Shadowing Practice: 12 English Phrases about Improving Your English! - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Well, hello and welcome to this English lesson about improving.
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As humans, we have different skills and abilities, and often we have skills and abilities that we want to improve.
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We want to be better at speaking English today than we were a week ago.
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There's also skills and abilities that you don't need to improve.
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I mean, I know how to drive.
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I don't need to improve that skill or ability, but there are some that we need to.
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So in this English lesson, I will teach you 12 different English phrases we use to talk about improving.
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And the first one is to make progress.
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When you say that you are going to make progress, it means that you are going to improve.
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You are going to be better than you were at the starting point.
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So if I said I want to make progress with my English learning, I basically am saying that what I know today, I want to know more in a week.
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I want to know much more in a month.
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So when you decide to make progress, it means you're going to improve at one of your skills or abilities.
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Before we continue with the lesson, though, I do want to thank Preply, the sponsor of this video.
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If you want to make progress with your English learning, Preply is a great place to find an English tutor to help you do just that.
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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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The second phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase to get better at.
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So when you get better at something, it means you are improving.
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Let's look at, for instance, your ability to drive when you are first learning to drive.
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When you first start driving, you're not very good at it, but you work at it because you want to get better at driving.
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You want to be a safer driver.
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You want to be more confident when you drive.
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Your ability to drive needs to improve because you want to be a good driver.
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You want to get better at it.
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So that's the second phrase.
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When you want to improve your ability to do something, you want to get better at it.
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The third English phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase to get the hang of something.
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When you get the hang of something, it means you have studied it, you have practiced it, you have become relatively good at it.
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So if you look behind me, there are people who are fishing.
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I'm sure when they first started fishing, they weren't good at it.
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But as they did more and more of it, they slowly but surely were able to get the hang of it.
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They could cast, they could reel, they could take the fish off the hook.
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You have to do all those things.
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You have to get the hang of it so that you can do it well.
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So that's your third phrase.
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To get the hang of something means to learn how to do it well after practicing and doing it a lot.
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The fourth English phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase, to have come a long way.
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This is a phrase we use to describe something that someone has become a lot better at doing.
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So if you study English for a year, I would say, wow, you've come a long way.
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Your pronunciation is a lot better.
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Your ability to understand people is a lot better.
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You have come a long way.
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Basically, what I'm saying is that a year ago, you weren't as good at those things.
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And today, you're really, really good at them.
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You have come a long way.
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It's as if you were on a journey, a learning journey
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and now you're at the end of it and you're way better at doing that thing that you were practicing.
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The fifth phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase to be on track.
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When you are practicing something, when you are doing something regularly, you want to do it properly.
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You want to stay on track.
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You want to be on track.
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When you are on track, it means you are doing all of the steps properly.
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You're doing that thing regularly so that you can improve.
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As you continue to study English I hope that you can stay on track.
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If you're on track you will improve and you will get better at it.
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The next English phrase I wanted to teach you is the phrase to take it to the next level.
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When you take something to the next level it means you make it more difficult to practice
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or do that thing so that you can improve.
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Often when you're learning English people will forget to take it to the next level.
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They'll get very comfortable reading books that are really easy, listening to music over and over again without listening to new music,
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or watching TV shows that are really easy to understand.
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But if you want to take it to the next level, you have to make it more difficult.
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You have to do things that help you to improve.
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So when you take something to the next level, it means you make it more challenging, or you change it in a way to help you improve.
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Before we continue with the lesson, I do want to stop and once again thank Preply, the sponsor of this video.
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If you're looking for an English tutor to help you take your English learning to the next level, Preply is a great place to find someone to help you do just that.
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Notice what I did there?
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I used one of the phrases I just taught you to talk about Preply tutors, and they are amazing.
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If you want to make progress with your English learning, if you want to get better at speaking English or understanding.
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people when they speak English.
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If you want to get the hang of some of those strange phrasal verbs, Preply is a great place to find a tutor to help you do just that.
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If you want to study English for a while
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and then be able to say to people that you've come a long way, if you want to stay on track with your English learning, a Preply tutor can help you do that.
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And there are many reasons to go to Preply to get a tutor.
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Maybe it's just to improve your English for business.
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Maybe it's to improve your English before going on a trip.
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Maybe you need to improve your English because it's just fun for you to do that.
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So go to Preply, use the link in the description below today, and you'll get 50 % off your first lesson.
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The seventh phrase I wanted to teach you today about improving is the phrase to brush up on.
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When you brush up on something, it means you already know a little bit about it, and maybe you haven't done it or studied it
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or practiced it for a while so you want to just get a little bit better and review.
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You want to brush up on it.
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Before you go to have an interview for a new job, you might want to brush up on all of the vocabulary that might be used in that interview.
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You might want to brush up on the types of questions that will be asked.
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It means you sort of already know, but you just want to be sure.
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You want to review what you know so that when you get there, you know what you're talking about.
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So, when you brush up on something, it simply means to practice it so
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that you know it as well as you did the first time you learned it a long time ago.
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The eighth phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase to keep at it.
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When you are trying to improve, it means you are most likely practicing something.
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And when we say you need to keep at it, it means you need to practice regularly.
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If you are trying to get stronger, you need to keep at it.
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You need to go to the gym and work out and you need to keep at it.
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You need to go two or three or four days a week.
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If you want to improve your English, you need to keep at it.
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You need to do it five days a week, maybe six days a week.
