Shadowing Practice: A2 English Listening Practice - Using Subtitles - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

Let's talk about using subtitles when you're learning English.

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Let's talk about using subtitles when you're learning English.

So you can probably already notice that this video has subtitles.

This isn't something that I have been doing recently.

I've been making videos without subtitles,

but I'm going to start creating videos with subtitles that are AI-generated.

So I pay to have this tool that can do this for me.

So it might not be 100% correct all the time,

but I'm hoping it will be like 97, 98% correct, 99% perhaps.

So I hope that you like this.

I'm going to talk about why I'm doing this.

And I want to talk about using subtitles in general.

So first of all, why am I doing this?

Why am I starting to make videos with subtitles again?

Well first of all, many people ask for subtitles.

And yes, there is the YouTube generated,

the automatic subtitles from YouTube.

But for some reason, a lot of people just don't like this

or they don't want to click on the little button and choose the language and all of that.

So a lot of people don't like that or they just don't trust YouTube auto-generated subtitles.

Honestly, they're pretty good.

So you can try them out on other videos that don't have subtitles and you can see for yourself.

I find that they're pretty good,

but many people prefer to have the subtitles on the screen.

And so that's why I'm doing this.

And people have expressed that they really like the long videos that I've done for the past,

I don't know how long it's been,

but I've been doing them for a while.

And these are the videos that people get more excited about because they can see my face.

people like seeing me for some reason,

and they get more views when I first publish them.

But really, the videos that I've made that have helped the most people,

it seems, are my videos with subtitles dedicated to different levels,

like A1, A2, B1, those listening videos,

they still get tons and tons of views.

Not all of them, but the older ones still generate many views over the months and years.

Some of them have in the millions, actually.

Not many of them, but a few of them.

So those seem to be the videos that really help the most people,

even though some people, they don't need the subtitles,

they don't want the subtitles.

The thing is, if you don't want the subtitles,

you can simply ignore them.

That's something that's possible, even though you think that having them on the screen distracts you.

Maybe that might be true for some of you,

but I can't please everyone.

There will always be some people

that aren't completely satisfied with the choices I make in terms of how I make my videos,

but I figured that I should start using these subtitles so that

all the people that need subtitles can have them

and hopefully the people

that don't want them can simply cover them up put something there to cover them

or just not look at them that's probably the easiest thing to do

and I've watched videos where I put the subtitles on but I don't look at them unless I need them,

unless I don't understand something.

It's possible, folks.

So hopefully this will be the best solution for my videos in the future to reach more people,

help more people, and hopefully you guys still enjoy these types of videos.

I think I'm going to make them a little shorter,

possibly 15 minutes or so.

And I don't know what I'll talk about yet.

Maybe mostly language learning stuff, possibly some other things.

But regardless of the topic,

the goal is still to provide interesting content for you to practice your listening.

and I'm showing my face so you can see me.

People really like this format.

So I'm gonna continue to do it like this, I think.

I could change, obviously, but I'll probably make videos like this one.

And let me know if you like this type of subtitling where it kind of shows you

which word I'm saying in the moment.

I think most people like that.

It kind of helps them follow along better,

but I'm sure with the tool I'm using,

there might be options where it doesn't do that,

where it just shows the words and it doesn't show you where I am in the phrase or whatever.

So let me know.

Leave a comment down below and tell me what you think about these subtitles.

And I'm sure some of you will comment and say you don't like having subtitles on the video.

I'm sorry.

Again, I can't please everyone.

I would just say that you can try to cover them or not look at them.

I've done this plenty of times.

It's possible.

So how should you use subtitles when learning English?

Well, let me talk in general,

not just about my content, but in general.

First of all, a great way to do this is to repeat the video multiple times.

The way that I've talked about the most,

I think, is watching the video the first time without the subtitles to see how much you can understand.

And then you watch the second time with the subtitles so you can see which words you didn't get.

and then the third time without subtitles to try to understand everything this time without reading them.

So you can do it that way,

or perhaps you just listen or watch twice the first time with the subtitles,

just to try to get everything.

And then the second time without subtitles,

to try to get everything without seeing the words.

So you can do this in a number of ways,

but the goal is to eventually understand the video without the subtitles.

Okay, so with a video like this one,

you would watch it maybe not looking at the subtitles,

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just looking at my face,

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and then the second time looking at the subtitles,

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and the third time looking at my face again,

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or cover the subtitles if you prefer.

