Shadowing Practice: Celebrations. | British Council-Learn English. - Learn English Speaking with Video
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49 sentences
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It was Nicky's idea, but we all think it's going to be brilliant.
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As soon as the last exams are finished, we're going to decorate the main hall at school with paper streamers and Chinese lanterns and things.
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Steve had this idea of projecting photos of everyone onto a wall, like a slideshow.
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And we've got
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Joe's brother, who's a professional DJ, coming along.
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Then there are three different bands lined up to play.
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Ours is the best because we've been together longest
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And we've got a great bass player
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Although I say so myself
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So, we're on last
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It's going to be cool B Every year there's a carnival in August in London You've probably heard of it
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The Notting Hill Carnival So this year me and my friends are going again
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We went last year and we had such a fantastic time.
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It's all Afro -Caribbean with people in amazing costumes and these brilliant steel bands.
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We don't go in costume, but we do dance a lot.
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It does get quite crowded, so you have to make sure you stick together.
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And you have to watch out for pickpockets when there are so many people in the same place.
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But it's really good fun.
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It's like London becomes a different country.
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Even the police dance sometimes.
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We're going to hire a boat for the day and take it up the river.
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It's my grandparents' golden wedding anniversary, so the whole family is getting together.
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I'm really looking forward to seeing my cousins again.
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I haven't seen them for ages.
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We've got this huge picnic planned, with loads of different types of sandwiches and salads and an enormous cake.
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My dad has borrowed an ancient gramophone player, you know, what they had before CD players and some old records.
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So as we go up the river, we're going to listen to music from the time my grandparents got married, the swinging 60s.
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D. Two of my best friends have their birthday in the same week,
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so some of us have decided to have a surprise party for both of them.
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One of my friends, Sandra, has a big house and her parents say we can use it.
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They're going away, luckily.
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It's at the end of October, so we're going to decorate the house with Halloween things, you know, spiders, webs and spooky things.
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We're going to make up an excuse to get the birthday girls to come round to the house
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Say we're going to help Sandra move some stuff or something
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Then, as soon as Sandra lets them in We're going to turn the lights out and jump out at them
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We just have to make sure nobody mentions anything on Facebook And gives away the surprise
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E
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There's a royal wedding in June one of our princes is getting married
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so it's a public holiday lots of people are having parties in squares
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and parks and places and the people in our street decided to have one too well, it's a good excuse to have a party, isn't it?
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we're all going to take out tables and chairs
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and put them together in the middle of the road we're going to stop cars coming through,
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obviously We're all going to bring different dishes and share them round
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There are quite a lot of different nationalities living on our street
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People from India, China and different African countries
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So the food should be really interesting
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It'll be good to get to know more of the neighbours too
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This recording was brought to you by the British Council To find others like it,
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visit www .britishcouncil .org forward slash learnenglishteens.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Celebrations”. This video has 49 sentences and 612 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:16. The speaker talks at a steady 143 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| costume noun | /ˈkɑsˌt(j)um/ | A style of dress, including garments, accessories and hairstyle, especially as characteristic of a particular country, period or people. |
| carnival noun | /ˈkɑɹnɪvəl/ | Any of a number of festivals held just before the beginning of Lent. |
| cousin noun | /ˈkʌz(ə)n/ | Chiefly with a qualifying word: Any relation (especially a distant one) who is not a direct ancestor or descendant but part of a person's extended family; a… |
| hire verb | /ˈhaɪɹ/ | To obtain the services of in return for fixed payment. |
| swing verb | /ˈswɪŋ/ | To rotate about an off-centre fixed point. |
| bass noun | /beɪs/ | A low spectrum of sound tones. |
| exam verb | /ɪɡˈzæm/ | Shortened form of examine |
| enormous adjective | /ɪˈnɔː.məs/ | Extremely large; greatly exceeding the common size, extent, etc. |
| spider noun | /ˈspaɪ̯dɚ/ | Any of various eight-legged, predatory arthropods, of the order Araneae, most of which spin webs to catch prey. |
| dish noun | /dɪʃ/ | A vessel such as a plate for holding or serving food, often flat with a depressed region in the middle. |
| salad noun | /ˈsæl.əd/ | A food consisting principally of raw vegetables (especially greens, e.g. lettuce), other savoury ingredients (typically cooked), fruit, or confectionary; often… |
| sandwich noun | /ˈsæn(d).wɪd͡ʒ/ | A dish or foodstuff where at least one piece, but typically two or more pieces, of bread serves as the wrapper or container of some other food. |
| borrow verb | /ˈbɑɹ.oʊ/ | To receive (something) from somebody temporarily, expecting to return it. |
| luckily adverb | /ˈlʌk.ɪ.li/ | In a lucky manner; by good fortune; fortunately. |
| picnic noun | /ˈpɪknɪk/ | An informal social gathering, usually in a natural outdoor setting, to which the participants bring their own food and drink. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come along verb | To accompany. | |
| come through verb | To come into a room or other space through a door or passageway. | |
| get together verb | To meet, to gather together, to congregate. | |
| give away verb | To make a gift of (something). | |
| go away verb | To depart or leave a place. | |
| go up verb | To move upwards. | |
| look forward to verb | To anticipate, expect, or wait for, especially with a feeling of approval or pleasure; to be excited or eager to. | |
| make up verb | /ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/ | To constitute, to compose. |
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 | we've been · You've probably heard · haven't seen |
| Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group | the best · my best |
| Future with “going to” be going to + verb — a plan or something you can see coming | it's going to be · we're going to decorate · We're going to hire |
| Present continuous am/is/are + -ing — something happening right now or around now | are going · is getting · I'm really looking |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 22 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, we've, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: dish /dɪʃ/, nationality /ˌnæʃ.əˈnæl.ɪ.ti/, slideshow /ˈslaɪdˌʃoʊ/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like costume, carnival, cousin.
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.