Shadowing Practice: Practice Shadowing a Business Presentation in English - Learn English Speaking with Video

Hello and welcome to another shadowing practice video with me,

Claire, a native speaker from the US.

I'm also a trained opera singer,

so I've studied the International Phonetic Alphabet or IPA,

so I've studied the correct pronunciation of sounds in multiple languages.

In this video, So we're going to practice shadowing with a professional business presentation.

Even if English is not your native language,

you may need to use English at work

or even give presentations in English if you work for an international or US company.

You want to be understood.

So even though you don't need to sound just like a native speaker,

pronunciation and intonation are crucial.

And of course, knowing some key phrases

or common business English terms are also important to build confidence and overall fluency at work.

So I'll first read through the presentation at a natural pace.

Then we'll go through some of the key phrases and of course pronunciation tips.

Finally, we'll shadow it together so you can sound more natural and confident at work.

Let's go!

English made easy with Claire.

Good morning everyone!

Thanks for being here today.

I want to walk you through our latest project and what the next steps are.

As you know, our team has been working on optimizing the user experience on our website.

Over the past month, we've run several tests and gathered valuable feedback from our customers.

One key improvement is our new checkout process.

We've reduced the number of steps from 5 to 3,

which has already increased conversions by 20%.

Looking ahead, we're planning to roll out these updates globally by next quarter.

That means we need to finalize testing and prepare our teams for the launch.

If you have any questions,

feel free to reach out and I'd be happy to discuss this further.

Thanks again for your time.

Alright, so that was the initial read through at a normal speaking pace.

Let's go through it slowly together.

So we'll take the first section.

Good morning, everyone.

Thanks for being here today.

That whole phrase can really be connected.

So individually, we of course have the pronunciation of words like for, being, and today.

in natural quick speech, we in American English tend to close down some of the vowels

or turn these vowels into the schwa sound.

So the schwa sound is the uh sound,

like in the word banana.

There's two schwas in banana.

And that happens in today.

Today.

Not today, but today.

Today.

So very rapid speech.

Those vowels get dropped or,

you know, changed into this schwa sound.

And for becomes for in rapid speech.

Thanks for, thanks for being here today.

For the words that end in ing,

we don't need to completely drop the g every time so that it's thanks for being here today.

That might come with certain dialects,

but what we want to do is connect the ing sounds to the next word,

like with this connected speech, being here, being here.

Otherwise we have being here.

And many native speakers don't speak like that.

We don't have to separate each word,

but have this really connected speech,

which often then modifies the vowels like for today,

or you can elide sounds at the ends of words that squish on to the following word.

So shadowing practice is really helpful for learning full phrases that you might use.

And this is a really common one.

Thanks for being here today.

Because if you start a business presentation,

that's a really polite way to start the meeting.

Okay, let's keep going.

I want to walk you through our latest project and what the next steps are.

So again, I wanna, that isn't just reserved for casual speech.

You could be giving a business presentation and instead of saying want to, say wanna.

And most native speakers speak like that all the time.

I want to walk you through our latest project.

So that's completely acceptable.

Now, walk you through.

Walk through is a phrasal verb,

which means to explain something step by step.

And this is a great one to know for business English.

I want to walk you through our latest project and what the next steps are.

Okay, moving on.

As you know, our team has been working on optimizing the user experience on our website.

Now, really important when you have a comma,

you always want to pause.

Don't just plow through the commas.

As you know, our team has been working, right?

There's a, it implies a pause there.

As you know, and then further,

and you'll notice that my intonation goes up a little bit when there's a phrase with a comma.

And there's a little, there's more phrases like this to come and I'll point them out as well.

As you know, our team has been working on optimizing the user experience on our website.

So every time you have a comma,

you can imagine the intonation going up at the,

once you get to the end of the comma phrase,

and then for the next phrase that ends in a period,

the intonation goes back down.

It happens again in the next sentence.

100

Over the past month, pause,

101

we've run several tests and gathered valuable feedback from our customers.

102

Intonation goes down right before the period and it goes up right before the comma.

103

And this makes it really clear the structure of your sentence.

104

So even though we can't see what you're saying when you're giving a presentation,

105

we understand the structure of the sentence because of your intonation.

106

So even if you don't pronounce all of the words exactly like me,

107

intonation is really, really important for this, for being understood.

108

Now in the previous sentence,

109

we had a word ending in ing with the same concept of alighting with the word after it.

110

Our team has been working on, working on.

111

So we don't need to drop the G completely,

112

working on, but we do allied the sounds.

113

Just it's a little bit softer than working, working on.

114

That helps with giving it a flow as well.

115

Our team has been working on.

116

Our team has been working on.

117

So it all kind of flows together.

118

Okay, next section.

119

One key improvement is our new checkout process.

120

I want to point out the word key here,

121

which I think I've used quite a lot in this video already.

122

And key as an adjective means important or major.

123

So one important improvement is this one key improvement,

124

a word that we use a lot in business English.

