Shadowing Practice: Fluency in 10 Minutes a Day - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Most students spend years studying English, but many don't practice speaking English,
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either because they don't know how or they have no one to practice with.
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So today, I'm going to show you a simple 10-minute fluency routine
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that you can do on your own at home to become more fluent in English.
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Hello, it's Keith from the Keith Speaking Academy, here to help you speak English more fluently.
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Now then, many teachers will tell you to be more fluent, just practice more.
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Yes, but how?
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You see, the truth is, you are not fluent in English, maybe because you're speaking English word by word.
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And when you speak English word by word, it takes longer to process and you speak more slowly.
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What native speakers and proficient speakers of English do is we speak in chunks, groups of words.
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And when you speak in chunks, then you're processing more quickly, you can speak more fluently.
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So in today's video, I'm going to show you some common chunks with simple examples you can start practicing with.
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and at the end of the video, a simple 10-minute fluency routine using this chunking method.
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Are you ready?
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Let's begin.
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So, as I mentioned, chunks are groups of words, two or three words that we say together as one sound.
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There are many kinds of chunks.
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There are grammatical chunks, lexical or vocabulary chunks, opinion chunks, frequency chunks.
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For example, let's take some grammar chunks, okay?
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Word by word, we've got I would like to.
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Chunking, I'd like to.
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I'd like to help.
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I am looking forward to chunking.
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I'm looking forward to.
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I'm looking forward to coming.
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Or better, I'm looking forward to going.
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You can repeat these with me.
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I can't help.
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I can't help smiling.
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You hear its one sound.
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You should have.
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You should have told me.
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And notice with grammar chunks, be careful if the word coming after is a noun or a verb.
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And if it's a verb, is it the infinitive or the turund?
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Vocabulary chunks, there are many, for example, word by word, to go for a something.
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Chunking, to go for a walk,
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to go for a run. To have a shower.
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To have a shower. to have a wash.
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Chunking is like one sound.
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Frequency chunks.
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From time to time.
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But chunking from time to time.
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Without fail.
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Now and then.
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Now and then.
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Every once in a while.
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Okay?
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So you can see with these chunks, once you start speaking and thinking in chunks like sounds,
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these chunks act as building blocks.
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And if you're speaking in this way, you're going to be processing more quickly and you're going to be speaking more quickly, but more fluently as well.
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If you practice these over time, you'll get better and better.
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Now, repeating is okay, but it's not enough.
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Let's look at a more complete fluency routine you can do every day.
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Okay, the 10-minute fluency drill, there are two parts.
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There's the drill practice and the real practice.
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The drill practice is like if you're a footballer and you're down the gym and you're training,
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doing repetitions, repeat, repeat, repeat, that's the drill practice.
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The real practice is like doing the sport, playing the game, playing football for real.
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Okay?
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So you've got two parts.
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Let's look at the drill practice first.
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And in the drill practice, there are four things.
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Repeat the chunk.
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Make a phrase.
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Repeat the phrase several times.
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Change something in the phrase.
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Let me show you this with three different chunks.
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Okay.
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First of all, let's take I'd like to.
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That's the chunk, right?
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Word by word, I would like to.
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Chunking, I'd like to.
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Make a phrase.
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I'd like to learn.
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I'd like to learn Spanish.
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Repeat several times.
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I'd like to learn Spanish.
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I'd like to learn Spanish.
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Change something.
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We could change the noun.
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I'd like to learn Japanese.
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I'd like to learn Arabic.
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Just changing something, okay?
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So, we can change the noun.
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Let's take another chunk.
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I am looking forward to...
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chunking.
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I'm looking forward to...
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I'm looking forward to having dinner.
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So, we repeat several times.
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I'm looking forward to having dinner.
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I'm looking forward to having dinner.
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Changing something, we can change the verb.
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I'm looking forward to preparing dinner.
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I'm looking forward to eating dinner.
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I'm looking forward to enjoying dinner.
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Got it?
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Great.
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A third chunk, let's take a vocabulary chunk, to go for a.
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I go for a walk i go for a walk repeat
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i go for a walk i go for a i go for a walk
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we could change the verb we could change the vocabulary let's change the person
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i go for a walk my dad goes for a walk my wife sometimes goes for a walk So,
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we're changing the person.
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Notice you're also using the grammar, changing go to goes.
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So, we can change the verb.
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You can change the tense.
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You can change the noun, the verb, the tense, the person, anything.
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It's all fluency practice.
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Got it?
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Let's look then at the second part.
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That's the drill practice.
