Shadowing Practice: How to Love Learning a Language (and Progress Faster) - Learn English Speaking with Video

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The key to language acquisition is input,

but the problem is listening practice doesn't work when you're tense, frustrated, or anxious.

As I learned from a linguistics professor and through years of trial and error,

you absorb the most when you're relaxed,

having fun, and ultimately when you love what you're doing.

And so today I wanted to share with you five things

that help keep that love alive and ultimately kept me from quitting.

These will not only make you want to study and practice more,

but they'll also increase the rate at which you pick up new material.

I promise.

All right, so the first thing is to bring the language to you.

You don't go to the language.

And what I mean by that is,

you know, as adult language learners,

a lot of times we have a tendency to want to alter our lives,

learn more about the culture of our target language

and that's great it is very important

but you want to try to activate the things

that you already love

and incorporate the language into your life i want to tell

you a quick story during my year abroad in kazakhstan

when the target language was russian they had somebody fly out

from st petersburg to basically get us ready for this big test basically their standardized test for russian speakers

and to what they would give to foreigners to see if we could function in a Russian-speaking country.

It was more for just kind of a qualification and the certification of it all.

And we had a couple of months to kind of

keep getting ready and prepare for these exams as they were about to come up.

And reading was naturally one of the big sections of it.

And of course, she recommended,

you know, always have a book on you,

always be reading a book.

And when we asked, well,

what type of book should we be reading.

You know what she said?

It has to be a book that you are personally interested in.

And this really caught my attention because it had nothing to do with the subject matter,

the formality level, nothing like that.

It all had to do with what you were interested in.

Now, you might be thinking,

if you're a beginner, you might be thinking,

well, great, I can't even read a whole book yet.

So how does that apply to me?

Well, you can also think about subject matter.

I'll give you one other example real quick.

Around the time that I started studying Russian,

It was about the same time that kind of been new to skydiving.

And that was a hobby that I got a little into.

And I had to, I learned the pilot chute in skydiving is the,

is the small little parachute that comes out first and basically initiates the whole opening of the parachute.

And pilot chute in Russian is their word for jellyfish, meduza.

Meduza is their slang word kind of for like how skydivers would refer to pilot shoot.

Now very random, obscure, I know,

but I share that with you because if,

had I not known what even a pilot shoot is,

you know, that would make no sense to me.

But not only did I know what a pilot shoot was,

it was also interesting to me and I was

that much more engaged in the language

and it was a little bit more of a you know you could say like a technical jargon

but you can apply this to almost anything it's best to apply the 50 rule

that basically if as long as you can understand 50 of what's being said then it's good practice

but it is so much more effective when that 50

can be applied to familiar uh lexicon

because you already have all these touch points things that are are familiar to you that you understand.

So basically bringing the language to you

and incorporating it into the life you already have will make it that much more enjoyable.

You'll be more engaged and it'll really help the process.

The next thing I want you to focus on is don't talk, just do.

I want to preface this by saying there's even research out there

that shows people who talk about their goals are much less likely to achieve them.

I think it has something to do with the fact that you get a false dopamine hit when you talk about it.

It's exciting, but you haven't actually done anything.

I wanted to point out too that from personal experience,

it's much more fun when you stay in the game and you kind of keep it from outsiders,

if that makes sense, because a lot of times you'll get some negative feedback or even just you might confuse people.

Why are you learning that language?

Oh, that's kind of weird.

What are you going to do with that?

Remember that the language that you chose to learn is yours alone.

You know, I don't want to just learn one more language.

I have multiple languages that I'm interested in and they all have their reasons.

So I would say go ahead

and share it with people who you're studying the language together and keep their reasons for wanting to study the language,

wanting to practice and learn it.

Keep those reasons close to your heart.

Next, avoid comparison and instead try to learn from others.

So whether it's your classmates,

peers, other people on YouTube.

Always be grateful for other people with whom you can learn the language and follow the journey along with them.

But remember that your own progress is going to be non-linear.

So throughout your journey, there's going to be bumps, you know, setbacks.

There's going to be, there are going to be times where you feel like you're going backwards,

but a lot of times that's where the real work begins.

This also brings me to my fourth point is document

and of course celebrate wins now i think a video journal

is probably one of the best ways you know speaking to camera like this

and just documenting yourself speaking in the target language this is

something i want to start doing more actually publicly on youtube for my spanish

and keep you guys posted keep you guys updated on

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that journey you know even for i would say homework assignments uh

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when i was learning russian and i still have to keep it activated by by the way.

