Shadowing Practice: 8 Tips for Reading FASTER in English - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hey guys, welcome to my channel.
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Today I'm gonna give you some tips and tricks that help me read faster.
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And it doesn't matter whether English is your first language,
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second or third, I'm gonna give you very practical tips that will help you read in any language.
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And I started reading 45 books a month.
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Sometimes I go beyond that number and I know that there are people who read like 10 books a month.
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There are so many amazing books coming out.
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I read books on marketing, management health and you don't want to miss that information
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so the thing you can do right now is improve your reading speed
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and i'm going to teach you how so today i'm going to teach you to read
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faster the first step you have to take in the first step
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that i've taken is actually separating formats what i mean by
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that there are three general formats of books
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that we have there are hard copies right there that's a hard copy there's an audiobook
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and there's an electronic book so for audiobooks i try to stick to fiction
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because i don't really write things down when i'm listening to stories
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and i can actually do another thing
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while listening to an audiobook like i can clean my room
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i can do my makeup i can do my nails i can cook that's multitasking
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because i'm just listening to a story I'm not necessarily writing a to -do list like
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because when I'm reading practical books like books on marketing books on management I really need to read
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because I would highlight some paragraphs I would send something
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that comes to my mind to my husband
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or to my team like hey we need to do this this
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and that so I would say audiobooks for stories audio stories
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so can be more relaxed then electronic books for learning so you can highlight things highlighter
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and okay hard copy books i don't really do them anymore
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because uh i like to declutter my space i don't like
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when extra things appear in my room
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but i would use hard copy books for poolside
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or like for relaxing it's just another experience because
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if you highlight things in those books you just sometimes lose
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that information so really i would recommend sticking to these two formats
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hard copy now let's go to reading faster on average a person would read 150 to 200 words per minute
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and this is very very very slow reading slow
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this can actually be compared to the pace of speaking you can read
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so much faster you can go above 300 words per minute
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and this is considered faster reading
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there's by the way test available to check your reading speed I will leave a link below
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so if you're not sure where you are at
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and you probably not take that test and see where you are
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but people can go to as fast as 600 words a minute 700 words a minute
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and yes that's doable I can read over 3 ,000 words a minute why does this happen
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because most of us think that reading is actually speaking in your head
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so a lot of people actually say words
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that they're reading in their heads
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and this slows them down completely
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you need to start on working on visual reading instead of saying words in your head
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so get rid of this sub vocalization i'm writing this term down just for you to make sure
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that you understand me completely
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so vocalization ways to get rid of it count words you can count
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and by the way i'm gonna do this we don't need
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this at all what do i mean by counting words in your head
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so you're reading something and in your head you go like this was word number one number two, number three.
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So you are trying to distract your brain with something else.
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So instead of your brain trying to pronounce everything that you're reading, you're actually telling your brain,
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hey, do the word count and I will just read.
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Because two things at a time is, I think, the maximum brain can do.
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You stop saying things in your head and you actually start to do the visual reading,
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like getting the meaning of the words just by seeing them.
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You should be able to see the words Mr. 3000.
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Another thing you can do is use a rhythm.
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Get in rhythm.
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And what I mean by that, for example, you wanna read at this space?
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A method that you use for reading should depend on your goals, education, relaxing, learning new words.
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And if I speed myself up, a method you're gonna read for should depend on your goals, relaxing, reading, learning your words.
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This is what you can do.
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So just create a rhythm for yourself and follow it.
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Again, helps a lot to speed up your reading.
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Here we go guys, find the rhythm.
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The third thing you can do to get rid of self -vocalization is listen to music.
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Instrumental classical music is the best because again it has the pace and it acts as distraction for your brain.
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Nice distraction.
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Guide yourself by guiding yourself while reading I actually mean using your hand
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or a pen to go through whatever you have to read.
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Self -acvalization, count words, use a rhythm, listen to music, guide yourself.
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The faster you move the faster your brain starts to read.
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So just again create a pace for yourself that's a little above your comfort zone that makes you read a little faster.
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Just guide yourself with your hand.
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That's why I'm gonna read these lines I wrote myself with my own two hands.
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Please start practicing these techniques the next time you're going to be reading.
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Find the one that's comfortable for you.
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Find the one that makes you read faster.
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If these are not enough, there are also several things you could do.
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One of them is go to Skillshare.
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There is an amazing course called Read Better and Faster in just seven days.
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And because Skillshare is sponsoring this video, you can get free access to that platform by clicking a link below
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and you're going to get two months access for free.
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By the way, there is another course that I would recommend taking on Skillshare.
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It's called Productivity Masterclass, Creating a Custom System that Works.
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Because apart from reading faster, you would actually need to find time for being productive and reading more books.
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And when you start reading more books, you start getting more information.
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It's like communicating with more and more people.