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But don't forget, sometimes taking a day off is good as well.
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So in English, when we say you need to keep at it, you need to keep at something, it means have a plan to do it regularly and stick to that plan.
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The ninth phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase to stick with it, which I kind of just mentioned in the previous when I was talking about keep at it.
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When you stick with it, it means the same thing.
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It means to do it regularly.
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It means to decide that you're going to do it three days a week or four days a week.
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It means that every evening you're going to spend one hour doing it.
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You're going to stick with it.
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The opposite would be to quit or to stop doing something.
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If you stick with it, you will improve.
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If you don't stick with it, you won't improve.
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So, the ninth phrase that I wanted to teach you today, to stick with it, simply means to do something regularly, to do it all the time, so that you will improve.
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So, if you don't keep at it and you don't stick with it, eventually you will fall behind.
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There's an amount of learning you'll want to do when learning English, and if you don't do it regularly, you will fall behind.
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You will not make the progress that you want to make.
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You will not improve as quickly as you want to.
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In fact, you won't improve at all.
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When you fall behind, it's as if you're in a race and all the other people are ahead and you are behind them.
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You aren't making the same progress in the race that they are making.
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So make sure you stick with it.
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Make sure you keep at it because you don't want to fall behind.
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So if you fall behind, you only have one choice.
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You need to catch up.
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If you're trying to improve, if you're trying to make progress, if you're trying to get better at something and you fall behind,
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you will need to catch up you might have to study harder, you might have to study more often if you're trying to catch up with your English learning.
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Let's say you decided to learn one new English word a day
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and then you got sick and you didn't do it for two weeks.
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If you want to get back on track, if you want to catch up, you might need to learn two words a day
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or three words a day until you are back on track and learning the number of words you want to learn.
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So if you fall behind, the best thing you can do is try to catch up.
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Whenever we are trying to improve a skill or ability in English, we want to see results.
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When we say that you want to see results, it means that you want evidence.
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You want to see that you are getting better.
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You want to see that you are improving.
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If you're learning English, you want to see results on your English test.
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If you took an English test a year ago and you take another one, you want to see results.
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You want to see that all of the work you did to get better, all of the work you did to improve has paid off you want a better score on the test.
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If you're working out, you want to see bigger muscles.
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You want to see results.
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You want to feel stronger, but you also want to look more muscular.
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You want to see results.
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Well, hey, thank you so much for watching this English lesson about 12 phrases we used to talk about improving in English.
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I hope it helped you learn a few more phrases you can use in your next English conversation.
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Before we go, I do want to once again thank Preply, the sponsor of this video.
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Again, if you want to get better at speaking English, if you want to improve, if you want to see results, go to Preply, find a tutor, and they will help you attain your goals.
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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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Well, hey, thanks again for watching.
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We did make it to the end of the pier where you could see the lighthouse.
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That was my goal.
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I did get rained out once and I had to go back to my car, but I'm happy that I made it to the end.
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Thank you so much for watching.
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If this is your first time here, don't forget to click the red subscribe button, give me a thumbs up, leave a comment, and I'll see you next week with another English lesson.
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Bye.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 149 sentences and 2265 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:41. The speaker talks fast, about 212 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 91% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| phrase noun | /ˈfɹeɪ̯z/ | A short written or spoken expression. |
| lesson noun | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided. |
| tutor noun | /ˈtjuːtəː/ | One who teaches another (usually called a student, learner, or tutee) in a one-on-one or small-group interaction. |
| skill noun | /skɪl/ | A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate. |
| brush noun | /bɹʌʃ/ | An implement consisting of multiple more or less flexible bristles or other filaments attached to a handle, used for any of various purposes including… |
| 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… |
| ninth adjective | /naɪnθ/ | The ordinal form of the number nine. |
| muscle noun | /ˈmʌs.əl/ | A contractile form of tissue which animals use to effect movement. |
| hook noun | /hʊk/ | A rod bent into a curved shape, typically with one end free and the other end secured to a rope or other attachment. |
| seventh adjective | /ˈsɛvənθ/ | The ordinal form of the number seven. |
| eighth adjective | /eɪtθ/ | The ordinal form of the number eight. |
| subscribe verb | /səbˈskɹaɪb/ | To write (one’s name) at the bottom of a document; to sign (one's name). |
| thumb noun | /ˈθʌm/ | The shortest and thickest digit of the hand that for humans has the most mobility and can be made to oppose (moved to touch) all of the other fingers. |
| pier noun | /pɪɹ/ | A raised platform built from the shore out over water, supported on piles; used to secure, or provide access to shipping; a jetty. |
| vocabulary noun | /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/ | A usually alphabetized and explained collection of words e.g. of a particular field, or prepared for a specific purpose, often for learning. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| fall behind verb | To be late (for a regular event) | |
| catch up verb | To pick up suddenly. | |
| get off verb | To move from being on top of (something) to not being on top of it. | |
| work out verb | /ˌwɝk ˈaʊt/ | To calculate. |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. | |
| pay off verb | To bribe, especially to deter oversight. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 47 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, you'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: ninth /naɪnθ/, seventh /ˈsɛvənθ/, eighth /eɪtθ/, thumb /ˈθʌm/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: brush /bɹʌʃ/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/
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 phrase, lesson, tutor.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | If you're on track you will improve · If you stick with it, you will improve |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have studied · has become · you've come |
| Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain | might want · might have · might need |
| Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past | were practicing · was talking |
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.