Pratique du Shadowing: How to answer 'How was your weekend?' (without sounding boring!) - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

Création de la leçon...
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Hey there!
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I'm Emma from mmmEnglish.
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Today I want to help you with one of the trickiest moments in small talk.
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It's that question that comes around every single week.
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How was your weekend?
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Does this question ever make you panic a little?
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Especially when the honest answer is nothing, nothing exciting anyway.
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So then you panic and you wonder what should I say?
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If I just say nothing, they'll think I'm boring.
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It'll be really awkward and the conversation will just sort of end.
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Don't panic because this speaking practice lesson will help to quash those fears.
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You can have a really quiet weekend and still sound confident,
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friendly and interesting when you talk about it.
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So here's the thing about small talk in English -speaking countries.
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Talking about your weekend is completely normal.
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In fact, it's expected actually.
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It's a really light and easy way to connect with people especially on a Monday morning or on a Friday afternoon.
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Now in some cultures, this can feel a little strange, maybe even nosy.
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Sometimes my students say to me, why should I tell my colleagues about my personal life?
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And I'm curious, let me know down in the comments if it's common in your culture to talk about your weekend with your colleagues.
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Well here, it's the opposite.
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If you don't engage, if you don't respond,
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that will feel rude, it will feel like you're intentionally distancing yourself from them.
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So if you don't really want to share about your personal life,
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it's totally okay to just keep it short or even to make something up.
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The goal is just to keep the conversation warm and to keep the conversation moving, okay?
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Today I'm going to tell you about my quiet, uneventful weekend like they often are.
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Not every weekend is exciting, right?
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But it doesn't need to stop your conversation short especially if you know what to say.
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Before we start,
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let me quickly explain how this practice works because it is so powerful for your pronunciation and your speaking fluency.
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You're going to hear the exact same story three times over.
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First, you'll just listen.
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Then, you'll repeat after me, phrase by phrase.
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And the third time, you'll shadow me.
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And that means speaking at the same time as me.
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Just like you're singing along to your favourite song, especially when you know the lyrics.
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And when you have practised imitating me enough and you want to practise speaking in real conversations yourself with real people,
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then come and join Hey Lady.
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As a member, you'll have unlimited conversation practise.
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Lots of speaking opportunities whenever you need it.
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So there are plenty of informal conversations
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that happen inside Hey Lady where you can practise talking about your weekend and asking questions about other people's weekends.
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In step one, just listen, listen for new words, listen to the tone of my voice.
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Hey Emma, how was your weekend?
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Not too eventful, but I got lots of things done around the house.
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On Saturday, I spent quite a bit of time in the garden actually.
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I planted some tomatoes and snow peas and tidied up a bit.
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Then I watched a great movie and my Sunday morning, oh, it was bliss.
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It was bucketing down outside and I had nowhere to be so I let myself have a slow start.
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Oh, I got stuck into a good book for a few hours
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and later on I took the dog for a walk
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and I made a big batch of pumpkin soup which will keep me going all week.
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So even though I didn't do much, it still felt really productive.
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What about you?
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Now in step two, repeat after me.
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You'll hear me say the line and then there'll be a pause after so you can copy me exactly as you hear.
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Hey Emma, how was your weekend?
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Not too eventful.
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But I got lots of things done around the house.
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On Saturday I spent quite a bit of time in the garden actually.
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I planted some tomatoes and snow peas.
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...and tidied up a bit.
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Then I watched a great movie.
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And my Sunday morning, it was bliss.
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It was bucketing down outside.
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And I had nowhere to be.
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So I let myself have a slow start.
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Oh, I got stuck into a good book for a few hours.
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And later on I took the dog for a walk
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and I made a big batch of pumpkin soup which will keep me going all week.
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So even though I didn't do much, It still felt really productive.
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What about you?
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Now try to shadow me, speak along with me, following the rhythm and the intonation of my voice.
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Hey Emma, how was your weekend?
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Not too eventful but I got lots of things done around the house.
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On Saturday, I spent quite a bit of time in the garden actually.
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I planted some tomatoes and snow peas and tidied up a bit.
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Then I watched a great movie and my Sunday morning, oh it was bliss!
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It was bucketing down outside and I had nowhere to be so I let myself have a slow start.
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Oh I got stuck into a good book for a few hours and later on, I took the dog for a walk
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and I made a big batch of pumpkin soup which will keep me going all week.
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So even though I didn't do much, it still felt really productive.
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What about you? So well done!
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You got your speaking practice in today and hopefully I've also shown you
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that you can answer this really common small talk question in a way
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that helps you to share more about yourself and to keep the conversation going.
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Something I really want to highlight for you is just how relatable this kind of response is.
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By sharing this information, even if it doesn't seem important or super interesting,
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you're sharing more about yourself and about your interests and you're making it easy and enjoyable to talk to you.
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So when I answered that question, I talked about gardening, a movie, the weather, sleeping in, reading and cooking.
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So the person who asked that question, how was your weekend?
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Well now they have a whole range of different topics or ideas that they can follow up with,
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they can ask more information about to keep the conversation going.
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Can you think of a follow -up question that you would ask me?
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Write it down in the comments if you can think of a way to keep that conversation going.
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In fact, practising these simple everyday conversations is something that you can do so easily inside Hey Lady.
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Click here to find out more and to come and join us if you can.
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I hope that you enjoyed today's speaking practice.
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I'll see you again same time, same place next week.
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See you then.

