Shadowing Practice: Why Are People Afraid To Speak English? - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creando lección...
1
Welcome to the Listening Time Podcast.
2
Hey everybody, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 146 of the Listening Time Podcast.
3
I hope you're all doing fantastic and I hope
4
that your English learning is going well and that maybe you're starting to speak and have conversations in English.
5
I know that it's hard when you first start speaking English and that's actually what we're gonna talk about in today's episode.
6
I want to talk about why people are afraid to speak English.
7
I think that this episode will be helpful for all of you,
8
especially if you're just starting to speak or or maybe you haven't spoken yet,
9
you're still waiting, and you're a little bit worried about starting,
10
I think that this episode will help you if you're in that situation.
11
And I think that it will give you a little bit of motivation to start if you feel like
12
you're getting to the point where you're ready to speak because you understand a lot,
13
but you're a little bit afraid, I hope that after listening to this,
14
you'll feel a little bit more confident to start this process of speaking in English.
15
So that's what we'll talk about today, so I'm sure you'll like this episode.
16
And if you feel like you understand me really well already, and you want to practice with something more difficult,
17
then I recommend that you sign up to become a Listening Time family member
18
so you can practice with my advanced episodes in which I speak fast.
19
the link to sign up is down below in the episode description.
20
That's patreon.com slash listening time.
21
And if you want something even more challenging, then you can practice with my U.S.
22
Conversations podcast in which I have conversations with different English speakers from around the country.
23
They're all teachers who teach English, and we talk about a lot of different topics.
24
And with this podcast, you'll also just learn a lot about the country, about the U.S in general.
25
It's a lot of fun.
26
It's great practice for you.
27
So the link is also down below.
28
That's patreon.com slash usconversations.
29
And as always, please share this podcast with any English learners that you know,
30
and please give it a five-star rating and write a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
31
All right, let's get started.
32
Are your ears ready?
33
You know what time it is.
34
It's listening time.
35
Okay, let's talk about why people are afraid to speak English.
36
In this episode, I'm gonna talk about the three main reasons,
37
in my opinion, why people are afraid to speak English, and we'll talk about why people have that fear,
38
and I'll try to relieve your fears a little bit.
39
Hopefully, you won't feel as afraid after listening.
40
And before I mention these three reasons why people are afraid to speak,
41
I want to note that I still think
42
that it's important to be able to understand English pretty well before you start speaking consistently.
43
I'm not saying you have to do this Everyone has different philosophies when it comes to language learning,
44
and I'm not saying that I'm right and everyone else is wrong.
45
However, in my experience, having conversations with people from all over the world,
46
students who are learning English from many different countries,
47
I've done this for many years I've talked to many people for thousands of hours
48
So I'm speaking from experience here When I say that
49
when people can't understand me well During our conversation The conversation does not go well
50
It's not a very helpful hour or half an hour that we spend when the student can't understand me well.
51
However, if they understand me well,
52
then that 30 minutes or one hour is very useful for them.
53
They get to practice their speaking naturally, and it's beneficial.
54
but if they don't understand me, the conversation just doesn't go well.
55
It's very unnatural.
56
I have to repeat things many times or translate them, and it's just not that fun.
57
So, in my opinion, this is only my opinion, but I'm speaking from experience,
58
If you can't understand English pretty well, then that should be your focus.
59
You should focus on understanding English pretty well.
60
Not perfectly, of course, maybe not even to an advanced level,
61
but you should be able to understand pretty well.
62
And then that will really help you get started with your speaking.
63
Okay?
64
All right.
65
That being said, let's talk about the first reason why many people are afraid to speak,
66
and that is they're afraid that they're gonna say the wrong thing.
67
In other words, they think that they will make a lot of mistakes, whether it be with grammar or vocabulary.
68
They're gonna say the wrong word or use the wrong structure.
69
Many people are afraid of this.
70
And this is inevitable.
71
When we say that something is inevitable, we're saying that it can't be avoided.
72
So when you start speaking English,
73
it's inevitable that you're gonna say the wrong words many times, okay?
74
That's not something you can avoid and it's not something
75
that you will avoid when you're fluent even because fluency does not mean perfect accuracy.
76
Fluency and accuracy are two different things.
77
So even when you become fluent in English you're still gonna make mistakes sometimes, okay?
