Shadowing Practice: A2 English Listening Practice - Speaking Style - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Hey everybody!

Welcome to this A2 English listening practice video.

I hope you're doing well.

In today's listening practice video,

I'm gonna talk about speaking styles.

And in my last video,

in which I talked at normal speed,

I talked a lot about my personal speaking style

and why it might be easier for you to to understand me even

when I speak at normal speed compared to other native speakers.

So this is an interesting topic because everyone has their own speaking style

and some people are easier to understand than others and

so I think that this is something that's relevant for you especially as an English learner

because some people will be harder to understand than other people.

By the way, excuse the sunglasses and the sun in my face.

It's getting colder here and I kind of want to be in the sun.

So I know I look a little funny,

but I'm sure you don't mind.

So let's talk about this and before we do that,

remember that if you want my advanced episodes in which I speak at normal speed,

then click on the link down below to sign up for those.

Okay, so everybody has their own individual speaking style

and it makes them either easier or harder to understand and that will also depend on you, the listener.

Some people will be easier for you to understand and some people will be easier for another English learner to understand.

It depends, but everyone has their own speaking style.

And this is why you might feel good about your comprehension one day

and then the next day you feel terrible about your listening skills

because maybe the first day you listened to someone who is easier to understand

because of their speaking style and then the next day you listened to someone who has a harder speaking style.

This has happened to me many times where one day I feel great about my listening skills maybe in French

and then the next day it's like man, what happened?

I thought I had a good level of comprehension and I feel

that way because I listened to content in which the person had a harder style of speaking, right?

So this is also why it can be hard to really gauge or measure your level.

It can be hard to determine your level of comprehension

because you might understand some content really well and then other content you can't understand well.

So it's hard to really gauge your overall level of comprehension.

For me too, when I think of languages I've learned,

it's hard for me to say exactly how good my comprehension is

because depending on the situation I might understand everything

or there might be a lot of stuff I don't understand and this is largely because of the person's speaking style.

So it can be hard to gauge your level and the goal in general is to just understand people in general, right?

We want to just feel like we can understand people in whatever context we're in.

That's a great goal to have.

I think we would all agree that this is the level of comprehension

that we're looking for where we can just understand the language, right?

And so that means that we need to be able to understand a variety of speaking styles

because sometimes a speaking style is going to be harder to understand

and if we want to function well in

that language we also need to understand that harder speaking style fairly well right

and this is why it's good to use a variety of content

when you're listening in a foreign language I know a lot

of of you probably use a bunch of my content and you're probably going through the playlists of the A1 videos,

the A2 videos or whatever and you just really like this content because you can understand me.

And that's great but of course just because you understand me doesn't mean that you can understand other native speakers.

And so that's why it's great to use a variety of content not just mine.

As much as I love the fact that you like my content,

you use my content, you need to use a variety of content if you want to understand different speaking styles.

I have a very particular way of speaking that is different from other people.

So the way that you can just improve your overall

understanding of people regardless of their speaking style is of course

number one to use different variety of content of course like I just mentioned.

But number two you just want to know and understand more words and phrases.

The more words and phrases that you know and you can understand,

the easier it will be to understand people of different styles.

Because, of course, people that speak with different styles of speaking,

they use different words.

They use different phrases, different slang, different idioms, different expressions.

And so the more phrases and the more words you know,

the more likely you will be to understand different people and the less you'll struggle.

Because a big part of our speaking style is the vocabulary we use.

The words and phrases I use are somewhat different from the words and phrases that my friends use,

for example, and we tend to kind of use the same words and phrases again and again.

So if you're only using my content,

you're only learning the words and phrases that I use.

So in general, the more words and phrases you know,

the more people you will be able to understand.

But of course, even if you learn many words and phrases,

there will still be people who are harder to understand than other people.

Because it's not only about words and phrases,

it's about our pronunciation, our accent,

the way that we speak.

There are other things involved in this question of a person's speaking style.

So don't be discouraged even though you have trouble understanding people,

even though you know a lot of words and phrases,

this will just take time as you spend more time with a variety of content.

Okay?

So you won't just suddenly be able to understand everyone,

even if you have a great knowledge of vocabulary and grammar and slang and all of that,

there's more to it.

And English in particular is a hard language to understand.

I say that because there's more complexity with our sound and stress system in English.

