Pratica di Shadowing: The Best Books to Learn ANY Language FAST - Impara a parlare inglese con i video

Most of the time, people get into trouble with novels because they're just far too hard for them.

They end up spending their whole time with their head in the dictionary looking up words.

If you need a translation to understand, it's too hard.

Read something that's at your level and you won't need translation.

I've had a lot of questions come in about different ways to learn vocabulary from reading

and the best books to use if you want to read to learn a language.

I do quite a lot of episodes on reading.

This is going to be a rapid fire one.

I'm gonna very quickly go through a bunch of different types of books

that you can read and if they're helpful or not.

So, questioners in this order.

So Salomon asks, Holly, I'm really lazy and I want to avoid learning vocabulary.

Is it possible to learn a language solely through reading?

For example, building up rudimentary vocabulary through reading children's books or comics.

Then Restless Falcon asks, would comic books be more effective than a novel?

And would reading a favorite book in your chosen language help?

And then Gary Miller asks, It sounds familiar.

I've been attempting Duolingo for too long.

Okay, finally, you're ready to be converted.

And it feels like I'm getting nowhere.

Yeah.

How would I know what level of book do I need?

Do I need to try a children's book, or should I move up to another age group level?

Help!

All right, Gary, we're going to help.

So, what types of books should we read?

Should we be reading children's books, comic books?

Okay, let's go through this step by step.

First of all, if you do any reading, you've got to make sure that you are following a process that makes sense.

I have a very specific six-step process for reading.

There's a link in the description.

You can download the whole process in one PDF for free.

Do read that.

Make sure you understand how to read properly because there's really no point.. well, there's always a point.

Reading is always good, right?

But you're going to learn so much more if you just read according to a specific process.

So before we get into the rapid fire, what do the experts say?

So So there's a big meta study that was conducted in 2025, so last year as of the time of recording,

from Sanger's Vandersander-Vellier, I'm not quite sure how to pronounce that, et al.

Learning a language through reading a meta-analysis of studies on the effects of extensive reading on second

and foreign language learning from the Education of Psychology Review.

So big meta studies, a serious study,

and they found that encouraging learners to engage in individual silent reading of longer target language texts of their own choice,

but attuned to their proficiency level, promoted a variety of second and foreign language skills.

Okay, so we know that reading helps you get better at foreign languages.

What has been found in this meta study, which is a study of studies,

is that the key here is that it's text of your own choice and it's attuned to your level, right?

Which means to make this really, really simple, you've got to choose what you want to read and it's got to be at the right level for you.

And long-time listeners will understand that this is basically compelling input and comprehensible input, meaning that we have to read stuff we're interested in, not what our teacher gives us to read,

and it's got to be not too easy, not too hard.

If we do those things and we do it by ourselves with quiet so we're focused, then we will improve.

So can I read children's books?

Generally, I would say no. Avoid children's books.

Why?

Because so much of the vocabulary is just irrelevant to you.

If you have kids and you've read storybooks to your kids, you'll know what I'm talking about here.

You don't need to know about super worms and squiggly, wiggly worms and all these crazy, useless vocabulary.

Best to avoid that.

Now, when we get onto things like Harry Potter, I think it's a slightly different story.

Harry Potter is like, is it a kid's book?

Yeah, maybe.

But there's also plenty of adults that enjoy that, right?

So I know lots of people that have learned foreign languages using Harry Potter.

I met one lady in Japan, she was English, and she spoke fantastic Japanese.

She told me how she learned Japanese by having two versions of Harry Potter, the English book and the Japanese book, side by side.

And she just literally read through the entire series and taught herself Japanese that way.

The point about Harry Potter is that if you love it as much as many people do, doesn't matter, the difficulty doesn't matter,

you will find a way to learn it and read it and learn a language from it.

So if you love something the way that many people love Harry Potter, absolutely go for it, knock yourself out.

Comic books, nothing wrong with comic books other than the fact that there isn't actually that much text in there.

If you think about how much text there is on the page of a comic book versus an actual narrative book, there's just a lot less stuff.

And so, by all means, but just be aware that there's less text, and also it can be very, very truncated, people speaking in very short sentences,

power language, it's not particularly natural.

So comic books wouldn't be my first choice, but hey, if you love comic books, like Japanese learners love manga, for example, then by all means go for it.