125

We've reduced the number of steps from five to three.

126

Again, my intonation just went up because there was a comma.

127

So there's more to come.

128

I'm not done with my sentence.

129

Which has already increased conversions by 20%.

130

And then my intonation goes back down.

131

Again, we have the linking of the words,

132

which is already, which is already increased.

133

And this happens a lot with the word has.

134

If we are speaking in the present perfect,

135

has increased, which is, which is already, right?

136

Which has.

137

So because which ends with the ch sound,

138

we can align that with the beginning h of has,

139

which is, and has the vowel modifies to is.

140

It's more of a clipped vowel modification due to rapid speech.

141

Again, so which is already increased conversions by 20%.

142

It's kind of like when we have contractions anyway, like we've reduced.

143

We don't always have to say we have reduced.

144

We don't tend to write out these contractions that we would say in rapid speech,

145

like which is increased, but we do speak like that.

146

So the same principle we've reduced,

147

that's all squished together with this contraction.

148

There is an unwritten contraction for which is increased.

149

Looking ahead, we're planning to roll out these updates globally by next quarter.

150

Looking ahead, that is connected speech as well looking ahead and we pause after the comma,

151

we're planning to roll out these updates.

152

Rollout means to introduce something new and is often used in a business context.

153

That means we need to finalize testing and prepare our teams for the launch.

154

So again, in American English,

155

a lot of the smaller words,

156

the vowels are dropped or modified.

157

We need to finalize.

158

To finalize, prepare our teams.

159

Often the word our can sound like our in rapid speech.

160

Prepare our teams.

161

That's also very connected.

162

For the launch.

163

So for instead of for.

164

Again, those aren't really necessary for being understood,

165

but that's for those of you who would like to work on the American accent.

166

And the word here, launch,

167

means the beginning of something,

168

usually a campaign or a product in the marketing world.

169

If you have any questions,

170

feel free to reach out and I'd be happy to discuss this further.

171

Thanks again for your time.

172

So we have the phrase,

173

feel free to, feel free to,

174

feel free to reach out,

175

feel free to contact me,

176

feel free to write me an email.

177

And it's a casual way to say,

178

don't hesitate to do something.

179

So if you wanted to be more formal,

180

you could say, don't hesitate to reach out,

181

but feel free is a nice phrase to have.

182

And right at the end,

183

another great business phrase we have, thanks for your time.

184

And that's used to acknowledge people's time.

185

And it's a polite business phrase to use at either the beginning or the end of a meeting or presentation.

186

Okay, so a lot of what we covered in today's shadowing video

187

was the concept of connected speech and maybe learning phrases not as individual words,

188

but together in a phrase where you can connect the speech to sound a little more natural and fluent.

189

We also talked about linking the ends of words with the beginning of the next word.

190

Like we do this very often for words that end in ing.

191

Or if the sounds are similar at the beginning,

192

at the end and the beginning of the next word,

193

like which and has, which is.

194

And we also covered a few business phrases and phrasal verbs that are really useful to know,

195

especially when speaking.

196

So now let's shadow the full presentation together.

197

Try to match my rhythm and intonation and word stress as well as pronunciation as best you can.

198

If you want, you can pause the video after each section or sentence and repeat after me.

199

or better yet, say the words with me at the same time and try and shadow how I say it.

200

Or maybe both work well.

201

First, repeat after me and then afterwards,

202

try and shadow with me.

203

Good morning, everyone.

204

Thanks for being here today.

205

I want to walk you through our latest project and what the next steps are.

206

As you know, our team has been working on optimizing the user experience on our website.

207

Over the past month, we've run several tests and gathered valuable feedback from our customers.

208

One key improvement is our new checkout process.

209

We've reduced the number of steps from 5 to 3,

210

which has already increased conversions by 20%.

211

Looking ahead, we're planning to roll out these updates globally by next quarter.

212

That means we need to finalize testing and prepare our teams for the launch.

213

If you have any questions,

214

feel free to reach out and I'd be happy to discuss this further.

215

Thanks again for your time.

216

I hope this video was helpful.

217

And even if your goal is not to perfect the American accent or try and change your own accent,

218

it's still really important to practice the correct stress of a word

219

or the stressed word within a sentence or the intonation of that sentence so that the structure is clear.

220

All of these things are really important for being understood.

221

So take what you want from the video and leave what you don't,

222

but hopefully you learned something new and it was helpful.

223

Of course, if you did think so,

224

give it a like and subscribe to my channel if you want more videos like this.

225

I have a playlist for shadowing videos and I'll be in your feeds with another video next week.

226

So bye for now.

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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les

Deze spreekles op niveau C1 is gebaseerd op de video “Practice Shadowing a Business Presentation in English”. Deze woorden komen het vaakst terug: word, phrase, sound, speech, intonation. Deze video bevat 226 zinnen en 2056 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 16:34. De spreker praat in een gelijkmatig tempo van ongeveer 124 woorden per minuut, prettig om te shadowen. 87% van de woorden hoort bij de 3.000 meest gebruikte Engelse woorden; de rest kun je beter vooraf bekijken.