So it's a harder language to understand than other languages that might be phonetic,

meaning one letter represents one sound and you know exactly how every word sounds.

English is not at all like that.

So it's harder to understand.

It's very common to understand something when it's written down,

But then you hear that same sentence without seeing the words and suddenly you can't understand it.

English is like that and it's gonna take time to get accustomed to that.

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Okay, and then now let me talk about my style of speaking.

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So I speak relatively clearly and I don't speak very fast even when I'm speaking at normal speed.

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and I don't mumble a lot.

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Mumbling is when people kind of talk like this and they don't open their mouth a lot.

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I don't do that.

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I have the opposite problem.

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I open my mouth a lot and I accidentally spit because of how much I enunciate,

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how clearly I say words.

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So I have the opposite issue

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and I have always talked in a clearer way than other people even before I was an English teacher.

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So this isn't just because I make content for English learners.

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I've always been a storyteller.

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I've always loved telling stories,

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recounting things like telling people about things that have happened.

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I've always been kind of a storyteller.

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So I've always had this style of dramatic speaking and using my hands and spitting of things like that.

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And I've always been focused on communication.

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This is my main skill.

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I have very few technical skills unfortunately,

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but I have one skill which is communication in general.

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I'm not saying I'm the best speaker or communicator, not at all.

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But what I mean is that I'm very focused on the details of communication

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and I notice things that other people might not notice

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and I can usually communicate in a way that is appropriate for my listener.

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That's kind of my main skill,

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let's say, and it helps me do what I do.

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So I'm thankful that God gave me that skill.

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And this is why my advanced content,

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like my advanced episodes for example,

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are helpful for people that are trying to start to use like native level content

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but it's just a little too hard for them,

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usually my advanced episodes are like the bridge between that because I'm easier to understand than other native speakers.

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So even when I speak at normal speed,

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it's usually easier to understand than other native speakers

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and of course I provide the transcript that this is guided content

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so if that's you

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if you're looking for content that's harder than this video right

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now you need to start to use native level content

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but it's probably helpful to use my guided content

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which will be like an intermediate step between this and native level content where just some random person is speaking.

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So my advanced content, my advanced podcasts,

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episodes are good for that.

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And then you can also use my US Conversations podcast.

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I know I talk a lot about these things but it's

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because people ask me over and over in the comment section like B1 videos,

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B2 videos, please, C1 videos.

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And I keep saying this,

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you know, that there's this advanced content and I talked about this in the last video.

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If you're looking for B1,

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B2, C1 level content, you should try to use guided native level content.

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This is really going to help your listening.

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It's going to help you take your listening to the next level.

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So my US Conversations podcast is great for this as well because I talk to different people with different styles of speaking.

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So you get the chance to hear different styles, different varieties.

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So it's challenging of course but the good thing is I'm part of the conversation.

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It's me and another person in each episode.

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So it's easier than just other conversations between two random people because you understand me better than other people.

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So because I'm part of these conversations,

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it makes them easier to understand.

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And of course, I provide the transcript with the definitions of key words and phrases we use.

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So if you're looking for content that is harder than this,

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you're wanting the B2 stuff or whatever,

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just know that what you're looking for is authentic native content,

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but that's guided probably.

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And even better, if you understand me well then you can use content in which I'm a part of.

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So that can help with that.

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So if this video is just too easy for you,

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you didn't even need to read the subtitles,

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then you should be using my harder content.

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Okay?

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The next level is my advanced content,

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my advanced podcast, or my US Conversations podcast.

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And so those links are down below.

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Please check those out and just know that if you ask me for B1,

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B2, C1 content, my response is basically what I said in this video and in the last video.

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Use my guided, authentic, advanced content.

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It's me speaking at normal speed either by myself or with another person,

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but it's guided with a transcript and it's easier than just other native level content.

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Okay I know I talked a lot in this video

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and in the last one about you know my content

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and this stuff but hopefully this answers your questions about you know B1 content,

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B2 content, C1 content.

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Hopefully you understand now my response to those questions.

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Okay, so check out those those resources,

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my advanced podcasts and my US Conversations podcast by clicking on the links down below.

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Alright, thank you all for watching this video and I'll talk to you in the next one.

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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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Shadowing Practice: A2 English Listening Practice - Speaking Style - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Shadowing Practice: A2 English Listening Practice - Speaking Style - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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About This Lesson

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

Practice Tips

What is the Shadowing Technique?