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My wife doesn't speak Russian,

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so a lot of times it's through podcasts and everything,

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but even just going back,

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you know, a couple months ago,

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found some old college assignments and just seeing those papers,

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seeing me struggling with whether it be conjugations,

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participles, you know, verbal adverbs,

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that was a long time ago,

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but I'm glad that I still kept some of those sheets.

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You can really get a lot more out of that,

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a lot more joy when you celebrate the wins and you just remember where you were,

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where you came from.

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Because if you're starting from scratch,

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you know, like I did as an adult, I was 22.

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For one, I think that's evidence that you're never too old to start learning a language.

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In fact, I don't plan on ever being done learning new languages.

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I want to keep learning more.

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One example I want to bring up on this subject is during my time abroad,

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we were actually forced to write up weekly reports,

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basically kind of go online and fill out this form where we had to talk about things in our,

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with the language proficiency, as well as cultural moments that,

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you know, cultural encounters that were maybe challenging for us or just different and basically write our perspective of it,

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write our interpretation.

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And, you know, of course,

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I got to be honest,

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it was a little tedious at times.

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And a lot of us would be like,

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man, oh, we got to sit down.

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We got to write this by the end of the week.

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But after a while, it became a really good habit to kind of think back on those obstacles that we overcame.

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At least for me, that was my impression.

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And I went back and read a lot of the reports that I had and it made me really appreciate the process.

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I got a lot of joy, honestly.

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It just made me love the experience a lot more knowing that I had gone through all those steps.

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And when you have to write about it,

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you're actively thinking about those different moments

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and having to articulate what parts of your brain

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or what thought processes did you have to go through during that learning experience,

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whether it be for the language proficiency or the culture itself,

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or even just time abroad.

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And I think a lot of the times domestically,

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it can be just as challenging.

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So you don't have to be abroad,

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you don't have to do some crazy immersion program,

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even though I recommend those if you can,

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but just make sure that you're documenting, celebrating the wins.

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I promise it'll make the experience,

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the language learning journey that much more enjoyable.

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Before we get into the fifth point,

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I want to encourage you to sign up for the life and language letter.

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If you're not already signed up for it,

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you can use the QR code on the screen

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or the link in the description going to help you stay consistent and also enjoy the process along the way.

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Point number five.

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Lastly, today I want you to establish connection and need.

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What I mean by that is,

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first of all, connection, in my opinion,

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is the meaning of life.

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It's what kind of relationships do you have?

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That could be, some people call it service,

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being in service to others.

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But basically, what kind of relationships do you have with other people and what are you doing that's bigger than yourself?

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And I think that it's so much more enjoyable when you find that connection through the target language.

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So, meaning the language learning journey is more enjoyable when you have that connection, right?

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And the need part of it is going to be basically,

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why do you have to keep going?

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Because of course, maybe you've already experienced this,

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those reasons for studying the language in the first place are going to fall by the wayside.

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Maybe not for you, but for me, that's been my experience.

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And you have to find things to sort of rekindle that passion or rekindle a reason to keep going.

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And here, what I'm talking about is a real need.

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And there are some people out there who say it's impossible to learn a language

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if you do not need it for survival.

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Well, I think that's kind of unrealistic,

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especially if your native language is English.

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There, of course, are still plenty of places where English is not spoken,

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but it's hard to make the argument

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that you need a foreign language to survive or

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that you have to go and immerse yourself in another country to truly learn it.

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Maybe some people believe that,

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but I don't think that's true.

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I think you can become very proficient without doing those things.

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You just have to have some form of immersion.

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And even if your life isn't on the line, you can get there.

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And the easiest way for me that I've found for this to be the case is to create lifestyle rituals.

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So basically just things that you do automatically that also have meaning behind them.

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Again, relationships and then that need.

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Why do you, you should feel like you have to do it.

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And if you do something even just a few days in a row,

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then it's going to become so much more automatic.

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And I know that if you start to miss two days in a row of something,

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then it just starts to slowly slip away.

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But just remember, you can get it back.

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Before we go, I want to provide you with one concise plan of action moving forward

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that I really think is going to help implement all of these things that we talked about.

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And that is pick three things that you want to be able to do

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or situations that you want to be able to handle but basically there should be an actionable,

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like an action to it.

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So three things within three weeks time with three other people.

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So I call it the 3-3-3 plan.

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Three actions,

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three things you want to be able to do in the target language in three weeks from now with three other people.

