Shadowing Practice: Eleven - Learn English Speaking with Video

This video has 12 sentences and 27 words to shadow. The speech runs for 1:04. The speaker talks slowly, about 25 words per minute, so there is time to copy every sound. Only 56% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

9 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

• pizza /ˈpi.tsə/ (noun) — A baked Italian dish of a thinly rolled bread crust typically topped before baking with tomato sauce, cheese, and other ingredients such as meat or vegetables.
• candy /ˈkæn.di/ (noun) — Crystallized sugar formed by boiling down sugar syrup.
• balloon /bəˈlun/ (noun) — An inflatable buoyant object, often (but not necessarily) round and flexible.
• illustrate /ˈɪl.əˌstɹeɪt/ (verb) — To clarify something by giving, or serving as, an example or a comparison.
• cupcake /ˈkʌpkeɪk/ (noun) — A small cake baked in a usually paper container shaped like a cup, often with icing on top.
• hat /hæ̞ʔ/ (noun) — A covering for the head, often in the approximate form of a cone, dome or cylinder closed at its top end, and sometimes having a brim and other decoration.
• focus /ˈfoʊ̯.kəs/ (noun) — A point at which reflected or refracted rays of light converge.
• bar /bɑɹ/ (noun) — A solid, more or less rigid object of metal or wood with a uniform cross-section smaller than its length.
• birthday /ˈbɜːθ.deɪ/ (noun) — The anniversary of the day on which someone is born.

How to practise with this video

1. Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
2. Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
3. Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like pizza, candy, balloon.