78
So don't have this idea that some people
79
when they learn English they don't make mistakes and you make a lot of mistakes.
80
No, that's not reality.
81
We all make mistakes.
82
We all say things wrong.
83
We all use the wrong words when we're learning a language, okay?
84
And most mistakes aren't significant.
85
That's something really important that I want you to remember.
86
Most of your mistakes aren't that significant.
87
Some of them are, of course, but most of them aren't.
88
If you use the wrong form of a verb,
89
for example, maybe you used the wrong verb tense or you just didn't know how to use the verb tense correctly,
90
that's usually not gonna be a huge problem, okay?
91
If you used the present perfect when in reality it would have been better to use the past simple.
92
Sometimes it's significant but most of the time it's not.
93
Okay, so the important thing to remember is that native speakers just want to understand you.
94
That's what we're focused on.
95
We're not focused on all of your mistakes, we just want to understand what you're saying.
96
And so if your mistake isn't significant, if it doesn't change our understanding of what you're saying,
97
then it doesn't really matter that much.
98
Okay?
99
I'm not saying that you shouldn't try to get better and correct your mistakes.
100
Of course, you should do that.
101
However, don't be afraid to make mistakes
102
because as long as these mistakes don't affect the native speaker's understanding of what you're saying,
103
then they're not significant.
104
Focus on the significant mistakes for sure.
105
For example, a really big one is
106
that some people have the tendency of saying she when they really want to say he.
107
That's a big mistake.
108
That's something that will cause a lot of problems, so focus on those big mistakes,
109
but to be honest, the majority of your mistakes aren't big, so don't worry, okay?
110
how do you get better at this and not make as many mistakes, not say the wrong thing?
111
Well, you need to have more conversations.
112
If you can already understand pretty well, of course, you need to continue listening.
113
That will help you too.
114
That always helps, of course,
115
but having more conversations will also eventually teach you the correct way to speak.
116
Okay, you're gonna develop that memory of what to say and what sounds natural if you speak a lot
117
and have conversations and you hear the other person say things to you
118
and over time the natural correct way to say things will become automatic for you.
119
But it takes time and it's little by little, right?
120
So just start having conversations if you can understand English pretty well and just know that you'll make mistakes,
121
but the conversations themselves are the training that you need to eventually not make as many mistakes, right?
122
Pretty simple.
123
So let's talk about another reason why people are afraid to speak English,
124
and that is that they are afraid that they have bad pronunciation or that they have a big accent,
125
a heavy accent.
126
And I talked about this recently in an episode, so some of this you've already heard me say before,
127
but just know that we all have pronunciation problems and we all have an accent.
128
Again, we're all in the same boat here.
129
That phrase, we're all in the same boat, means that we're all in the same situation, okay?
130
It's not different for some of us.
131
We don't say things the way that native speakers say them when we're learning that language,
132
especially as an adult.
133
We don't have the same muscle memory of how to make the correct sounds and all of that.
134
Okay, and I have this problem big time in French.
135
When we say the phrase big time, this is used to emphasize something,
136
like I'm saying really, very.
137
So I have this problem big time in French.
138
My accent isn't that bad in Spanish or Portuguese or maybe even Italian even though I just started learning.
139
But in French, it's awful, okay?
140
It's something that I really need to work on.
141
But I know that most other people, when they learn French, they also have a really big accent,
142
a really heavy accent when they speak.
143
And I used the word awful to describe my accent,
144
but I really shouldn't say that because I don't want you to think that your accent is awful or bad.
145
I'm just making fun of myself.
146
When you make fun of someone,
147
this means that you laugh at them because of something negative about them.
148
So I'm just making fun of myself by saying that my accent is awful.
149
But really, don't think of accents as being awful, good, bad.
150
Just think of the language and the sounds as being a system that you will get better at over time.
151
And don't think that your accent is terrible,
152
just accept that you have an accent and you'll work on that over time, right?
153
And just like I talked about before with saying the wrong words,
154
saying things the wrong way in terms of your pronunciation or your accent,
155
usually this isn't too significant either.
156
Most of your pronunciation errors aren't super significant.
157
They don't affect the native speaker's understanding of what you're saying.
158
Some of your mistakes are significant when it comes to your pronunciation or your accent.