What about graded readers?

Graded readers are fantastic because they are written specifically for the language learning purpose.

Now, obviously I'm biased, I publish books of short stories, in fact, I just published, here's my latest one, Ukrainian, just recently came out a couple of weeks ago.

Actually, I don't know if it is out, I think I just got an early copy myself.

I really like this one with the cover.

So Grady readers are...

I'm sure you don't need me to repeat at this point, but the thing about Grady readers is that if they are interesting stories and you pick the one at the right level,

then that's all you can ask for, really.

Parallel texts.

Now, parallel texts are where you've got the target language on one side

and then on the opposite page you've got the English translation.

Don't read those because.. so people like to use parallel texts because they say, well, it can help me understand.

To which I would say, well, that means you're reading something that's far too hard for you.

If you need a translation to understand, it's too hard.

Read something that's at your level and you won't need the translation.

And it's far better to operate purely in the target language because that way you're having to struggle.

And struggle is what promotes learning, so ditch the parallel texts.

What about non-fiction?

Yes, non-fiction is fantastic.

Non-fiction can actually be easier than fiction because the language tends to be simple.

Again, the key here is read something that you are interested in.

If you love reading about medieval torture, I don't know how this came to mind.

I was looking at something recently.

Then read about medieval torture.

Oh, my God.

100

Pick something you're interested in.

101

Can I read novels?

102

I guess by this we mean native speaker level novels.

103

I would say avoid unless you're at the level where you can really understand and appreciate it.

104

Most of the time, people get into trouble with novels because they're just far too hard for them,

105

which means that they just end up spending their whole time with their head in the dictionary looking up words.

106

Or they just, there's so much they don't know that they're unable to just glean much benefit from the process.

107

It's far better to read at your level, and that way you can just soak up a lot more.

108

With that said, again, I know many people that have learned a language by reading Harry Potter in parallel texts,

109

which is like a native speaker level parallel text, like breaking all my rules.

110

Like, if you love something, that trumps everything.

111

You can disregard all of my rules if you're reading something that you love, right?

112

So I'd say native-speaker novels, no, unless you just can't help yourself, in which case go for your life.

113

What about screenplays or books with dialogue?

114

Yeah, I really like these.

115

I mean, I've got in my bookshelf behind me, I've got a lot of books of Japanese screenplays, so to be clear, that's books where you have,

116

like it's taken from a movie and you just have script of the movie, the dialogue, so there's no or very little narrative text in there.

117

It's all just what the characters say.

118

In fact, we have some books called 101 Conversations, we'll put a link in the description, which are exactly that.

119

Stories told through dialogue formats.

120

So yeah, dialogues, I think, are great.

121

And then lastly, can I read translations of books I've already read?

122

Yes, that's a really great thing to do, actually, because when you're reading a translation of a book you've already read, so let's say you've read a book in English and now you're reading the translation in Japanese.

123

The big advantage you've got in this scenario is that meaning is taken care of, which means that you understand what's going on.

124

That's going to help you interpret the target language a lot more easily.

125

Now, it's still going to be very difficult for you

126

if you are at a lower level and the book is at native level.

127

That's not ideal, but it's better than picking up some random novel

128

that you've never read before and trying to read that for the first time.

129

Now, what if it's boring?

130

If it's boring, you're reading the wrong thing.

131

Read something you enjoy.

132

How do I know that it's time to move on to something harder?

133

I'd say if you're getting bored because it's all a bit too easy and you understand everything, then yeah, you can probably move on to something harder.

134

But generally though, do remember

135

that the ideal spot to be reading in is where you understand 80 to 90 percent of the text that's already there.

136

So even if you understand, nine out of every ten words, that doesn't mean it's too easy.

137

In fact, that's ideal for you to be able to pick up a bunch of new stuff.

138

So I think you'll know when it's time to move on to something harder.

139

Honestly, as long as you are reading to your interests and you're engaged by what you're reading, then the level, I think,

140

is probably less important just because you're going to naturally know.

141

So anyway, I hope that is useful for all of you guys, Salomon Restless and Restless Falcon and Gary Miller.

142

Again, for my six step reading process, check the link in the description.

143

That will be helpful for you.

144

And I'll see you back in the next episode of the podcast.

