Shadowing Practice: #emmawatson at the Royal Foundations United for Wildlife 2026. - Learn English Speaking with Video
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24 sentences
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1
Can you tell us when, how and why you became so passionate about wildlife?
2
Well if it's alright, I'd like to share a story which is slightly at my own expense.
3
It was very early on when I just got cast in the Harry Potter films
4
and my mother lived in fear
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that at some point the press were going to figure out where we lived
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And one morning she cracked open the windows of the living room
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and saw that there were all of these men outside with very long lenses.
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And she thought, oh, today's the day.
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It's happened.
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Oh, my goodness.
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So she went outside to address the men with the long lenses.
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And I snuck out to go the other way.
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And it turned out that the men with the long lenses were actually not there for me at all.
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They were there for a very rare bird, which is called red kite.
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And they were trying to basically break into my back garden
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because they thought that one of these red kites was in our backyard.
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And so the lovely ending to the story is
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that my mum eventually allowed these men into our home and into our back garden to go see these birds.
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But the really cool story is that the red kite population was almost extinct in Oxfordshire
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and conservationists have managed to bring it back.
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And if you ever drive through Oxfordshire and you look up at the sky, there are these amazing birds with these forked tails.
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They look like a kind of V and
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that is the direct result of these incredibly passionate men with long lenses who wanted to break into our back garden.
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So that's an example of how it came into my life.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 24 sentences and 297 words to shadow. The speech runs for 1:48. The speaker talks at a natural 165 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 89% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
14 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- lens /lɛnz/ (noun) — An object, usually made of glass, that focuses or defocuses the light that passes through it.
- kite /ˈkiːtɛ/ (noun) — A bird of prey of the family Accipitridae.
- passionate /ˈpæʃənɪt/ (adjective) — Given to strong feeling, sometimes romantic, sexual, or both.
- crack /kɹæk/ (noun) — A thin and usually jagged space opened in a previously solid material.
- incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/ (adverb) — In an incredible manner; not to be believed.
- tail /ˈteɪ̯l/ (noun) — The caudal appendage of an animal that is attached to their posterior and near the anus or cloaca.
- wildlife /ˈwaɪldlaɪf/ (noun) — undomesticated animals, especially mammals, birds, and fish, which live in the wild.
- expense /ɪkˈspɛns/ (noun) — A spending or consuming, often a disbursement of funds.
- goodness /ˈɡʊdnəs/ (noun) — The state or characteristic of being good.
- fork /fɔɹk/ (noun) — A utensil with spikes used to put solid food into the mouth, or to hold food down while cutting, or for serving food.
- sneak /sniːk/ (verb) — To creep or go stealthily; to come or go while trying to avoid detection, as a person who does not wish to be seen.
- backyard /bækˈjɑːd/ (noun) — A yard to the rear of a house or similar residence.
- extinct /ɪkˈstɪŋkt/ (adjective) — Of feelings, a person's spirit, a state of affairs, etc.: put out, as if like a fire; quenched, suppressed.
- conservationist (noun) — A person who maintains natural areas or protects threatened species.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- break into (verb) — To enter illegally or by force, especially in order to commit a crime.
- come into (verb) — To obtain (usually money or property), especially through inheritance.
- figure out (verb) — To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
- live in (verb) — To reside on the premises of one's employer (used especially of domestic staff such as nannies, cooks, maids, etc.)
- turn out (verb) — To end up; to result.
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like lens, kite, passionate.
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.