159
Some of them are, that is true, but most of them aren't.
160
Again, I'm trying to help you be less afraid here.
161
I'm not saying that there aren't significant mistakes.
162
Of course there are, but most of your mistakes aren't significant.
163
So you need to have a little more confidence and don't be afraid of making mistakes with vocabulary or grammar, or pronunciation.
164
However, you should focus on the significant mistakes that you do make,
165
and especially if these mistakes can be easily corrected.
166
I think in the episode about pronunciation, I gave the example of stressing the wrong syllable in a word.
167
This can be very easily corrected,
168
And it can make a big difference in helping the native speaker understand you.
169
I remember hearing this employee at a Chinese restaurant asking this native speaker if he wanted any appetizers.
170
And she wasn't a native speaker, this worker.
171
And she stressed the wrong syllable.
172
She said appetizer.
173
And the way she said it was very hard to understand for the native speaker
174
because he was expecting her to say appetizer.
175
That's the correct way to say it.
176
And he misunderstood her and she had to repeat it.
177
And in that situation, it was a significant error because he couldn't understand her,
178
but it's easily correctable.
179
She just needs to stress the right syllable.
180
So of course to get better at things like this,
181
we need to do a lot of listening and to listen with the intention of hearing the way that things are pronounced.
182
Maybe some of your listening practice can be dedicated to focusing on the sounds of the language
183
and not just on understanding the words.
184
So listening with that intention can be really helpful.
185
And of course, I'm someone who trains people to pronounce English better.
186
So of course, with my membership, if you have signed up for a certain level,
187
a certain tier of the membership, you'll get my pronunciation training as well.
188
So of course you have that resource and other people have resources and can teach you pronunciation as well,
189
but just know
190
that it isn't as natural to improve your pronunciation as it is to improve your vocabulary
191
and grammar so it might be a little bit harder to improve in this area
192
but you can okay it's possible and with the right resources and
193
dedicating the time to actually practicing this and listening intently to the sounds that you hear,
194
this will help.
195
It's not easy, but you can get better over time.
196
But just know that all of us have pronunciation issues
197
and all of us have issues with our accent when we speak foreign languages.
198
And we English speakers actually expect you to have an accent
199
when this isn't your first language and we hear accents all the time
200
because many people learn English as a second language and so we're really accustomed to this.
201
Don't be afraid that we're gonna make fun of you and criticize your accent.
202
No, don't be afraid of that.
203
Just know that this is normal and try to correct the significant errors, okay?
204
But most of your pronunciation errors are not significant, okay?
205
And one other reason why people are afraid to speak English is because they feel that they get stuck,
206
like they freeze and they can't say anything, or they don't know how to say things.
207
And again, this is normal.
208
This is something that is gonna happen to you when you first start speaking, even if you can understand pretty well.
209
I always talk about how understanding English well will help you speak and get started speaking,
210
and that's true, however, you're still gonna feel like you get stuck often when you first start speaking,
211
even if you understand well.
212
And this is similar to learning how to drive.
213
I talked about this recently in a YouTube video, and I think there will be a bonus episode about this topic,
214
if I'm not mistaken, and that's
215
because I'm teaching my wife how to drive right now
216
so this is on my mind and this is a great comparison
217
because for example my wife she read the whole handbook
218
that talks about all the rules that you need to know
219
when driving in California and she had to memorize all of these things,
220
and she had to pass a test where she answered questions about the rules,
221
and she sees me drive almost every day because we drive places,
222
and she sees what I do, what I don't do.
223
She sees all of the different maneuvers that I make.
224
A maneuver is some type of movement that you make with some intention.
225
So she sees my maneuvers.
226
She sees what other drivers do.
227
She can feel everything being in the car.
228
So she has all of that experience of learning how to drive,
229
but when she actually first started driving, it was like she was frozen.
230
She felt stuck even though she knows where the brake pedal is,
231
how to accelerate, she She knows the rules of the road.
232
She knows all of that,
233
but right now, because she just started driving actually behind the wheel as we say,
234
she's the one driving, it's like she has to develop this muscle memory
235
learn how to do these different things even
236
if she kind of already knows them
237
because she's seen me do these things she's read about them she knows them
238
but she hasn't actually done them herself and now she's driven probably like six
239
or seven times in total
240
and she's already improved a ton she's already doing very very well compared to her first day driving
241
because on her first day she felt like she didn't know
242
what she was doing even though she had already learned a lot of this
243
and that's exactly how it feels when you first start speaking after you can already understand well.
