Pratique du Shadowing: One Small Accent Trick To Speak Natural English - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo
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When it comes to speaking in a natural accent in the language that you learned, there can be a lot of questions about, you know, what are the things you're doing that sound natural,
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what are the things you're doing that sound less natural, and things like that.
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So today I want to give you an idea of the sort of feedback
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that can be helpful for you in your pronunciation journey.
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So we're going to be taking a look at a pronunciation file that was sent to us and give it feedback, and maybe this is a story of feedback that you can apply to yourself.
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Good morning, guys.
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Good evening.
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Good afternoon.
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Welcome to the Schwab Mill.
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This is your American Pronunciation Review Show.
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If you would like to send in some audio files to get analyzed in a future stream,
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what you can do is you can go to the video description or also in the comments after this video is posted.
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You'll see a link to a free Telegram group where people send me pronunciation files.
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Or if you want even more regular detailed practice with us, then I encourage you to check out our program called The Institute,
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where we are giving people feedback Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
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And to guide you in this process, there's me.
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Hi.
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My name is Jeff.
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It runs with breath.
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That's one of the four keys to a natural sound in American English,
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including placement, pitch, breath, trying to weaken your constant sounds in order to strengthen your vowel sounds.
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I'm excited to listen to our audio file for today
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because it's doing some of the things that we actually talked about yesterday.
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We had a stream on the Forward channel.
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So if you're interested in practicing some of the concepts that we talk about today in more detail, I encourage you to check out this link
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that I just posted in the comments because it is very similar to what we're going to listen to today.
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Let's play it twice and get an idea of what this audio file is doing.
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Really humbling guy.
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I really appreciate this person.
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I'll play it one more time.
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Really humbling guy.
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I really appreciate this person.
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All right.
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And first of all, just thank you for sending files.
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Thanks to everyone who's been sending us files.
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There's obviously a lot of resources out there.
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So, fact to you.
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And trusting me with your audio is appreciated.
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The reason this clip is similar to what we practiced yesterday is because you get this repeated structure.
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And this happens a lot when we speak.
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There's going to be times when we say sentences and something that we do in the first half of our sentence
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gets repeated again in the second half.
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And we see that happening here as well.
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Really humbling guy.
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I really appreciate this person.
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You see, really humbling guy.
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I really appreciate this person.
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Now, one of the things we talked about is that when you do these sorts of repetitions,
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the first thing you want to consider is that the first time you introduce the idea, that's generally, not always, but generally going to be higher in pitch.
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And then when you repeat it, it's going to move down in pitch.
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It can be the opposite too.
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But perhaps the most fundamental thing is that when that first soccer group ends, the next soccer group has to change in some way, especially on a pitch level.
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Really humbling guy.
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I really appreciate this.
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One of the things we hear though in this audio file is that we're not transitioning.
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Listen to where the thought group ends on guy.
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And the next thought group starts again on really.
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Really humbling guy.
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Really appreciate. Do that guy.
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Really guy.
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Really.
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Do you see that we're at more or less the same pitch level?
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So this is going to be the first recommendation.
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When you change the thought group, you've got to change the pitch.
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Maybe you want to go lower.
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So in that case, it's going to be like really humbling guy.
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Really appreciate this this person really humbling guy really appreciate this person really humbling guy
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really appreciate so that would be example going down
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if it's going up it might be like you know really humble really humbling guy really appreciate do you see
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that guy really guy really so in
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that case the pitch movement went up you know whatever you
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do just try to have some sort of movement there
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because right now we're sounding a little bit flat really humbling guy i really appreciate this person some other things
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that we commonly see with repetitions is
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that we see oftentimes there's like some sort of a change of a stress
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so in our first thought group we have like a three
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word group like really humbling guy stress on guy it's like really humbling guy
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and then next part is really appreciate this person
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but it sounds like in the second thought group we're almost
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stressing two words really humbling guy i really appreciate this person
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i'm hearing two stresses in like a single thought group appreciate this person really appreciate this person
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so what i would say
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that sort of music in english isn't as common in general what i advise students is
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when you have a thought group you want to try to
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keep it to a single stress as opposed to two
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because otherwise what can happen is if you don't have the right pitch movements and things like that
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it can sound like you're bobbing like going up and down
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and up and down like when you talk you talk like this like
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that that's just not a music that English really has maybe
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if the stress is not appreciate it's gonna sound like this
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like really appreciate this person really appreciate this person now I'm just stressing appreciate really appreciate this person
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if your chosen person is gonna say I really appreciate this
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person really appreciate this person now i'm just stressing appreciate really appreciate this person
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if you're chosen person it's going to sound like really appreciate this person
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really appreciate this person
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but we don't do really appreciate this person we're going to try to avoid that okay
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so the second big piece of feedback here is try to
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cut down on a number of stresses in your thought group
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pick your stress very often again in repetitions the stress is fall in a different part not always
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but the first thought group was really humbling guy stress on guy so i think
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that the stress on appreciate in the second thought group would
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be a good shift you're putting the stress now in the middle so instead of saying really humbling guy
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where it's like up down up when you do really appreciate you're like low high
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well so it's kind of like the opposite pattern so i think
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that could work well here really humbling guy i really appreciate this person okay
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which again would mean require weakening person a couple other quick little feedback things besides that here really humbling guy really
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one of the things i'm hearing with this word really really we're reducing
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that final e sound so
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when words end on y's they typically sound like e you see it's like happy lucky silly things like
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that city what i see with a lot of students from a variety of different language backgrounds i don't care
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if it's like a romance language um
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and a lot of your asian languages like chinese
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or japanese um what we're seeing is
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that the slavic languages too final e sounds are often
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and get reduced to like a
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so like um really he's become like really really really
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and i would like to try get more of an e
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sound on really humbling guy really versus really really humbling really
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humbling really humbling that's the kind of difference we're looking at there
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so i would try to get more of an e sound on
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that final really humbling guy i really appreciate this person Okay.
