeper and meaningful.
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I know that for some of you, native speakers and non -native speakers alike,
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this situation, small talk, can create a little bit of anxiety.
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What am I going to say?
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What am I going to talk about?
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How am I going to finish the conversation and leave?
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It's nerve -wracking but don't worry, we're going to get lots of practice today.
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I just want to take a few seconds here to give
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a little shout out to the members of Hey Lady who are watching today.
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Hey ladies!
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It's great to see you here!
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If you haven't heard yet, Hey Lady is our online community helping women to succeed in English.
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We make it easy and safe to meet new speaking partners and give you interesting topics to talk about together.
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We have an amazing team of expert English coaches who'll encourage and support you at every step.
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It's the perfect place to practise because you can make mistakes without feeling judged
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and make real progress even if you don't have a lot of time to spare.
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As long as your English level is intermediate or above then your English is good enough to join the community.
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And if you sign up today, you can experience everything we offer free for ten days.
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I've put the link down in the description below.
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Make sure you check it out and I hope to see you inside.
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The first thing we need to do is start the conversation.
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We need to create the opportunity for small talk
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and did you know that there are some better ways to ask how are you
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and this is going to blow your mind,
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good and fine are not the only ways to respond to that question so when someone asks you how are you,
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you can try responding with I've been keeping busy.
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It's a really good, really neutral answer.
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It indicates that you've had a lot of things going on in life
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but you don't need to go into all the detail about it.
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It's just kind of like I've been busy
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but you could also say not bad thanks
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and of course then we need to pass the conversation back but instead of just asking how are you,
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try how's it going with you?
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This is very informal, very relaxed and casual or what have you been up to lately?
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So this question is asking for a little bit more detail so it's a bit more genuine.
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You can ask it if you really want to find out what have you been doing lately?
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What's been going on?
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And if someone asks you this question all you need to do is listen for the grammar
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that they used and reflect it back in your answer
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so you would respond using the present perfect or the present perfect continuous.
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I've been busy training the new marketing manager or
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if you want to avoid this question altogether and just move the conversation on to something else, you can say nothing special, how about you?
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You might want to ask something a little more specific especially if you're talking to someone that you know.
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You can ask them something about their life using how is So you can say how's work going?
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How's your family?
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How's uni?
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How's university?
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And this is really great because you're showing an interest in them.
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You could ask them about something you know that they've done recently by asking with how was?
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How was your trip to Portugal?
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How was the exam?
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All you have to do is switch out the noun at the end to complete the question.
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Really easy, right?
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So another really common setting for small talk is in the office.
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So what are some of these advanced useful phrases for making conversation in English at work?
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A really great strategy for small talk generally but especially at work is to look for common ground.
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When you find something in common with the person that you're talking to, you'll see that making conversation becomes easier because you have this shared interest,
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it's something that you both want to talk about but the tricky part is finding that common ground in the first place.
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So first try talking about work with your colleagues.
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I can't believe how busy we are today, can you?
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And their response could be, I know we're really under the pump.
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That is an Australian phrase that describes when you're feeling a lot of pressure and it's quite a difficult situation
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like when you're at work, being busy at work, you're under the pump.
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You could also say I know I've been flat out all week
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but if the opposite is true and it's actually been quite quiet, you could say yeah it's been dead hasn't it?
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So dead in this expression means quiet, not busy, There's nothing to do.
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And of course at work, you can always start somewhere simple and just say, how's your day been?
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Or how's your week been?
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And to respond, you'd say, it's been long, it's been busy,
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it's been hectic or it's flown by which means it's gone quickly or simply say,
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my week's been great so far, thanks.
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Now when you're answering a question like this, don't forget to follow up with how about you?
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This is going to keep the conversation going and you can just tack
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that question onto the end of almost any sentence just to keep that back and forth happening for a little longer,
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keep things going, pass the conversation back.
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If you work at a bigger company, you might find yourself in the staff room at lunchtime heating up your lunch in the microwave
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and there's a colleague there that you don't know, you've never met them before?
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What could you ask?
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How long have you worked here?
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I don't think I've seen you around.
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If you find out they're new, you can follow up with what did you do before this?
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Or if they've been at the company for a while, you could say what are you working on at the moment?
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Probably the most iconic small talk topic is the weather.
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People love talking about the weather, whether it's bad, whether it's good,
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it's an easy and surefire way to start a conversation to get it going.
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You could start just by saying it's a beautiful day isn't it?
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Can you believe all the rain we've been having?
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It's awful.
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You can talk about current or future weather as well.
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Oh it looks like it's going to snow.
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The weather's not looking great this weekend.
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Do you have any plans?
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this is a great way to transition your conversation from the weather to the weekend.
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If you're talking with someone in a zoom meeting
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or over the phone you could say how's the weather where you are
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or you could even add a little comment like is it cold?
