Shadowing Practice: 10 Mistakes People Make When Learning English! - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Well, hello and welcome to this English lesson where I'm going to talk about 10 mistakes that I think people make when learning the English language.
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And the first mistake I want to talk about is expecting quick results.
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Very often when I'm doing a live English lesson and people are looking for advice, they'll ask questions like this, how can I be fluent in 30 days?
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How can I be fluent in six months?
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And my response is always this.
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You can't expect quick results when learning a language.
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This is an enormous task.
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If you've decided to learn the English language, it's going to take a while.
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So please don't expect quick results.
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Instead, expect regular, normal results.
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Every week you should be learning some new vocabulary and you should be seeing some progress.
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So mistake number one, expecting quick results.
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Before we continue, I do want to thank Preply, the sponsor of this video.
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If you're not sure what Preply is, it's a place where you can find an English speaking partner that can help you practice your English.
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And if you use the link in the description below today you'll get 50% off your first lesson.
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Mistake number two not tracking your progress.
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I think whenever you do anything in life, when you want to achieve goals, it's important to track your progress as you learn English.
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A simple way to track your progress is to just check off on a calendar all of the days where you've actually sat down and learned some English.
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Another way to track progress is to regularly quiz yourself.
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When you track your progress, it gives you something to look back at.
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It gives you something to reflect on on those days where you don't have any motivation.
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Think about it this way.
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If you woke up one day and you didn't feel like learning English that day, but you looked at your calendar and there were 30 red check marks on every day of the month except for the 31st, you would be very motivated to practice English that day.
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So track your progress.
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It's just a great way to keep track of how well you are doing and also to motivate yourself.
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The third mistake, in my opinion, that English learners make is not taking an English test.
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When you take an official English test, I know it costs money, but when you pay the money and you take the test, it will diagnose your current English abilities and it'll tell you where you're weak.
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It will test your reading, writing, listening and speaking in a very stressful official capacity.
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And you'll actually get a printout that tells you what to work on.
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It might say your reading is amazing but.
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But your writing needs work.
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It might tell you that your listening skills are top shelf, but you really need to work on your conversation abilities. From there, looking at the results of the test, you can develop a plan.
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And the other cool thing is it helps you track your progress.
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Remember the previous point where I said you need to track your progress.
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If you take a test today and then you take it again in 12 months, you will be motivated because hope, hopefully you will see great improvement in all the areas.
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So mistake number three that I think people make is not taking an English test soon enough.
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Mistake number four, in my opinion, is not creating an immersive environment.
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When you listen to music, you should be listening to English songs.
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When you watch tv, you should be watching English TV shows.
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When you listen to a podcast, it should be in English.
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When you watch YouTube, it should be in English.
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When you decide to read the news, you should be reading the news in English.
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The Internet has created an amazing world where you can create an immersive environment where so many of the things that you listen to and read and do on a daily basis you can now do in English.
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So you need to create that environment so that you passively and actively continue to learn English, even if it's not a time where you're specifically sitting down to study it.
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If you listen to all of your music in English and you watch YouTube in English and listen to podcasts in English, you will then learn more and more about how English sounds, how you would say certain words, and you'll just start to understand it better.
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So mistake number four, not creating an immersive environment.
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Before we continue, I do want to, once again, thank Preply, the sponsor of this video.
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If you want to fix any of these 10 mistakes, Preply is a great place to find a person, an English conversation partner that can help you do just that.
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You could say to your English conversation partner from Preply, hey, I'm making mistake two, three, and seven.
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And they could develop a plan, an individualized plan just for you to help you correct those mistakes.
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At, Preply, you can find someone to help you with your specific need as you learn the English language.
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If you're planning to take a trip, if you're planning to take an English test, if you're planning to study in an English speaking country and you want to prepare a little bit before you go, Preply is a great place to find someone to help you do that.
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And if you use the link in the description below today, you'll get 50% off your first lesson. So once again, if you want to improve your English conversation skills, if you want to fix some of the mistakes that you might be making while learning the English language, go to Preply, find someone who you think is a good match for you.
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Hire Hire them and they will certainly help you take your English speaking to the next level.