Vocabulaire et conseils d’expression pour cette leçon

Cette vidéo contient 101 phrases et 1157 mots à répéter en shadowing. La partie parlée dure 9:51. Le locuteur parle à un rythme régulier d’environ 118 mots par minute, confortable pour le shadowing. 85 % des mots font partie des 3 000 mots les plus courants en anglais ; le reste mérite d’être vu avant de commencer.

Vocabulaire clé de cette vidéo

15 mots de la vidéo à retenir, avec leur prononciation et leur sens :

MotPrononciationSens
nowhere adverbe/ˈnoʊ.(h)wɛɹ/nulle part
panic nom/ˈpænɪk/panique
productive adjectif/pɹəˈdʌk.tɪv/productif
soup nom/sup/potage, soupe
bucket nom/ˈbʌkɪt/seau, chaudière
batch nom/bæt͡ʃ/fournée
tomato nom/təˈmeɪ.toʊ/tomate
pumpkin nom/ˈpʌm(p).kɪn/citrouille
bliss nom/blɪs/béatitude, félicité
pea nom/piː/pois
tidy adjectif/ˈtaɪ.di/ordonné, net
shadow nom/ˈʃædəʊ̯/ombre
phrase nom/ˈfɹeɪ̯z/expression
colleague nom/ˈkɒliːɡ/collègue, confrère
practise verbe/ˈpɹæktɪs/s'entrainer, pratiquer

Les verbes à particule que vous entendrez

MotSens
find out verbedécouvrir, savoir

Prononciation à surveiller

Le locuteur utilise 28 contractions et formes réduites, comme you'll, you're, don't. Prononcez-les sous leur forme courte, telles que vous les entendez.

  • Les sons « sh » et « zh »: shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/, intentionally /ɪnˈtɛn(t)ʃənəli/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, intonation /ɪntəˈneɪʃən/, quash /kwɑʃ/
  • Mots longs — placez bien l’accent: unlimited /ʌnˈlɪm.ɪ.tɪd/, intentionally /ɪnˈtɛn(t)ʃənəli/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, intonation /ɪntəˈneɪʃən/

Comment s’entraîner avec cette vidéo

  1. Écoutez la vidéo en entier une fois sans parler et notez les mots que vous ne connaissez pas.
  2. Répétez phrase par phrase à vitesse normale, en reprenant chacune jusqu’à ce que votre rythme corresponde à celui du locuteur.
  3. Enregistrez-vous et comparez avec l’original, en faisant attention à des mots comme nowhere, panic, productive.

La grammaire de cette vidéo

Les structures que le locuteur utilise le plus, avec les mots exacts de la vidéo :

StructureDans la vidéo
Propositions relatives who / which + proposition — une précision sur une personne ou une chosesoup which will · person who asked
Present perfect have/has + participe passé — une action passée qui compte encore maintenanthave practised · have unlimited · I've also shown
Passé continu was/were + -ing — une action en cours à un moment du passéwas bucketing
Conseil avec « should » should + verbe — dire ce qu’il vaut mieux faireshould I say · should I tell

Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?

Le Shadowing est une technique d'apprentissage des langues fondée sur la science, développée à l'origine pour la formation des interprètes professionnels. Le principe est simple mais puissant : vous écoutez de l'anglais natif et le répétez immédiatement à voix haute — comme une ombre suivant le locuteur avec un décalage de 1 à 2 secondes. Les recherches montrent une amélioration significative de la précision de la prononciation, de l'intonation, du rythme, des liaisons, de la compréhension orale et de la fluidité.

Technique du shadowing : lire le guide complet étape par étape →