244
You've heard so many words and phrases and sentences and grammatical structures and you understand them perfectly,
245
but you haven't actually spoken yet.
246
And so the first time you speak, you're frozen.
247
You don't know how to speak very well because you don't have that muscle memory yet.
248
You haven't said these things out loud yet.
249
But after a few sessions of speaking, you already start to feel more comfortable.
250
You already start to feel like you're making some improvement
251
and then the process and the progress continue after that and you eventually become a good speaker.
252
It works like that, just like learning how to drive.
253
My wife, she gets all this passive knowledge first, and then she has to actually do it, and it's new for her,
254
and it's hard at the beginning, but she's developing this muscle memory
255
and after like a week of driving she's doing fantastic
256
so that's how I want you to think about this topic
257
when you feel stuck at the beginning
258
when you don't know how to say things just know
259
that that's normal and that you're gonna develop this ability through consistent speaking okay of course tons of listening as well,
260
but also consistent speaking.
261
Okay, this is normal and it's supposed to happen and you'll get through it if you just commit to speaking consistently.
262
Okay, all right, hopefully this episode was interesting for you and hopefully it motivates you to speak if you can already understand
263
pretty well.
264
And don't be afraid.
265
Don't think you're the only one with these issues.
266
We all have these issues, okay?
267
And if you want to practice with something a little bit harder than this podcast,
268
make sure to become a Listening Time family member to get my advanced episodes, and you can also sign up for my U.S.
269
Conversations podcast to practice with my conversations with other English speakers.
270
So both of those links are in the episode description below this episode.
271
And the transcript for this episode is down there as well.
272
And please share this podcast, give it a five-star rating, and write a review if you can.
273
All right, thank you for listening to this episode, and I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.
📺 Mismo canal
A1547
A1 English Listening Practice - Transportation
American AccentTravel EnglishTeensDaily Conversation
A12,191
A1 English Listening Practice - Money
American AccentKidsTravel EnglishTeens
A14,463
A1 English Listening Practice - Language Learning
American AccentDaily Conversation
B194
B1 English Listening Practice - Immigration
American AccentTravel EnglishDaily ConversationHigh School Students
A22,305
A2 English Listening Practice - Travel
American AccentTravel EnglishTeensUniversity Students
A1110
A1 English Listening Practice - Productivity
American AccentKidsTeensDaily Conversation
A1159
A1 English Listening Practice - Winter
American AccentKidsTravel EnglishTeens
A271
A2 English Listening Practice - Learning
American AccentTeensDaily ConversationHigh School Students
A12,547
A1 English Listening Practice - Cooking
American AccentKidsTravel EnglishTeens
A11,144
A1 English Listening Practice - Supermarket
American AccentKidsTravel EnglishTeens
A2112
A2 English Listening Practice - Manners
American AccentTravel EnglishTeensDaily Conversation
A2182
A2 English Listening Practice - Road Trips
American AccentKidsTravel EnglishTeens
B121
B1 English Listening Practice - American Culture
American AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationHigh School Students
B254
B2 English Listening Practice - Airplanes and Flying
American AccentTravel EnglishDaily ConversationHigh School Students
A2745
A2 English Listening Practice - Reading and Books
American AccentDaily Conversation
B229
B2 English Listening Practice - Extreme Sports
American AccentTeensDaily ConversationHigh School Students
A295
A2 English Listening Practice- Communication
American AccentKidsTeensDaily Conversation
B2208
B2 English Listening Practice - Living Abroad
American AccentTravel EnglishDaily Conversation
A166
A1 English Listening Practice - The English Language
American AccentKidsTravel EnglishTeens
A1116
A1 English Listening Practice - Technology
American AccentKidsTravel EnglishTeens
✨ Recomendar Video
B21
253 oraciones
English Listening Podcast - Why is it Hard to Become Advanced?
American AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B17
347 oraciones
Speak English With Me – Speak Without Fear Day 4 | English Speaking Practice
American AccentInterview EnglishDaily ConversationHigh School Students
B28
610 oraciones
English Podcast For Learning English Conversation | How to Talk About Yourself in English
Interview EnglishDaily ConversationHigh School Students
B25
247 oraciones
English Listening Practice - Inflation
American AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B2153 oraciones
Who Can Make You Speak English Fluently?
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B11
211 oraciones
21 Days English Fluency Shadowing Challenge | English Listening & Speaking Practice
Interview EnglishDaily ConversationHigh School Students
B24
481 oraciones
10 Real ENGLISH Conversations: Can you understand them?
American AccentBusiness EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
196 oraciones
Learn English with Podcast | It's Never Too Late to Start Over | Daily Life English Conversation
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B2169 oraciones
How to Overcome Accent Anxiety & the Fear of Speaking English
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B11
276 oraciones
Speak Confidently Anywhere | Improve Your English Speaking | English Speaking Practice | Podcast
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B23
88 oraciones
Secrets to Understand Fast-talking Americans : English Listening Practice
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
A25,904
11 oraciones
English Speaking and Listening Practice for Beginners
KidsTravel EnglishTeens
Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección
Esta lección de conversación de nivel B2 se basa en el vídeo “Why Are People Afraid To Speak English?”. Las palabras que más se repiten: mistake, English, speak, accent, afraid. Este vídeo tiene 273 frases y 3169 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 28:44. El hablante mantiene un ritmo constante de unas 110 palabras por minuto, cómodo para el shadowing. 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
Las 15 palabras más avanzadas del vídeo, con su pronunciación y significado:
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| accent sustantivo | /ækˈsɛnt/ | acento léxico |
| pronunciation sustantivo | /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/ | pronunciación |
| podcast sustantivo | /ˈpɑdˌkæst/ | podcast, pódcast |
| appetizer sustantivo | /ˈæpɪˌtaɪzə/ | aperitivo, antojito |
| syllable sustantivo | /ˈsɪl.ə.bəl/ | sílaba |
| maneuver sustantivo | /məˈnuvɚ/ | maniobra, ejercicio |
| verb sustantivo | /vɝb/ | verbo |
| vocabulary sustantivo | /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/ | vocabulario |
| inevitable adjetivo | /ɪˈnɛvɪtəbəl/ | inevitable |
| freeze verbo | /ˈfɹiːz/ | helarse, congelarse |
| grammar sustantivo | /ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/ | gramática |
| fluency sustantivo | /ˈfluːənsi/ | fluidez, fluencia |
| dedicate verbo | /ˈdɛdɪˌkeɪt/ | dedicar |
| fluent adjetivo | /ˈfluənt/ | fluyente, fluente |
| tense sustantivo | /tɛns/ | tiempo |
Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| get through verbo | /ɡɛt ˈθɹu/ | aguantar, salir adelante |
| sign up verbo | inscribir, alistar |
Frases que vale la pena repetir
Frases cortas y completas del vídeo que puedes reutilizar en la conversación diaria:
- It's great practice for you.
- All right, let's get started.
- Are your ears ready?
- Hopefully, you won't feel as afraid after listening.
- Most of your mistakes aren't that significant.
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 | haven't spoken · I've done · you've already heard |
| Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hace | being said · can't be avoided · can be easily corrected |
| Oraciones de relativo who / which + oración — información extra sobre una persona o cosa | teachers who teach · students who are · someone who trains |
Pronunciación a tener en cuenta
El hablante usa 136 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”: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/
- Palabras largas — cuida el acento: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, appetizer /ˈæpɪˌtaɪzə/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, inevitable /ɪˈnɛvɪtəbəl/, correctable /kəˈɹɛktəbəl/
Sonidos difíciles para hispanohablantes:
- /v/ — no es /b/: los dientes tocan el labio inferior: maneuver /məˈnuvɚ/, verb /vɝb/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, inevitable /ɪˈnɛvɪtəbəl/, motivate /ˈmoʊ.tɪ.veɪt/
- /z/ — sonora, no /s/: appetizer /ˈæpɪˌtaɪzə/, freeze /ˈfɹiːz/, memorize /ˈmɛm.əˌɹaɪ̯z/, criticize /ˈkɹɪtɪsaɪz/, emphasize /ˈɛm.fə.saɪz/
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 accent, pronunciation, podcast.
¿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.