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Mistake number five is not finding an English speaking partner soon enough.
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Like you should find an English speaking partner at the very beginning of your English learning journey.
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I know it's scary if you think about it.
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Listening to something in English, not scary.
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Reading something in English, not scary.
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But if you knew that later today you needed to have a one hour English conversation with someone, that might be a little bit nerve wracking, it might be a little bit scary.
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So often people will avoid it.
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But if you spend the money and you hire a tutor, there are two huge advantages.
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Number one, you will be able to practice your English conversation.
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I know that's the simple one and obvious one.
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But number two, if you have a question, there's a person right there and you can go to your English speaking partner and you can ask that question.
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And believe me, as you learn this wild, wacky and crazy language, you're going to have questions.
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So mistake number five, not finding an English speaking partner soon enough.
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Mistake number six, not practicing writing.
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I think people avoid practicing writing because it's a lot like work.
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I mean it is work.
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It's hard to do.
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If you compare it again to reading and listening, those are very passive and easy.
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But when you go and decide to write something, you have to sit down and have a pen, or get on your computer and think of words and how they go together and look up words in the dictionary.
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So writing is hard and people avoid it.
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But here's why you should practice your writing.
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It actually helps with your speaking.
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In some ways writing is a slower form of having a conversation.
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Mind you, it is one sided, it's just you talking but it allows you to in your mind practice and learn how to put words together and how to form sentences.
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And it's much slower, it's a slower pace than actually speaking.
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So don't avoid writing, it's a mistake.
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When you're practicing your writing, you're actually practicing your ability to speak English.
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Mistake number seven, not creating a schedule.
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If you don't create a schedule, your progress as you learn English is not going to be as consistent or regular and you're going to get a little bit annoyed with yourself after a month or two.
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If you just practise English here or there, in my opinion.
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Obviously I love schedules, but in my opinion it won't be as effective.
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So if you sit down and decide, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, those are the days where I'm going to actively practice English.
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And, and if you create a plan for yourself and stick to it, you will see progress.
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Now, I know with the immersive type idea, if you immerse yourself, you can maybe avoid the schedule a little bit.
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Can you tell?
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I'm a teacher though?
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I really like the idea of a schedule.
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Make a schedule.
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I personally think it's a mistake if you don't make one.
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Mistake number eight.
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Yes, we're at number eight.
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Mistake number eight is spending too much time doing the things you like while learning English and avoiding the hard parts of learning English.
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Here's what I mean.
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I have talked to people who are learning English who simply listen to podcasts, watch YouTube videos, watch TV shows and listen to English music.
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And then they wonder why their reading, writing and speaking is not improving.
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And I know there are theories that if you simply have a lot of passive input, if you have a lot of comprehensible input, the other things will improve as well.
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But I actually believe that you need to specifically practise the things you want to get better at.
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So quite often people spend too much time doing the part of learning English that they enjoy and they avoid doing the things that are harder.
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So stop just listening to music if that's you, and sit down and write something today.
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Stop just listening to podcasts or, or reading awesome books in English if that's what's easy and fun for you, and find an English speaking partner and start to have English conversations.
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So mistake number eight, spending too much time doing the thing you like and avoiding the thing that is hard.
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Mistake number nine, not overloading your learning so that you have progress.
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Or I guess I could say it this way, getting very comfortable with where you're at.
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Here's an example.
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Let's say you read the newspaper or you read the news in English, but you don't read any novels.
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You need to start reading novels.
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You need to create something in when you do reading that is harder than what you have been doing.
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Let's say that you're having a five minute English conversation once a week.
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You should probably start having a 30 minute English conversation once or twice a week.
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If you don't increase the difficulty.
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You'll just stay at the level that you are at.
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So if you enjoy writing one or two sentences a day, start writing one or two paragraphs.
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If you enjoy watching a 20 minute TV show, try to find a show that lasts an hour.
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So mistake number nine.
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Not overloading, not making it more difficult, and simply being happy with where you're at.
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Because if you're happy with where you're at, that's the only place you'll ever be.
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But I'm sure there's somewhere, higher than that that you want to get to.
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Mistake number 10, avoiding repetition.
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I've said this many times before, repetition is boring.