✨ Video consigliato

273 frasi

Vocabolario e note di pronuncia per questa lezione

Questo video contiene 144 frasi e 1910 parole da ripetere con lo shadowing. Il parlato dura 9:56. Chi parla va veloce, circa 192 parole al minuto: aspettati suoni legati e ridotti. Il 86% delle parole rientra nelle 3.000 più comuni dell’inglese; conviene studiare le altre prima di iniziare.

Vocaboli chiave di questo video

15 parole del video che vale la pena imparare, con pronuncia e significato:

Parola	Pronuncia	Significato
comic sostantivo	/ˈkɑmɪk/	comico
translation sostantivo	/tɹænzˈleɪʃən/	traduzione
parallel aggettivo	/ˈpæ.ɹəˌlɛl/	parallelo
vocabulary sostantivo	/vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/	vocabolario
fiction sostantivo	/ˈfɪkʃən/	finzione
reader sostantivo	/ˈɹi.dɚ/	lettore, lettrice
dialogue sostantivo	/ˈdaɪəˌlɑɡ/	dialogo, conversazione
ideal aggettivo	/aɪˈdi(ə)l/	ideale
bore verbo	/boɹ/	annoiare, tediare
helpful aggettivo	/ˈhɛlp.fl̩/	disponibile, utile
narrative sostantivo	/ˈnæɹ.ə.tɪv/	descrizione
rapid aggettivo	/ˈɹæp.ɪd/	rapido, deciso
engage verbo	/ɪnˈɡeɪd͡ʒ/	attirare, convergere
input sostantivo	/ˈɪnpʊt/	immissione
medieval aggettivo	/mɪdˈi.vəl/	medievale

I phrasal verb che sentirai

Parola	Significato
end up verbo	andare a finire, finire
go through verbo	attraversare
pick up verbo	tirare su, sollevare
build up verbo	accumulare

Pronuncia a cui fare attenzione

Chi parla usa 63 contrazioni e forme ridotte, come you're, you've, I'm. Pronunciale nella forma breve, così come le senti.

I suoni “sh” e “zh”: translation /tɹænzˈleɪʃən/, fiction /ˈfɪkʃən/, dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/, publish /ˈpʌblɪʃ/, bookshelf /ˈbʊkˌʃɛlf/
Parole lunghe — attenzione all’accento: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, difficulty /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/, irrelevant /ɪˈɹɛləvənt/

Come esercitarsi con questo video

Ascolta tutto il video una volta senza parlare e annota le parole che non conosci.
Inizia a velocità 0,75×, fai shadowing frase per frase e torna alla velocità normale quando diventa facile.
Registrati e confronta con l’originale, facendo attenzione a parole come comic, translation, parallel.

La grammatica di questo video

Le strutture che chi parla usa di più, con le parole esatte del video:

Struttura	Nel video
Present perfect have/has + participio passato — un’azione passata che conta ancora adesso	has been found · you've read · have learned
Forma passiva be + participio passato — conta ciò che accade, non chi lo fa	be converted · was conducted · has been found
Frasi relative who / which + frase — un’informazione in più su una persona o una cosa	study, which is · description, which are

Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?

Shadowing è una tecnica di apprendimento delle lingue supportata da studi scientifici, originariamente sviluppata per la formazione dei traduttori professionisti e resa popolare dal poliglotta Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Il metodo è semplice ma potente: ascolti un audio in inglese di madrelingua e lo ripeti immediatamente ad alta voce — come un'ombra che segue il parlante con un ritardo di solo 1–2 secondi. A differenza dell'ascolto passivo o degli esercizi di grammatica, lo shadowing costringe il tuo cervello e i muscoli della bocca a elaborare e riprodurre simultaneamente i modelli di discorso reale. La ricerca dimostra che migliora significativamente la precisione della pronuncia, l'intonazione, il ritmo, il discorso connesso, la comprensione dell'ascolto e la fluidità del parlato — rendendolo uno dei metodi più efficaci per la preparazione alla prova di speaking dell'IELTS e per la comunicazione reale in inglese.

Tecnica dello shadowing: leggi la guida completa passo dopo passo →

Pratica di Shadowing: The Best Books to Learn ANY Language FAST - Impara a parlare inglese con i video

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