Shadowing Practice: Daily English Practice | 4 Everyday Habits to Speak Fluent English - Learn English Speaking with Video
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How do you become a fluent English speaker?
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I'm so glad you asked!
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Today I'm sharing four daily habits to help you speak fluent English.
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If you're hoping for a magic pill this is not the right video for you but if you're keen to find out how you can genuinely speak fluent English and you're willing to establish a regular practice routine to make it happen you do not want to miss this video.
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I'm Emma from Hey Lady! the online English speaking community where women become confident capable and fluent English speakers.
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Now let's talk about those essential daily practice habits that will help you to get fluent, confident spoken English.
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The most important thing about your daily English practice is that it's simple and achievable.
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There is no point dreaming up some epic practice schedule if you don't have the time or the motivation to show up and do it every day.
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If you're serious about steadily building real fluency you should try and allocate thirty minutes of every day to your fluency training.
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Thirty minutes is manageable.
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And if you can do more on some days well that's a bonus.
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But let's work with thirty minutes per day.
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The second most important thing about your daily routine is that it should be tailored to you, to your needs and to your learning style because the moment that your English practice routine becomes too hard or too intense or too boring you'll just give up but if you spend that time reflecting on your learning style and then finding materials and resources that will keep you interested and motivated it will pay off.
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Keep these two things in mind while I share the four simple things that you should be doing every day to speak English fluently.
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Focused listening practice.
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Listen to English every day.
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And this is an easy place to start because there are lots of different ways that you can do this: podcasts, audiobooks, TEDTalks, TV series, YouTube videos, there are lots of different options.
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To create a great and really simple habit around your English listening practice, set a manageable amount of time, ten minutes a day is all you need. If you feel like doing more, awesome.B But set your daily goal at ten minutes so that you can always manage it every day.
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And identify what you're listening to ahead of time. Don't sit down in the moment and think: What am I going to listen to?
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No. Find a really great book, have a couple of great podcasts on the go or even an English news channel that you like to tune into every day so that you don't have to make decisions about what you're going to listen to, you can just go straight there.
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If you have to think about it too much you'll find any excuse not to do it so make it easy.
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I've added some of my suggestions down in the description but I want to know what you like listening to.
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I'm keen to hear your suggestions and your recommendations so add your favourite podcasts or TV series or resources down into the comments below.
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Now if you're a member of the Hey Lady! Community we make this really easy for you because all of our conversation topics have listening practice materials that you can use for your daily listening practice.
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And then of course inside Hey Lady! there are lots of different opportunities to practise speaking about the topic which is exactly what your next daily habit is.
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Daily speaking practice.
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This is extremely important.
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In order to speak fluently you must, must incorporate daily speaking practice into your routine.
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Now I know that many of you feel like this is a huge, hurdle you might be thinking: But I don't live in an English-speaking country, I don't have anyone to practise with.
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Or Emma, I've never really spoken in English before.
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I'm nervous, I'm worried I'm going to make mistakes.
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These are all genuine fears.
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But in most cases, they can be overcome and I want to give you some really practical suggestions to help you make this process easy and repeatable, to help you find people to practise with regularly and to help you get started if you're new to speaking English.
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To make your daily speaking practice easy and repeatable there are two things that I want you to do.
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The first is connect your listening practice with your speaking practice.
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What you listen to should be what you talk about.
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This helps you to formulate ideas and opinions about a topic and it helps you to practise new words or phrases that you've heard.
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And the second thing is to find people to practise with regularly.
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There are so many options for how to do this.
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Some cost more money than others, some take more time and effort.
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Whatever option you have available to you, go for it but my biggest piece of advice is to invest time in finding people to practise with regularly.
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You need them on your journey to fluency.
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Hey Lady! is an online speaking community for women.
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If you're an intermediate to advanced English learner, Hey Lady! could be a fantastic part of your fluency plan.
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It's definitely affordable.
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With unlimited speaking practice for just $39 a month, there are hundreds of events to choose from and you can attend as many as you like.
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You can even create your own conversation events and invite other members to join or you can drop into the live coffee tables whenever you have a free ten minutes to get your speaking practice in each day.
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It's a safe and supportive community and every woman that you meet is working on her English fluency just like you and the best part is that our conversation topics include listening practice materials.
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And then there are different types of events that you can join either to learn about or to speak about our current conversation topic.
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And I know some of you are watching this and thinking: No way!
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I'm not ready to jump into that, into a conversation and just start talking with actual people.
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If you haven't had a lot of experience speaking in English so you feel a little nervous or unsure about how to start, don't worry.
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Inside Hey Lady! our team will be there to help you.
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We host regular weekly events for new members so that we get to meet you and we can help you get started.
