Shadowing Practice: 3 English Speaking Exercises (zero friends needed) - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Practicing English alone is easy,
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Practicing English alone is easy,
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but only if you know how.
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In this video I will give you my top three English speaking exercises
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that I would do every day if I were starting from zero.
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We're outside and by a beautiful river and everything you can see is a word.
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So shall we?
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Think of a piano.
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If you play the same note all the time it sounds boring,
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it sounds monotonous, and that is how a lot of non-native English speakers sound,
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even if the vocabulary is great.
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So today I'm going to show you how to play with your voice like it's a piano.
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So let's stand up, shake your body,
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shake your face, and now I'm feeling playful,
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let's start playing with our voice.
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The first step is to take any English book that you have.
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I choose this book and the author of this book is David Crystal.
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The title is A little book of language.
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On the front cover you can see an illustration of two people standing under a tree.
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On the back cover there are more illustrations,
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there are reviews from other authors and in the bottom right corner there is a barcode.
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After you've chosen your book,
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the next step is to choose a random page.
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I'll choose this page.
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And the final step is to read out loud for one minute.
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We sometimes do silly things with language.
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Aren't you lovely?
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Reading out loud is already a powerful speaking exercise exercise.
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It trains your brain and your mouth at the same time.
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But here's what most people miss.
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You can play with your voice.
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Here are four ways that you can play.
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You can play with volume,
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how loud or how quiet you go.
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You can play with speed,
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how fast or how slow.
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You can play with pitch,
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you can go high or you can go low and finally you can play with the pause.
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Let's put this into practice,
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I want you to shadow me if you can.
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I'm going to read out loud and practice playing with my voice.
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Capital letters add an extra complication,
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although There are 26 letters in the English alphabet.
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When we write them down it turns out that there are 52 because each letter appears in two forms.
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We have a big A and a little a,
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big B and a little b and so on.
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Printers don't use words like big and little.
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Big letters are called uppercase or capital letters.
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Little letters are called lowercase letters.
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These terms come from the days
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when printers used to keep the letters they needed for printing in two large boxes or cases.
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The different capital letters were held in compartments in the top box or uppercase.
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When we play with things like volume and speed,
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we're training our mouths like muscles.
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When you speak loud, you open up and you articulate more clearly.
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When you speak quiet, you slow down and you get precise.
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Fast trains your mouth to keep up and slow trains you to be clear.
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Native speakers like me naturally switch between these modes all the time and we do so unconsciously.
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Now, how can you remember these practices?
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Well, let's think of a funny and cute image.
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Very small purple penguins.
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volume, speed, pitch, pause.
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A lot of my English students say that they study English
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but then in an actual conversation when they try to speak the words never come out,
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the conversation is gone.
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So I'm gonna show you two word games that can fix
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that problem but Chang and I are heading to a coffee shop now so let's play the word games while we walk.
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The first word game is called the word tree game and
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if you think of a tree you have the trunk the part in the center
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and then the branches and the leaves on the outside.
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So the trunk is your central word and the branches are your related words.
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Let's put this into practice with the word book to make it very clear for you guys.
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I'll begin.
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Book.
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Author.
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Page.
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Words.
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Bibliography.
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Illustrator.
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Spine.
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Library.
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Librarian.
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Knowledge.
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Information.
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Fiction.
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Non-fiction.
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Genre.
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Clever.
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Now, we finished the first game.
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And I want to teach you what I'm doing right now.
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I'm going to wait because it's not safe.
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I am crossing on a zebra crossing.
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This is a zebra crossing.
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And there is traffic coming from that way.
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In Vietnam if you cross the road slowly,
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ideally don't film yourself, then you cross safely.
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Now over there I can see some traffic lights.
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Let's go to them.
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Yeah it's gorgeous, beautiful promenade.
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Uh, across safely.
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Okay guys, these are traffic lights and they are red, yellow and green.
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But in England we don't say red, yellow, green.
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We actually say red, amber, green.
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Mad, innit?
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So the second game is the word association game where you take a random word and you make a chain of associations.
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Let's put this into practice starting with the word traffic light.
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Traffic light.
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Red.
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Amber.
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Green.
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Go.
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Stop.
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Pause.
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Play.
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Video.
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YouTube.
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Woohoo!
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Woohoo!
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Subscribe!
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Why do we play these word games?
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Well, if you think of your brain like the internet.
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If you have a bad internet connection, then it's annoying.
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You might feel frustrated.
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If you have a good internet connection, then it flows.
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Everything goes smoothly and life feels good.
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So, your brain has Wi-Fi,
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and the more that you play these word games,
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the faster your brain's Wi-Fi becomes.
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Now, I want you guys to pause this video and comment in the comments your associations to the word banana.
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Try to do 10, 11, 12 associations.
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Just let your fingers tap,
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tap, tap, and let your mind wander.
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I'm curious to see how everybody makes different associations.
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And one rule, nothing rude, right?
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I'm watching you.
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Okay, now that we've played the word games,
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I'm going to show you a little bit of the world around me.
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So, this is a car park.
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In the background, there are two skyscrapers.
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This one is rectangular.
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And this one is like a gherkin, a pickle, a cucumber.
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Down here we have bonsai trees.
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And the bonsai trees are in plant pots.
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There's a boy sticking his thumbs up.
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He is on a bicycle and in a school uniform.
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Hello, sir.
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Hello.
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Let's walk through the car park because the cafe is over there.
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It's that way.
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We are going that way.
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Over there.
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See the cars?
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I'm walking along the yellow line.
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And the ground is blue.
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By the way, the floor and the ground,
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we usually say ground when it's outside,
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and we usually say floor when it's inside.
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That's a general rule.
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So now we are walking on a pavement.
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This is the pavement and the pavement is usually next to the road.
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Two motorbikes or two scooters.
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This is a sign right here, a road sign.
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This is a Chang right here, a Chang.
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And we are crossing the zebra crossing once more i'll get
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you a little yeah let's get a thumbnail all right nice one beautiful
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so silly this is a four by four car it's a
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large car with two wheels well actually four wheels on the
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other side this part of the car is called the wing mirror the front door
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the back door and in England we call this part the boot.
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In America they say the trunk but we say the boot and this is the license plate.
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Henry Ford.
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Now I'm standing beneath the skyscrapers and looking up at the skyscrapers and they look enormous.
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Is anyone scared of heights?
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What are you guys scared of?
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Let me know in the comments behind the scenes BTS.
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Look at my camera woman,
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Look at the effort she puts in.
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Excellent.
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Okay, come in.
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I'm walking past now for this scene.
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Okay.
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We have arrived.
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We're at the cafe, sitting,
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watching the traffic, the beautiful traffic,
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and it's a bit noisy.
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But while we wait for our drinks,
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let's get into the third speaking exercise of the day.
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There are a lot of speaking exercises that you can practice alone.
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For example, there's the jam game.
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just a minute.
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I played that game in my last video so if you want to check that out then click there.
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A big problem with speaking English alone is that you don't know if what you have said is right or wrong.
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You need feedback.
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So I built JI to help you with this.
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Let's take a look.
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I'll show you an example.
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We are friends who haven't seen each other in five years.
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We do some small talk.
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Sounds like fun.
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I'll be your friend.
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It's been ages.
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You look exactly the same.
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How have you been?
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And look at your dog.
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What a cutie.
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What's their name?
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My dog is called Charles.
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He's a little coca spaniel and he's a little terror.
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He's a little shh he's not very nice he barks at little kids
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and he barks at old women it sounds like charles just needs a little more socialization
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but he's probably a sweetheart deep down it's funny how much
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they can make us laugh isn't it two thousand years later
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all right j well it's been lovely to talk to you
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we'll catch up again tomorrow have a lovely day after you
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talk with j.i you can now check what you did well and how you can improve.
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Oh look, the lights have just turned on because it's getting dark.
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Right now we'd call this time twilight or dusk,
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the time between sunset and night time.
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And I would like to review everything from today's lesson so you guys can remember it.
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The first thing that we did is we think of our voice like a piano.
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We play with our voice.
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We use things like volume, speed, pitch and pause.
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Secondly, we played word games to speed up our brain's Wi-Fi
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to prepare ourselves for real-life conversations by practicing speaking in a spontaneous way,
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connecting our brains and our mouth.
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And finally we practiced roleplay with J.I.
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The benefit of practicing roleplay is you're putting yourself in a real-life situation
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that you might have if you go to England or America
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or Australia you will come across these situations
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and you need to be prepared for them so
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if you practice just one thing from today's video then you
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have succeeded you are successful keep taking action thank you for watching and I'll see you next week
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Beep beep.

