Shadowing Practice: English in a Minute: Barking Up the Wrong Tree - Learn English Speaking with Video
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14 sentences
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1
Welcome to English in a Minute.
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When you hear this saying, it might make you think about dogs.
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Barking up the wrong tree.
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Dogs bark.
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But are these two friends talking about dogs or people?
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Did you hear that Sam is trying to get a raise from his supervisor?
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Yes, he's barking up the wrong tree.
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Only the manager can give him a raise.
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Barking up the wrong tree means to place attention on the wrong thing.
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It comes from 19th century America, when people often hunted with dogs.
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The dogs would hunt animals called raccoons.
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They could escape up a tree with the dog barking on the ground.
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But raccoons could also jump to other trees, leaving the dog to bark up the wrong tree.
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And that's English in a Minute.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “English in a Minute: Barking Up the Wrong Tree”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: dog, tree, barking. This video has 14 sentences and 132 words to shadow. The speech runs for 0:58. The speaker talks at a steady 138 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 11 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| bark noun | /bɑɹk/ | The exterior covering of the trunk and branches of a tree or of various other woody plants. |
| supervisor noun | /ˈsupɚˌvaɪzɚ/ | A person with the official task of overseeing the work of a person or group, or of other operations and activities. |
| raccoon noun | /ɹæˈkun/ | An omnivorous, nocturnal mammal native to the Americas, of the genus Procyon, typically with a mixture of gray, brown, and black fur, a mask-like marking… |
| hunt verb | /hʌnt/ | To find or search for an animal in the wild with the intention of killing the animal for its meat or for sport. |
| jump verb | /d͡ʒʌmp/ | To propel oneself rapidly upward, downward and/or in any horizontal direction such that momentum causes the body to become airborne. |
| escape verb | /ɪˈskeɪp/ | To get free; to free oneself. |
| tree noun | /tɹiː/ | A perennial woody plant taller and larger than a shrub with a wooden trunk and, at some distance from the ground, having leaves and branches. |
| raise verb | /ɹeɪz/ | To cause to rise; to lift or elevate. |
| welcome | /ˈwɛl.kəm/ | Greeting given upon someone's arrival. |
| manager noun | /ˈmæn.ə.dʒəɹ/ | A person whose job is to manage something, such as a business, a restaurant, or a sports team. |
| animal noun | /ˈænɪməl/ | A multicellular organism of the kingdom Animalia that is usually mobile, with cells that are not encased in a rigid cell wall (distinguishing them from plants… |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain | might make |
| Present continuous am/is/are + -ing — something happening right now or around now | is trying |
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 bark, supervisor, raccoon.
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.