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So definitely if you're a woman learning English and you have a B1 English level or higher, you really should be a Hey Lady! member and right now heady has a special offer for new members.
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Your first month will cost you only $19 so use the code TRYNOW50 to get 50% off the regular monthly membership price.
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Now I want to move on to our third daily habit.
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And yes you guessed it.
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This habit can be completed inside Hey Lady! too.
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This next daily habit can be done in just five to ten minutes and it's intentional, vocabulary expansion or grammar review.
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Intentional means with intent or with purpose so it doesn't mean just grabbing a random grammar book and then studying prepositions.
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It means directly addressing a challenge that you faced during your practice so it's perfect to do right after you've done your focused listening practice.
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If you heard a new word or expression then take the opportunity to learn more about it.
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Practise writing some sentences of your own or if you got stuck trying to express yourself during your speaking practice then take this opportunity to correct your errors.
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Now that you've got some time to think about it or look up ways to express those ideas more accurately.
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So do this not long after your conversation, while it's all still fresh in your mind.
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Spend some time, five minutes, ten minutes writing sentences that help you better articulate your thoughts so that next time you're able to speak more clearly and confidently.
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Daily reflection.
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This is one of the most important habits to develop on your fluency Journey.T This daily reflection helps you to reinforce what you've learned.
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It helps you to acknowledge what you've done, to contribute towards your fluency goal.
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It helps you to identify what went well and what didn't.
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Your daily reflection also helps you to track your progress over time which is essential.
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You need to celebrate your progress and your achievements no matter how small.
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This daily reflection should become a ritual.
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If it works for you like it does for me, then buy a really special notebook for this daily habit.
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Make it feel special.
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Keep it by your bed or next to a really comfy chair and spend just two to five minutes every night reflecting on what you learned or what you did in English.
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You could even write simply just to express your gratitude for an interesting conversation or a new connection so make daily reflection part of your process.
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So imagine if you brought those four things into your daily practice routine and you maintain that practice for six months or for twelve months, you will notice phenomenal difference in the way that you feel, in the way that you speak in English and you'll have gained almost 200 hours of intentional practice working towards your English fluency.
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It's not a bad number.
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All four of the daily practice habits that I'm sharing in this video can be easily completed inside the Hey Lady! platform every day so it makes your daily practice really easy so that fluent confident English becomes your reality.
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I can't stress how important, how valuable it is to be around women who have the same goals and who are on the same journey, who are willing to help you reach your own goals, keep you motivated.
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Head down to the description for more information about becoming a Hey Lady! member and if you found this video helpful, share it with a friend, give it a like and of course subscribe to the channel, turn on notifications so that you never miss another lesson here.
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See you next week!
Why practice speaking with this video?
Practicing your speaking skills through engaging content, such as this informative video, provides numerous benefits for English learners. By adopting the daily habits suggested, you can significantly improve your fluency. The speaker, Emma, emphasizes the importance of a structured approach to learning, underscoring the necessity of regular practice. Daily English speaking practice not only enhances your vocabulary and pronunciation but also builds your confidence. The interactive nature of the video encourages viewers to apply what they learn in real-life conversations, making it an excellent resource for those aiming to learn English with YouTube.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
In the video, Emma uses several key structures that are essential for English learners:
- Imperatives: Phrases like "Set a manageable amount of time," demonstrate commands that guide viewers on how to structure their practice.
- Conditional Statements: Emma mentions, "If you can do more on some days, well that's a bonus." This conditional structure helps articulate possibilities, crucial for learners to express varying scenarios.
- Repetition for Emphasis: The phrase "must, must incorporate" emphasizes the importance of daily speaking practice, showing how English can express urgency and necessity.
- Complex Sentences: By connecting ideas through sentences like "find materials and resources that will keep you interested," learners can understand how to combine thoughts fluidly.
By shadowing Emma's speech patterns and structures, you can improve your conversational abilities, making your own speech more natural and fluent.
Common Pronunciation Traps
One common challenge that learners face when practicing speaking is pronunciation. In the video, some tricky words include:
- “Manageable”: Pay attention to the pronunciation of the middle syllable; it often gets glossed over. Shadow speaking techniques can help you articulate this correctly.
- “Practice” vs. “Practise”: Note the subtle difference between the noun and verb forms can confuse non-native speakers.
- “Fluency”: The distinct vowel sounds in this word can be challenging. Regular practice, including repetition through shadowing, will enhance your clarity.
Understanding these pronunciation nuances while engaging in English speaking practice will improve your overall communication skills. Utilize shadow speak techniques to mimic the speaker’s pronunciation and intonation, solidifying your grasp on the language.
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.