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About This Lesson

In this lesson, you will practice English speaking skills through engaging exercises that can be done alone, without the need for friends. Inspired by a vibrant setting and a playful approach to language, you will learn how to utilize your voice more effectively while reading out loud. The exercises demonstrate how to infuse energy and variety into your speech, making it more engaging and dynamic. You will be guided through several techniques to enhance your reading practice, which includes focusing on volume, speed, pitch, and pauses. This practice is essential for anyone looking to improve their English speaking ability, whether you’re using a shadowing app or simply reading aloud from your favorite book.

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

  • Volume: The loudness or quietness of your voice.
  • Speed: The rate at which you speak.
  • Pitch: The highness or lowness of your voice.
  • Pause: A brief stop in speech to create emphasis or clarity.
  • Uppercase: Capital letters that are larger and used at the beginning of sentences or for proper nouns.
  • Lowercase: Smaller letters used in most writing.
  • Shadowing technique: A practice method where you repeat what you hear in real-time to improve fluency.
  • Reading out loud: Speaking the written text clearly and audibly, which enhances pronunciation and confidence.

Practice Tips

To effectively practice using the shadowing technique in this lesson, it's critical to focus on the tone and speed of the speaker. Start by selecting a passage from your chosen English book and read it aloud for one minute. Use a shadowing site or video tutorial to hear the speed and intonation of the speaker, allowing you to match your voice to theirs. Notice how changing your volume can add emphasis; try varying it throughout your reading. Similarly, experiment with your speed—try reading fast in some sections and slower in others to emphasize important points.

Playing with pitch can also make your reading more interesting. You might raise your voice when expressing excitement or lower it when conveying seriousness. Remember to utilize pauses effectively; they not only help with clarity but also give the listener time to absorb what you've said. This approach transforms dull recitations into engaging performances.

With consistent practice using these techniques, whether with a shadowing app or through practice sessions at home, you'll find improvements in your fluency and confidence in speaking English. Embrace the playful side of speaking, and watch as your language skills flourish!

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.

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