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You can do it that way.

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If there's a video that doesn't have subtitles on YouTube,

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you can use the YouTube auto-generated subtitles.

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They work.

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I use them.

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So you can watch without the subtitles and then activate those subtitles and then turn them off again however you want.

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But using repetition is a good way to practice your listening and see what you can understand,

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what was hard for you to understand,

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and then eventually understand everything without the subtitles.

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So that's one tip.

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Another tip is that you can just look at the subtitles when you can't understand a word.

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I like this tip here.

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Like you can watch this video and just look at my face.

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And when I say something that's not completely clear to you,

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or maybe there's a phrase or a word I use that you're not familiar with,

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then you look down and you see what it is that I said.

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And that's a great way to use them.

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And it's pretty simple and it helps you train without subtitles,

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but then use the subtitles to help you get what you couldn't understand

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or see the new word that I used, etc. Right.

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That's a great way to use them.

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You can also use subtitles for,

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I guess I'll call it targeted listening practice.

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So you notice which patterns you can't understand.

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Let me explain this.

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If you can understand something when it's written down,

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but you can't understand it when you just hear it without seeing it,

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that means that you know the word or you know the phrase,

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but you can't understand it well.

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It's not a new phrase for you,

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but you can't understand it.

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This means

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that you have a good opportunity to see what the difference is between what you're expecting to hear

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and how native speakers actually say the phrase.

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So when you use subtitles,

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for example, you can watch without looking at the subtitles

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and then you can't understand something and then you look down and you say,

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huh, why couldn't I understand that?

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I know that phrase.

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And And then you repeat,

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you rewind the video, and you train with that phrase.

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You listen multiple times to see how a native speaker actually says that phrase.

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So you're targeting the things that you can't understand and then seeing why you couldn't understand it,

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what you were expecting to hear,

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and then you see how it really sounds.

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So that can help you notice and better understand different patterns in English.

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So that's something that could be useful for you.

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you can do the same thing for pronunciation practice.

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So when that happens, you can,

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like I said, rewind the video,

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watch it again, listen multiple times to hear how a native speaker says it,

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and then you can replicate that with your own,

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you know, saying it yourself.

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So you You practice your listening and your pronunciation in that way.

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You are noticing how things really sound and then you try to say it the way that native speakers say it.

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So this can be good for listening and pronunciation.

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And then lastly, you can use subtitles when you're just watching content for pleasure.

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Let's say it's the end of the day,

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you want to watch something for entertainment,

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and instead of watching the show in your own language or the video in your own language,

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you watch it in English.

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This can be hard, but if you put the subtitles on,

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you can understand it much better probably.

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During this time, if you're just watching something for pleasure after a long day of work,

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then you probably just want to watch it and not rewind it and take all these notes and things like that.

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You just watch the content,

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but you have the subtitles on and you're practicing in that

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you probably won't understand everything

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but the subtitles will make it easier for you to just enjoy

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that show that video or whatever and so in

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that case there's nothing you should really do you should just relax

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and enjoy it but you're getting some English practice and because of the subtitles,

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you might be able to understand enough to just enjoy the show or enjoy the video or whatever it is.

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So that's another thing that you can do.

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Alright, I hope that you liked this format of video with the subtitles.

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Leave a comment down below and let me know if this style of subtitles is good or whatever.

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I don't know exactly what I'm going to be doing and talking about.

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And I assume, like I said,

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I'll just make videos that are like this,

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a little shorter than I've been making them recently, but with subtitles.

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And I don't know what I'll title these videos,

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maybe intermediate English listening practice, or I don't know.

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But we'll see.

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I just wanted to make a video talking about subtitles to introduce this new era of videos

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that I hope to make and to give you some tips.

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And of course, as always,

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remember to check out my advanced podcast episodes in which I speak fast and check out my U.S.

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Conversations podcast in which I talk to different people from around the country.

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It's a lot of fun and it's great practice for you

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because you practice with my authentic conversations that I have with other native speakers.

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So both of those links are down below.

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

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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 - Using Subtitles - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Shadowing Practice: A2 English Listening Practice - Using Subtitles - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Why practice speaking with this video?

Grammar & Expressions in Context

Common Pronunciation Traps

What is the Shadowing Technique?