Belangrijke woorden in deze video

De 15 moeilijkste woorden uit de video, met uitspraak en betekenis:

Woord	Uitspraak	Betekenis
intonation zelfstandig naamwoord	/ɪntəˈneɪʃən/	intonatie, zinsmelodie
comma zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈkɒmə/	komma
vowel zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈvaʊ.əl/	klinker, klinkerklank
pronunciation zelfstandig naamwoord	/pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/	uitspraak
pause zelfstandig naamwoord	/pɔːz/	pauze
optimize werkwoord	/ˈɑptɪmaɪz/	optimistisch zijn/handelen
checkout zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈt͡ʃɛkˌaʊt/	kassa
modify werkwoord	/ˈmɑ.dɪˌfaɪ/	modificeren, veranderen
verb zelfstandig naamwoord	/vɝb/	werkwoord
hesitate werkwoord	/ˈhɛz.ə.teɪt/	aarzelen
polite bijvoeglijk naamwoord	/pəˈlaɪt/	beleefd
distress zelfstandig naamwoord	/dɪˈstɹɛs/	druk, stress
banana zelfstandig naamwoord	/bəˈnænə/	banaan, pisang
adjective zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈæd͡ʒ.ɪk.tɪv/	bijvoeglijk naamwoord, adjectief
alight werkwoord	/əˈlaɪt/	afstappen, uitstappen

Phrasal verbs die je zult horen

Woord	Betekenis
go back werkwoord	teruggaan
go down werkwoord	afdalen
point out werkwoord	aanwijzen, aanduiden

Zinnen om te herhalen

Korte, volledige zinnen uit de video die je in alledaagse gesprekken kunt gebruiken:

Let's go through it slowly together.
I'm not done with my sentence.
We don't always have to say we have reduced.

Grammatica in deze video

De structuren die de spreker het meest gebruikt, met de exacte woorden uit de video:

Structuur	In de video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — iets dat eerder begon en nog bezig is	has been working
Present perfect have/has + voltooid deelwoord — iets uit het verleden dat nu nog telt	I've studied · we've run · We've reduced
Lijdende vorm be + voltooid deelwoord — het gaat om wat er gebeurt, niet om wie het doet	be understood · be connected · isn't just reserved
Betrekkelijke bijzinnen who / which + zin — extra informatie over een persoon of ding	already, which is · increased, which is · like which is

Uitspraak om op te letten

De spreker gebruikt 47 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals don't, we've, we're. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.

De klanken “sh” en “zh”: intonation /ɪntəˈneɪʃən/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, contraction /kənˈtɹækʃ(ə)n/, schwa /ʃwɑ/, modification /ˌmɑdɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/
Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: intonation /ɪntəˈneɪʃən/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, modification /ˌmɑdɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/, individually /ˌɪndɪˈvɪd͡ʒ(u)əli/

Klanken die Nederlandstaligen lastig vinden:

Stemhebbende eindmedeklinker — /b/, /d/, /g/, /z/, /v/ niet verscherpen: finalize /ˈfaɪ.nə.laɪz/, pause /pɔːz/, optimize /ˈɑptɪmaɪz/, verb /vɝb/, adjective /ˈæd͡ʒ.ɪk.tɪv/
/æ/ — opener dan de Nederlandse “e”: contraction /kənˈtɹækʃ(ə)n/, banana /bəˈnænə/, adjective /ˈæd͡ʒ.ɪk.tɪv/

Zo oefen je met deze video

Luister de hele video één keer zonder te spreken en noteer de woorden die je niet kent.
Spreek zin voor zin na op normale snelheid en herhaal elke zin tot je ritme gelijk is aan dat van de spreker.
Neem jezelf op en vergelijk met het origineel; let daarbij op woorden als intonation, comma, vowel.

Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?

Shadowing is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde taalleermethode die oorspronkelijk is ontwikkeld voor professionele tolkentraining en gepopulariseerd door polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. De methode is eenvoudig maar krachtig: je luistert naar native Engelse audio en herhaalt het onmiddellijk hardop — als een schaduw die de spreker volgt met slechts 1–2 seconden vertraging. In tegenstelling tot passief luisteren of grammaticadrills, dwingt shadowing je hersenen en mondspieren om echte spraakpatronen tegelijkertijd te verwerken en te reproduceren. Onderzoek toont aan dat het de uitspraaknauwkeurigheid, intonatie, ritme, verbonden spraak, luisterbegrip en spreekvaardigheid aanzienlijk verbetert — waardoor het een van de meest effectieve methoden is voor IELTS Speaking-voorbereiding en echte Engelse communicatie.

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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les

Belangrijke woorden in deze video

Phrasal verbs die je zult horen

Zinnen om te herhalen

Grammatica in deze video

Uitspraak om op te letten

Zo oefen je met deze video

Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?