Shadowing Practice: Effortless English Rule 7 Powerful English Speaking Stories - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hi, this is AJ and you made it.

Rule number seven, our final rule.

Here it is.

Rule seven is this.

Use, listen and answer stories.

Use, listen and answer stories to speak very quickly,

to understand immediately, and really to speak English automatically.

And when I say speak English automatically, what I mean is this.

I mean that you are thinking in English.

There's no translating happening.

You're not thinking about rules.

You're not trying to remember a bunch of vocabulary.

You're not translating from English to your language to understand, and then from your language back to English when you need to speak.

Some people learn to do that translating very quickly.

but even if you learn to do it quickly, it's still not instant and automatic.

To truly speak like an American, a Canadian, a British person, to truly speak effortlessly, you have to be thinking in English.

It's the only way to do it.

So how do you learn to do that?

You use listen and answer stories.

I saved it for last because this is the most powerful rule of all in my opinion.

They're all powerful.

You should use all of them.

But this one I feel is the most powerful.

So let's talk about what it is.

It's the key to faster English.

It's the key to more natural speaking.

It's the key to instant automatic understanding and speech.

So, before I tell you what this is exactly, let me talk about what happens in normal schools.

So, in a normal school, using the old methods, the old methods which are like 200 years old or older,

these are really old methods.

What do you do?

You learn with your eyes, you sit on your butt in a chair and you watch a teacher up in the front of the class.

The teacher writes a bunch of rules and vocabulary and translations, and you take notes, and then you all look in the textbook, and you do exercise number four,

page 78, blah, blah, blah.

You also do a lot of listening and repeating, right?

The teacher might put on a CD, or if the teacher can speak English themselves, and many times they cannot, but if they do know English somewhat,

they might say like an English phrase or sentence and then you repeat after them.

So the teacher says, Hello, how are you?

And then says, Class, repeat after me.

Hello, how are you?

And the whole class together says, Hello, how are you?

I'm fine and you!

Class repeat!

And the class says, I'm fine and you!

Listen and repeat.

There's a lot of CDs out there, it's the same thing, right?

You hear an English phrase and then you repeat it, you hear it, you repeat it.

Here's the problem, one of the problems with listen and repeat.

You can just turn your brain off when you do that.

You can repeat it, but you might not understand it.

You might not know what you're really saying.

You might be pronouncing it completely wrong, but you just repeat, repeat, repeat.

Your brain turns off.

You don't need to think in English at all.

You don't even need to understand what you're saying. So it's not powerful.

It's not a good way to learn English.

And, of course, as we all know, it's very boring.

So that's what happens in normal school, regular school, regular textbooks, regular programs.

Listen and answer stories are different.

It's a special kind of story designed to help you understand English instantly and then use it very quickly.

And this story is designed the way we do these stories.

created and designed to teach you to think in English.

Understanding and speaking.

No more translation, no more thinking about rules, no more thinking about anything.

It's just you understand instantly, and when you want to say something, it just pops out of your mouth automatically.

So how do we do this?

Well, what happens is the teacher asks a very interesting, strange, and funny story.

And then the student immediately and constantly answers a series of questions.

Now you notice I said the teacher asks the story, not tells the story.

What does that mean?

Well, it means instead of just telling a story, there was a dog, the dog was hungry, he went to the store and he bought some cereal.

That's just telling a story.

Fact, fact, fact, fact. And that's okay.

You know, there's nothing wrong with that.

But this method is much more powerful.

So instead of doing that, the teacher would say, What was there?

Of course, you have no idea, but you would just guess.

A person, a boy, a dog, a man.

And then the teacher would say, ah, there was a dog.

And then the teacher would say, what did the dog want?

Again, you don't really know.

So you would say, ah, you know, to go to the park, to go to school, to swim.

And then eventually the teacher would give you the answer.

The dog wanted to eat.

And the teacher would ask a lot, a lot, a lot of very simple but fast,

easy questions about information you already know in the story.

The teacher would say, what was there?

And you would say, a dog.

You'd answer very quickly and instantly.

What did the dog want? To eat.

Did the dog want to sleep or did the dog want to eat? To eat.

Who wanted to eat?

The dog.

this would go on and on and on very fast, lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of questions.

Sometimes the teacher would add new information with these questions.

You just guess.

And then a lot of times the teacher's asking lots of different kinds of questions about information you already know.