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But repetition is incredibly effective.
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Here's what I mean.
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If you were to learn a new English word today and write it down in a book, you might remember it.
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But if you write it down in a notebook and then tomorrow you use that word to make a sentence, and in three days you use that word again to make a sentence, and then in a week you use that word in an English conversation, as you repeatedly use that word, you're just going to remember it better.
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And so again, repetition is boring, but super effective.
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Here's another thing you can do when you watch an English lesson on YouTube, watch it again the day after.
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It's not exciting, but it is very, very effective.
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So, so mistake number 10, avoiding repetition.
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Repetition is boring.
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I don't wanna watch that TV show twice in the same year.
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Those are the complaints you might hear.
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But honestly, I always tell my students this.
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If you wanna do well in school, read everything the teacher assigns to you twice.
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And if you can, three times, you'll just get a better grade.
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So number 10, don't avoid repetition.
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1. Well, hey, thank you so much for watching this English lesson where I talked about 10 mistakes that I think people make when learning the English language.
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Before we go, I do want to once again thank Preply, the sponsor of this video.
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If you're looking for an English speaking partner to help you while you learn English, Preply is a great place to find one.
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And if you use the link in the description below today, you'll get 50% off your first lesson.
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Once again, thanks for watching.
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Leave a comment, give me a thumbs up.
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And don't forget, there will be another English lesson next week, I'll see you then.
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Bye.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “10 Mistakes People Make When Learning English!”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: English, mistake, speaking, progress, learning. This video has 146 sentences and 2248 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:29. The speaker talks fast, about 180 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 90% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| repetition noun | /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/ | The act or an instance of repeating or being repeated. |
| immersive adjective | /ɪˈmɜːɹ.sɪv/ | Tending to immerse. |
| podcast noun | /ˈpɑdˌkæst/ | A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on… |
| motivate verb | /ˈmoʊ.tɪ.veɪt/ | To provide someone with an incentive to do something; to encourage; to actuate. |
| bore verb | /boɹ/ | To inspire boredom in somebody. |
| sponsor noun | /ˈspɒn.səː/ | A person or organization with some sort of responsibility for another person or organization, especially where the responsibility has a religious, legal, or… |
| overload verb | /ˌəʊvəˈləʊd/ | To load excessively. |
| fluent adjective | /ˈfluənt/ | That flows; flowing, liquid. |
| passive adjective | /ˈpæs.ɪv/ | Being subjected to an action without producing a reaction. |
| actively adverb | /ˈæktɪvli/ | In an active manner. |
| calendar noun | /ˈkæl.ən.də/ | Any system by which time is divided into days, weeks, months, and years. |
| comprehensible adjective | /kɒmpɹəˈhɛnsɪbəl/ | Able to be comprehended. |
| diagnose verb | /ˈdaɪ.əɡˌnoʊs/ | To determine which disease is causing a sick person's signs and symptoms; to find the diagnosis. |
| excite verb | /ɪkˈsaɪt/ | To stir the emotions of; to cause to feel excitement. |
| immerse verb | /ɪˈmɜɹs/ | To place within a fluid (generally a liquid, but also a gas). |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| sit down verb | To assume a sitting position from a standing position. | |
| get off verb | To move from being on top of (something) to not being on top of it. | |
| go together verb | To be in a relationship. | |
| look up verb | /ˌlʊk ˈʌp/ | To have better prospects. |
| wake up verb | /ˌweɪk ˈʌp/ | To stop sleeping; to awake. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- How can I be fluent in six months?
- You can't expect quick results when learning a language.
- I know it's scary if you think about it.
- I know that's the simple one and obvious one.
- I'm a teacher though?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've decided · you've actually sat · has created |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | someone who you · people who are |
| Advice with “should” should + verb — saying what is a good idea | should be · should find · should practice |
| Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain | might say · might tell · might be |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 53 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, you'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: repetition /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/, shelf /ʃɛlf/, dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/, motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: repetition /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/, comprehensible /kɒmpɹəˈhɛnsɪbəl/, individualize /ˌɪn.dɪˈvɪd͡ʒ(.u).əl.aɪz/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like repetition, immersive, podcast.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.