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And basically these three,

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these different components are going to help you implement the time constraint forces you to stay in the game.

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the three the other three people again it's about connection

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and need and then the actions to begin with is about actually doing something

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that also forces interest personal interest something

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that you want to do don't pick something

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that you don't have much interest in

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but you feel like you should be able to do it no don't worry about

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that what what is your personal interest leave in the comments

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your plan for these i'd love to hear what your plan

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is in fact i'll probably drop mine in there for for spanish

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and um yeah hope you guys have a good week thanks for watching

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and we'll see in the next video thanks guys

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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección

Esta lección de conversación de nivel C1 se basa en el vídeo “How to Love Learning a Language”. Este vídeo tiene 216 frases y 2285 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 12:01. El hablante habla rápido, unas 190 palabras por minuto, así que espera sonidos enlazados y reducidos. El 89 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés; conviene repasar el resto antes de empezar.

Vocabulario clave de este vídeo

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

Palabra	Pronunciación	Significado
enjoyable adjetivo	/ɛnˈd͡ʒɔɪ.ə.bl̩/	agradable, ameno
immersion sustantivo	/ɪˈmɝʒən/	inmersión
proficiency sustantivo	/pɹəˈfɪʃənsi/	suficiencia, pericia
skydiving sustantivo		paracaidismo
parachute sustantivo	/ˈpæɹəʃut/	paracaídas
activate verbo	/ˈæktɪˌveɪt/	activar
incorporate verbo	/ɪŋˈkɔɹ.pɚ.eɪt/	incorporar
actionable adjetivo	/ˈæk.ʃə.nə.bəl/	accionable
classmate sustantivo	/ˈklæs.meɪt/	compañero de clase, compañera de clase
concise adjetivo	/kənˈsaɪs/	conciso, breve
conjugation sustantivo	/ˌkɑnd͡ʒəˈɡeɪʃən/	conjunción
domestically adverbio		en el país, nacionalmente
dopamine sustantivo	/ˈdoʊ.pəˌmin/	dopamina
excite verbo	/ɪkˈsaɪt/	emocionar
foreigner sustantivo	/ˈfɔɹ.ɪ.nɚ/	extranjero, extranjera

Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar

Palabra	Pronunciación	Significado
go through verbo		atravesar
come out verbo	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	revelarse, salir a la luz
come up verbo		salir a relucir
fill out verbo	/fɪl ˈaʊt/	rellenar, cumplimentar
go ahead verbo	/ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/	venga, adelante
move forward verbo		ir adelante, adelantar
pick up verbo		coger, asir
point out verbo		señalar, apuntar

Frases que vale la pena repetir

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

You don't go to the language.
You know what she said?
Why are you learning that language?
What are you going to do with that?
It's what kind of relationships do you have?

Gramática en este vídeo

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

Estructura	En el vídeo
Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hace	being said · can be applied · being done
Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahora	haven't actually done · you've already experienced · that's been
Oraciones de relativo who / which + oración — información extra sobre una persona o cosa	people who talk · people who you

Pronunciación a tener en cuenta

El hablante usa 40 contracciones y formas reducidas, como you're, don't, I'm. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.

Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: chute /ʃut/, immersion /ɪˈmɝʒən/, proficiency /pɹəˈfɪʃənsi/, parachute /ˈpæɹəʃut/, actionable /ˈæk.ʃə.nə.bəl/
Palabras largas — cuida el acento: proficiency /pɹəˈfɪʃənsi/, incorporate /ɪŋˈkɔɹ.pɚ.eɪt/, actionable /ˈæk.ʃə.nə.bəl/, conjugation /ˌkɑnd͡ʒəˈɡeɪʃən/, formality /fɔːrˈmælɪti/

Sonidos difíciles para hispanohablantes:

/v/ — no es /b/: los dientes tocan el labio inferior: activate /ˈæktɪˌveɪt/, skydiver /ˈskaɪˌdaɪvɚ/, verbal /ˈvɜː.bəl/
/dʒ/ — no es la “y” ni la “ch”: enjoyable /ɛnˈd͡ʒɔɪ.ə.bl̩/, conjugation /ˌkɑnd͡ʒəˈɡeɪʃən/, jargon /ˈdʒɑː.ɡən/, jellyfish /ˈd͡ʒɛliˌfɪʃ/

Cómo practicar con este vídeo

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

¿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: How to Love Learning a Language (and Progress Faster) - Learn English Speaking with Video

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