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So I would really advise you to find time for reading different books
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and this masterclass by thomas frank is going to actually help you find
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that time and skillshare in general is an amazing place to find online classes
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and there are thousands of other classes covering dozens of creating
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and entrepreneurial skills premium membership gives you unlimited access
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so you can join the classes and communities
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that are just right for you and if you think of affordability don't forget
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that you're getting two months for free using my link below and also
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if later on you decide to get an annual membership
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you're gonna end up paying ten dollars a month for full access to all of the classes
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and if we compare it to like private tutoring
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or even taking an online class at a university you are saving a lot of money
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so again two courses that i recommend there first is this reading faster course
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and the second one is the productivity class now let's go back to tips
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that work for me and I mentioned productivity class
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and before reading any book I want to create a set of tasks for myself to stay productive
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while reading this book because it's very easy and comment down below
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if you have this problem it's very easy to buy a lot of books
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and you're like oh I'm gonna read this this and this
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and then you start reading every book and you never finish
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and you never even get to the middle of the book
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this is why whenever I start a new book I write down my goal
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or I just you know think about it like my goal after reading
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this management book is to create an instruction for my new
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personal assistant on how to work with my email for example
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so it'd be a very specific goal not just learn new things about marketing no actually
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you have to be very specific and your goals have to be actionable
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which means that you can act upon them right after reading the book.
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The second skills.
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What skills am I trying to learn after reading this book?
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Again if it's a management book I'm trying to learn how to write the right instructions.
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I'm trying to learn how to create a resume
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or I'm trying to learn how to create a job posting so that I find the right people.
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Time for this book.
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Now this is super important.
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Again, what happens?
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You start reading a book and then in a year you realize you've only read 10 pages.
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So I tell myself, okay, we need to finish by November.
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That's it.
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And in order to be more specific about this, you can set up the number of pages that you read per day.
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For example, you tell yourself, okay, every day I read 20 pages of this book.
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In order to make yourself more accountable for what you're doing
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you can post on your social media like hey
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I love to share my plans for the day on my Instagram by the way
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if you're not yet subscribed it's Lingomarina I love to share my plans
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because I feel responsible for what I'm actually sharing I'd be like oh I told my followers
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that I'm gonna read 20 pages of this book today
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and I haven't so I just need to go back to this
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and really accomplish it because I promised thousands of people or even if you promise to like 60 of your followers, there's already some accountability.
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So try that then I promise I'm reading this book so I gotta go.
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Bye!
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And it's okay by the way to read several books at a time.
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Have you ever read four books at a time?
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So it's not like you have to read just one book at a time and start another one once you finish.
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Totally okay.
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The only thing that again really helps me is selecting the books on the similar topic.
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So if I'm reading a management book like I don't know how to manage a company,
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Another book that I will be reading is like a story of a company that's grown very fast
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and I can listen to an audiobook
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because I don't have to write things down
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but I would just you know listen how they apply different methods
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so they are similar but they're different genres so that helps a lot.
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You're really mixing genres.
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Okay so once you've become all productive
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and you set your goals some more tips number five don't read word by word you don't actually need
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that your brain is totally fine with understanding just a few words from a sentence
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and figuring out the meaning from them this is particularly important for anyone who's trying to read in English
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and for whom English is not their first language
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because sometimes we try to translate every single word
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and this is totally wrong you don't have to do
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that you only need to translate words
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that affect the meaning in general what i translate as well is
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that if there is a word
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that i've seen for 10 times in this book already
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and i still don't know what it means i would translate it just to be sure
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that i'm using this word in my own speech as well since native speakers are using
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that word so much just a fun
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One fact for you, if you're reading like a scientific book,
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you can decrease the number of words by 2 .5 times without losing its meaning.
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If you're reading a fiction book, you can decrease the number of words by three or four times without losing its meaning,
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which means that you can skip words to still get what the author wanted to tell you.
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Another thing that might help psychologically, sometimes you think that
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if you read your book back to back
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you're going to understand its meaning in reality you can read the book five
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or six times and still not get its meaning
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so it's not about how many words you read
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it's about how concentrated you are it's about how familiar you are with the topic
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because again you can decrease the number of words in a book without losing its meaning
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i think he could have said what he has to say with a lot less.
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Six, I just mentioned it, focus.
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When reading like an electronic book or a hard copy book, it's actually really important to focus.
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How do you know if you're focused enough?
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When you are reading something and your brain is still analyzing the previous paragraph, that tells you that you're not focused enough.
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That tells you that you're distracted, that your brain still hasn't digested information.
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It has just received and it's somewhere else.
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So at this point of time
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i would ask you to stop reading maybe get some tea uh get more comfortable wherever you are
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because it's very important to feel comfortable while reading you know
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if you don't have to think about changing your position
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or drinking or whatever you tend to stay more focused
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and your speed naturally increases
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and by the way uh reading is a great great way to get rid of your stress just make
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this process enjoyable just relax and help your brain dig deeper into the content of the book
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another tip make a movie in your head
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I do this all the time make a movie in your
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head means create visual images of whatever is going on in
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the book create visual image of everyone who's in the book of main characters department of things
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they're doing for the company
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so whatever you're reading about visual images help a lot especially for people like me who love videos
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i love videos and if you're watching youtube i guess you love videos too
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and visualization is a great tool to speed up your reading process
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because when you read the character's name you already have all those visual images in your head
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and it helps you digest information faster.