And that's how the teacher asks the story instead of telling the story.

Now you as the learner, you as the student, are constantly hearing these questions and answering as fast as you can.

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It's like a game.

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So you hear it and you try to instantly answer it.

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Now the questions are very, very simple and easy.

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And that is by design.

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We want them as the teachers, we want the questions to be simple and easy.

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See if we ask you a bunch of difficult questions, you're going to pause, you're going to stop, you'll start thinking, you might have time to translate.

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But by answering you very fast, simple, easy questions, they're so easy that you don't need to think, you don't need to translate.

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Instead you understand them very quickly and then you answer very fast.

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And this is how the training starts.

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See, so you start learning to understand faster, understand faster, understand instantly without any kind of translating.

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And by trying to answer faster, faster, faster, with just a one word or two words,

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you're training your brain to respond in English faster and faster and faster and faster.

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So you're understanding faster, you're answering faster.

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And this is how real conversations happen, right?

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There's a lot of back and forth.

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One person speaks, then the other one, then the other one, then the other one.

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Someone asks a question, you need to understand it immediately and then you need to understand, I mean, to respond to it and answer it very quickly and immediately.

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There's no time for translating in real conversations.

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So this is an amazing way to train you to speak English quickly, easily, and automatically.

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It's so powerful.

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Now, here's the other nice thing about these stories.

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In my lessons, in my stories, my listen and answer stories, I always do kind of crazy, strange, and funny stories.

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Usually the characters are little strange animals or celebrities and it's very strange and interesting situations.

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And they're entertaining, they're funny.

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And I do that for two reasons.

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Number one, I want you to enjoy learning English, so that's nice.

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But the other reason is that your brain, the way your brain works,

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is that it understands and remembers strange information quicker and longer than normal, boring information.

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If you meet somebody, if they have a strange name, you probably will remember their name more easily than

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if they just have a normal average name that a lot of people have.

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Our brains pay attention to strange things, to funny things, to different things.

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That's what we remember better.

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And so if you're listening to a strange and funny story, if it has new vocabulary, you will remember that vocabulary more easily.

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you're just reading some TOEFL book, you know, super boring, you're not going to remember that same vocabulary word as easily.

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But if you hear that word in a strange, funny, interesting story with strange events and crazy characters,

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you will more likely remember that new vocabulary word because it's funny, because it's strange.

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And of course, I'm going to be asking so many questions using that new vocabulary again and again and again, using that grammar again and again and again and again and again,

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you get so much repetition from these questions that it goes deep.

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It's deep learning.

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So for all of these reasons, listen and answer stories are the most powerful way to improve your English speaking.

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The most powerful.

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Because in many ways, these stories use all the other rules, right?

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You're listening with your ears to these stories audio stories.

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You're getting lots and lots of repetition and deep learning.

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You're hearing phrases and whole sentences.

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And it's real material.

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It's a real story.

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It's not some fake boring textbook thing.

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And you're hearing lots of different kinds of grammar.

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I mean, this is so powerful, these kinds of stories.

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And that's why rule number seven,

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the final rule, use listen and answer stories to speak English quickly and easily and automatically

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to actually learn to think in English. And that's it.

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You did it.

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You have graduated from the seven rules video and email course.

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Congratulations.

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Now it's time to take action.

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If you want to get a different result, you have to do things differently.

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If you continue using the same old methods, if you continue doing the same old thing, you will continue getting the result that you're getting right now.

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If you're happy with that result, great, continue doing what you were doing in the past, it's fine.

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If you're not happy with your current level of English speaking, then clearly you need to do something differently.

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Because using those old methods will just continue to get you the same old result.

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I mean, we all know this.

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It's just obvious.

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It's logical.

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If you want a different result, you have to do something differently.

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So, you need to take action now.

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And you need to do something differently.

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You need to use all seven of these rules.

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Totally and completely change the way you learn English speaking.

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And when you do that, you will get a totally different result.

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A much more powerful result a better result.

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There's a few ways you can do this.

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You can create and design your own learning plan, independent learning plan.

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You can go out and find all your own materials.

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You can do all of that.

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It's possible.

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People do it.

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A very convenient way, a very fast way to start immediately, to start today, is to use my lessons.

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And my lessons use all of these seven rules.

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Of course they do.

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They're a complete audio package.

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And by the end of using all my lessons, you get my lessons today and you listen to one lesson set for one or two weeks.