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I've heard it's been really chilly and
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if there's been some unusual weather like a heat wave or a cold snap or some wild storms that's even better.
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You could say something like, How's this weather?
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It's been wild, I've never seen anything like it before.
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Asking about free time and hobbies is another really great strategy so you could start by asking about the weekend.
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Have you got much planned for the weekend?
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So here when I say the weekend, I'm asking about the weekend coming up, the closest one in the future, the next weekend.
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But you can ask about the one that's just finished by saying what did you get up to over the weekend?
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To ask about someone's interests or their hobbies, you could say so what do you usually do in your spare time?
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But you need to make sure that you're listening and that you follow up to show your interest as well.
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You know you could say oh I don't know anything about archery, where do you do that?
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Or really tell me more about it.
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Another idea is to ask about a recent experience And to do that,
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of course, we need to use a good old -fashioned question in the present perfect tense.
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So start with have you and then add on just about any activity that you can think of.
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Have you read any good books lately?
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So have you seen any good movies lately?
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Have you tried that new restaurant down by the beach?
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Awesome work!
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You have just learned more than 30 great phrases and expressions that are useful in small talk conversations in English.
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So what's the best way to practise and remember them?
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Of course it's to practise using them in English conversations.
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If you have a speaking partner or maybe a study group like lots of members inside the Hey Lady community do,
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it is the perfect way to practice small talk conversations.
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It's casual, informal chit -chat.
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So make sure you grab the PDF that I created for you.
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It includes all of the phrases and the expressions
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that you learned today and start by marking off all the ones that you already know.
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Sweet, you've got those, right?
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But then go back through and pick out a few
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that are useful and relevant for you and by
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that I mean ones that you can see yourself using in a particular situation in your life
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so focus on those ones don't try
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and learn all of them at once choose five to eight that's perfect
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but if you don't have a speaking partner or maybe you don't feel
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so comfortable speaking in English and having small talk conversations yet you can still practise by writing your dialogues,
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writing down the conversation between you and someone else.
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That is also practise.
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You can practise thinking about the phrases you're going to use and then rehearse it out loud, speaking to yourself in the mirror or wherever else you want to practise
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and then take every opportunity after that to start stepping out of your comfort zone
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and practising in actual conversations wherever you are in life in an online class, in your local corner shop,
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maybe with your colleagues at work, in the elevator at your apartment, wherever you get to bump into someone,
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practise these little useful phrases and I promise you with time it will become easier and you'll start to really enjoy it.
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Thank you for joining me today.
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If you like this lesson, make sure you give it a like.
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I've got new English lessons coming out for you every week
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so make sure you subscribe and I will see you in the next one.
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Let's go check it out.
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Objetivos de habla para este video
Este video está diseñado para ayudarte a superar un hito clave en tu fluidez: dominar el small talk, esa conversación informal y cortés que abre puertas en situaciones sociales y profesionales. Si alguna vez te has sentido bloqueado al empezar o mantener una charla casual, aquí aprenderás a conectar con otros de forma natural, ganando confianza y mejorando tu capacidad para interactuar en inglés.
Banco de frases prácticas
Las frases del video son herramientas listas para usar. Aquí las principales:
- Para empezar la conversación: "How's it going with you?" (¿Cómo te va?) o "What have you been up to lately?" (¿Qué has estado haciendo últimamente?).
- Para responder: "I've been keeping busy" (He estado ocupado) o "Not bad, thanks" (No mal, gracias).
- Para mostrar interés: "How is work going?" (¿Cómo va el trabajo?) o "How was your trip to Portugal?" (¿Qué tal tu viaje a Portugal?).
- Para continuar la charla: "Nothing special, how about you?" (Nada especial, ¿y tú?).
Corrige tus puntos débiles
El small talk no solo es sobre palabras, sino sobre pronunciación y ritmo. El video te ayuda a evitar respuestas genéricas como "good" o "fine" y a usar frases más naturales, lo que mejora tu fluidez. Además, practicar estas expresiones con técnicas como el shadowspeak (imitar la pronunciación y el tono al escuchar) o usar una app de shadowing te ayudará a internalizar el ritmo de la conversación en inglés. El shadow speech es una forma efectiva de mejorar tu pronunciación, ya que te obliga a escuchar atentamente y repetir con precisión, lo que reduce la ansiedad al hablar en situaciones reales.
Con estas frases y técnicas, verás cómo tu capacidad para mantener charlas casuales mejora rápidamente. ¡No olvides practicar diariamente, incluso si es por pocos minutos, y verás el progreso en poco tiempo!
Gramática en este vídeo
Las estructuras que más usa el hablante, con las palabras exactas del vídeo:
| Estructura | En el vídeo |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — una acción que empezó antes y continúa | I've been keeping · have you been doing · What's been going |
| Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahora | haven't heard · I've put · you've had |
¿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.