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Creative visualization.
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Next thing, read reviews beforehand.
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Those could be reviews or like a very short version of a book
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because this way you're gonna know what you're looking for.
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You're gonna know what people loved about this book.
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You're gonna know what to look for in this book because maybe they would tell you like,
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for example, you're looking for a perfect resume or whatever and in reviews you'll be like,
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oh, this guy is sharing the perfect resume samples in chapter four and five and it was so useful
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and you know exactly that
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when you're going to read this book you're going to be extra careful with the chapter four
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and five because this is what you're looking for
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so go to different resources read those reviews it's going to help structure your brain
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and prepare it for all the upcoming information
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that was it from me guys for today uh let's just conclude uh i wanted to highlight something
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so no matter what speed you're at I want you to get to the speed of 800 words per minute
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this is the best speed for reading five to six books a month another thing
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that I wanted to highlight once again use your pen to guide
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you this is one of the most practical skills
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that worked for me like guiding yourself through reading the last
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but not the least something to pay attention to pay attention to where your eyes are looking at
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when you're reading so ideally they have to be focused on the middle of the page
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so don't go from the first word to the last word
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of the paragraph mostly focus on what's in the middle area of the page this way you're just making sure
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that you're not reading every single word that you're just scanning
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and digesting the most important words to understand the meaning again
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this might sound very complicated I want you to start practicing
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I want you to write things down in your own exercise books
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or whatever so you have them and I want you to take those classes
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that I mentioned the productivity
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and the reading class you can the links are below two months for free with the Skillshare just
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because you watch this video guys you're amazing
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if you know you subscribe to my channel hit the subscribe button
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if you like this content like this video I I hope this was useful
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and I hope you're gonna use it and I will see you very soon in my next videos.
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Bye bye.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “8 Tips for Reading FASTER in English”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: reading, word, faster. This video has 241 sentences and 2903 words to shadow. The speech runs for 16:49. The speaker talks at a natural 173 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 89% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| relax verb | /ɹɪˈlæks/ | To make something loose. |
| highlight verb | /ˈhaɪˌlaɪt/ | To make prominent; emphasize. |
| rhythm noun | /ˈɹɪð.əm/ | The variation of strong and weak elements (such as duration, accent) of sounds, notably in speech or music, over time; a beat or meter. |
| 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. |
| productivity noun | /ˌpɹɒdʌkˈtɪvəti/ | The state of being productive, fertile, or efficient. |
| translate verb | /tɹænzˈleɪt/ | To change spoken words or written text (of a book, document, movie, etc.) from one language to another. |
| practical adjective | /ˈpɹæk.tɪ.kəl/ | Relating to, or based on, practice or action rather than theory or hypothesis. |
| format noun | /ˈfɔːɹ.mæt/ | The layout of a publication or document. |
| pace noun | /peɪs/ | A step taken with the foot. |
| productive adjective | /pɹəˈdʌk.tɪv/ | Capable of producing something, especially in abundance; fertile. |
| decrease verb | /dɪˈkɹiːs/ | Of a quantity, to become smaller. |
| resume verb | /ˈɹɛz.ə.meɪ/ | To start (something) again that has been stopped or paused from the point at which it was stopped or paused; continue, carry on. |
| paragraph noun | /ˈpæɹəɡɹæf/ | A passage in text that starts on a new line, the first line sometimes being indented, and usually marks a change of topic. |
| subscribe verb | /səbˈskɹaɪb/ | To write (one’s name) at the bottom of a document; to sign (one's name). |
| digest verb | /daɪˈd͡ʒɛst/ | To distribute or arrange methodically; to work over and classify; to reduce to portions for ready use or application. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. | |
| speed up verb | /spiːdˈʌp/ | To accelerate; to increase speed. |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. | |
| read over verb | To read (a document, book, etc.) through, though not necessarily thoroughly. | |
| set up verb | /ˌsɛt ˈʌp/ | To make ready for use. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Find the one that's comfortable for you.
- What skills am I trying to learn after reading this book?
- Have you ever read four books at a time?
- How do you know if you're focused enough?
- You're gonna know what people loved about this book.
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 | i've taken · you've only read · Have you ever read |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be compared · is considered |
| Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form | started reading · stop saying · start practicing |
| Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group | the best · the most practical · the least something |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 97 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: fiction /ˈfɪkʃən/, genre /ˈ(d)ʒɑnɹə/, instruction /ɪnˈstɹʌkʃən/, distraction /dɪsˈtɹæk.ʃən/, accomplish /əˈkɑm.plɪʃ/
- Long words — get the stress right: productivity /ˌpɹɒdʌkˈtɪvəti/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/, communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/
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 relax, highlight, rhythm.
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.