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And then maybe one final comment just for right now is let's take a look at this word, person.
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Really humbling guy.
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I really appreciate this person.
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Okay.
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Person, again, we said is a bit overstressed.
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The other thing I would say here, too, is that we're really getting tight on that final instant at the end.
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Like person.
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It's like there's not really a lot of breath that can make it through because we're so closed off.
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remember that American English were more focused on vowels than on consonants
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so for person your keys vowel sounds are you have an er sound to start first vowel, and then you have a short I sound to finish.
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It's like er, er, er.
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Those are your main vowels.
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We want to try to make sure that those get enough space.
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So I would do the vowels, then the consonants back in.
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It's like er, person, er, person, er, person.
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Appreciate this person.
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Really humbling guy.
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I really appreciate this person.
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Person.
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like the constant sense really taken over
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and we're really closed off on breath okay
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so i was to try to open up your breath
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and valve sounds there
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if you guys are finding this sort of feedback helpful just
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again two resources are going to be helpful for you for
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continuing to practice this one's completely free you can go over
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to the forward channel where we talked about some more strategies
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and things that you want to consider
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when you repeat an idea in this case today we looked
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at like really humbling guy i really appreciate like these little phrases with really
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if you want to practice more situations like
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that this video may be helpful and then lastly
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if you're trying to get some feedback for yourself
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and you're just not sure you know what it is
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that you need to work on
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or maybe you do know what you need to work on
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but you're not sure
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if you're doing it right you're trying to get some feedback
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it may be helpful for you i'll be all i'm very
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honest to check out the institute this is our core group coaching program people join me mondays tuesdays wednesdays
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and fridays in class there are also video modules on core concept like placement and pitch and sentence structures, linking, all that fun stuff.
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You can then study, come to class, tell me what you're working on, we look at what you're doing, and we give you feedback to see if you're on the right direction.
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The thing I tell people is that, hey, this is going to help you not sound like a native.
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This is going to help you sound better.
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We are trying to speak better than native speakers.
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And the reason we do that is because not everyone in your first language is honestly a great communicator.
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I know I have friends even in English who struggle to tell stories, struggle to maintain interest when they talk struggle to speak with power we're going to change that
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because i'm going to show you all the techniques you need
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to become more effective at communicating the best part in my opinion is
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that it's not unique to english you can take all the things we talk about
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and apply them to your first language
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and you're going to become a more confident and able speaker
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if that sounds like something
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that you would like for yourself you can visit us at fluentamerican.com institute
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and even ask me questions there and things like that
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well thank you guys for hanging out with me like i
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mentioned earlier you know there's a lot of pronunciation resources out there
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so the fact you spent some time here with me is appreciated we'll be back next week monday tuesday
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and friday at 7 a.m new york with more editions of
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the schwa mill i hope you guys have a good day good night good afternoon and of course a good weekend
Why practice speaking with this video?
Improving your spoken English can be a rewarding yet challenging journey. The video titled "One Small Accent Trick To Speak Natural English" offers invaluable insights into achieving a natural accent through practical feedback. By focusing on elements like pitch and pronunciation, learners can enhance their communication skills, making their speech sound more authentic. Engaging with these concepts can help you initiate lively conversations, express your thoughts clearly, and build your confidence while speaking.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
The speaker uses various key structures that are essential for effective communication. Let's analyze a few:
- Repetition for Impact: The phrase "really humbling guy" is echoed in "I really appreciate this person." This technique emphasizes the importance of conveying your message clearly in two parts, which can help listeners grasp your intent.
- Conditional Statements: The speaker mentions, "when we say sentences." This structure introduces conditionality, which is crucial for constructing complex sentences while discussing hypothetical scenarios.
- Contrastive Stress: The emphasis on key phrases illustrates how placing stress on specific words can alter meaning. Practicing this can deepen your understanding and improve your speaking rhythm.
- Emphasis Through Pitch Variation: The example highlights that the first mention is generally spoken higher in pitch, effectively drawing the listener's attention. This approach encourages a more engaging speaking style.
Common Pronunciation Traps
As you embark on your pronunciation journey, keeping an ear out for specific words or phrases that may pose challenges is essential. Here are a few common traps highlighted in the video:
- Consonant Weakening: A key focus on ‘weakening your consonant sounds’ suggests that practicing with a shadow speech method can help you emphasize vowel sounds, leading to a more fluent delivery.
- Pitch Control: Be mindful of how pitch varies in speech. Learning how to manipulate pitch through practices like shadowing can enhance your ability to sound more natural.
- Repetition Patterns: The repeated structures used in the sentences serve as great examples of how to maintain rhythm in your speech. Applying the shadowing technique to practice these patterns using a shadowing app can significantly improve your fluency.
Incorporate these concepts into your practice routine by utilizing various resources such as a shadowing site or joining groups focused on shadowspeak. Such engagements can accelerate your learning curve and help you achieve a more natural speaking style.
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.