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Two weeks is best.

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Remember, deep learning.

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And then after about six months, your English will improve so much.

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Your speaking will be more powerful, more automatic, faster.

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You'll understand more instantly.

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Your pronunciation will be better.

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Your spoken grammar will be better.

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All of this will improve and you'll do it by listening to interesting articles, interesting teachings about personal growth and success,

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crazy and funny stories, and of course these listen and answer stories.

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That's all you do every day.

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For about one hour every day you will do that

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and I usually say four to six months is when you will feel that sudden improvement.

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You know, you will improve gradually, gradually, gradually, but then after about four, five, For some people it's seven or eight.

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It depends on every, each individual is different.

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But around that time, around that four to six month time, your speaking and your understanding and your listening will all start improving very quickly.

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You'll feel a big change.

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So get started now.

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Take action.

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Do something different.

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So just go to the homepage.

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You can read more about the lessons if you like, but you can start immediately.

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You can start today.

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When you buy the lessons today, you actually get them as a download.

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So you can start literally today.

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You can download your lessons today and immediately start listening.

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And we have a guarantee, in fact, if you're not happy after six months, I'll not only give you a refund, I'll give you a two times refund.

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Because I know that when you use these lessons every single day, you will get results.

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I promise you.

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That's my promise.

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So, I hope you have enjoyed these seven rules.

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And whatever you decide, if you're going to use them individually and create your own learning plan, fine.

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Good luck to you.

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Just do it.

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If you're going to go and buy my lessons today, great.

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But don't just buy them.

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You got to use them.

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Right?

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It's about taking action consistently every single day.

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You know what to do now.

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Now it's time to actually do it.

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All right.

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I wish you the best of luck.

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I look forward to continuing to teach you.

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I'm happy to be your teacher and I will see you again soon.

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Have a great day and good luck with your English learning.

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Bye-bye.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 228 sentences and 2361 words to shadow. The speech runs for 15:54. The speaker talks at a steady 149 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 92% 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
lesson noun	/ˈlɛs.ən/	A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
translate verb	/tɹænzˈleɪt/	To change spoken words or written text (of a book, document, movie, etc.) from one language to another.
vocabulary noun	/vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/	A usually alphabetized and explained collection of words e.g. of a particular field, or prepared for a specific purpose, often for learning.
instantly adverb	/ˈɪnstəntli/	At once; without delay.
differently adverb	/ˈdɪf.ə.ɹənt.li/	In a different way.
bore verb	/boɹ/	To inspire boredom in somebody.
automatic adjective	/ˌɔː.təˈmæt.ɪk/	Capable of operating without external control or intervention.
phrase noun	/ˈfɹeɪ̯z/	A short written or spoken expression.
gradually adverb	/ˈɡɹæd͡ʒuəli/	In a gradual manner; making slow progress; slowly.
grammar noun	/ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/	A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general.
textbook noun	/ˈtɛkst.bʊk/	A coursebook, a formal manual of instruction in a specific subject, especially one for use in schools or colleges.
audio adjective	/ˈɔ.di.oʊ/	Focused on audible sound, as opposed to sight.
translation noun	/tɹænzˈleɪʃən/	The conversion of text from one language to another.
instant noun	/ˈɪnstənt/	A very short period of time; a moment.
refund noun	/ɹɪˈfʌnd/	An amount of money returned.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
go out verb	To leave, especially a building.
look forward to verb	To anticipate, expect, or wait for, especially with a feeling of approval or pleasure; to be excited or eager to.
turn off verb	To power down, to switch off, to put out of operation, to deactivate (an appliance, light, mechanism, functionality etc.).

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 45 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: translation /tɹænzˈleɪʃən/, congratulations /kənˌɡɹæt͡ʃəˈleɪʃ(ə)nz/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, repetition /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/
Long words — get the stress right: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, differently /ˈdɪf.ə.ɹənt.li/, automatic /ˌɔː.təˈmæt.ɪk/, congratulations /kənˌɡɹæt͡ʃəˈleɪʃ(ə)nz/, celebrity /səˈlɛb.ɹɪ.ɾi/

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 lesson, translate, vocabulary.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if it has new vocabulary, you will remember
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have graduated · have enjoyed
Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain	might put · might say · might not understand
Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group	the most powerful · the best

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Effortless English Rule 7 Powerful English Speaking Stories - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

Grammar in this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?