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Let's look at the real practice.
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Okay, next real practice.
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And basically here we are combining chunks to make meaningful sentences.
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Okay, often two chunks, maybe more.
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For example, I'd like to go for a walk.
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I'd like to go for a walk.
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Something like that.
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Now the tip is you want to look for natural combinations.
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For example, grammar and vocabulary chunks are a very natural combination right?
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I'm looking forward to going for a walk.
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I can't wait to learn Japanese.
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I can't wait to learn Spanish.
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You should have gone for a walk because now it's raining.
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Okay?
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So we're combining chunks to make simple but meaningful sentences.
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Another common combination is activity and frequency.
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I go for a walk from time to time.
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I go for a walk every morning without fail.
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Okay, remember as you're doing this focus on the chunk.
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I go for a walk every morning without fail.
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It's that sound not word by word.
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Adverbs and habit.
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By and large, I go for a walk in the mornings.
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Again, very common combinations.
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Next, you can also make little stories.
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It's just putting the sentences together to make a story.
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Don't make a good story.
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It can be a stupid, illogical story, but you're just practicing, okay?
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It might look a little bit like this.
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I'd like to go for a walk.
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Actually, I'm looking forward to going for a walk.
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I've been looking forward to it for hours.
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By and large, I go for a walk in the mornings.
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However, today, I'll go for a walk in the afternoon.
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Hey, not bad.
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A final tip here.
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Record yourself doing it.
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Video, audio recording, but do that.
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Listen back and see if you can feel the chunks and how you can improve.
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Okay, let's move on.
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So summarising this is your 10 minute fluency routine.
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Repeat the chunk.
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Make a phrase.
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Repeat it several times.
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Change something.
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The noun, the verb, the person.
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Combine two chunks.
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Create a mini story.
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And this is your routine.
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10 minutes every day, you're going to build up your fluency in no time.
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To practice more, I do have a PDF, which you can go and download.
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With this, there are common chunks from common situations, for example, at work, at home, socializing.
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Just be careful.
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You know I'm not a big fan of word lists
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and I don't recommend you get a big list of chunks and just go through them.
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Just choose two or three from a particular topic or situation and practice them.
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And then practicing on your own is great.
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practicing in real life with real people is also really, really good, right?
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So do that in your real life.
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If you don't have a chance to speak to other people, come and join me.
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Come and join the IELTS Speaking Gold course.
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Not only do we have a self-study course full of language grammar vocabulary for IELTS, but also live lessons, Zoom meetings,
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breakout rooms, speaking practice rooms where you get to practice with real people around the world on the course.
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And that is really going to level up your fluency.
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If you're not preparing for IELTS, I have something for you.
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Coming soon, the Speaking Fluency Club.
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This is brand new, coming in a few weeks.
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The Speaking Fluency Club is aimed at upper intermediate advanced level students.
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It's not a course.
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It's a club.
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We'll have live lessons, Zoom meetings
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and speaking practice rooms where you will get a chance to actually practice speaking with other students at that level.
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So it's aimed at the higher level, upper intermediate B2, advanced C1 levels.
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It's coming soon.
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So keep your eyes open.
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In the meantime, nice chunk.
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In the meantime, thank you so much for watching the video.
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It's been a pleasure, as always, chatting to you.
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Take care.
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I'll see you soon.
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Oh, and let me know in the comments what you think of the video.
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All right, then.
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Take care now.
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Bye-bye.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 197 sentences and 1535 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:43. The speaker talks at a steady 121 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| chunk noun | /t͡ʃʌŋk/ | A part of something that has been separated; a generally squat, thick, irregular piece of something, e.g. wood or stone. |
| drill noun | /dɹɪl/ | A tool or machine used to remove material so as to create a hole, typically by plunging a rotating cutting bit into a stationary workpiece. |
| verb noun | /vɝb/ | A word that indicates an action, event, or state of being. |
| 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. |
| routine noun | /ɹuˈtin/ | A course of action to be followed regularly; a standard procedure. |
| phrase noun | /ˈfɹeɪ̯z/ | A short written or spoken expression. |
| grammar noun | /ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/ | A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general. |
| noun noun | /naʊn/ | A word that functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as person, animal, place, word, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality, or idea… |
| frequency noun | /ˈfɹiːkwənsi/ | The rate of occurrence of anything; the relationship between incidence and time period. |
| combine verb | /kəmˈbaɪn/ | To bring (two or more things or activities) together; to unite. |
| fluent adjective | /ˈfluənt/ | That flows; flowing, liquid. |
| lesson noun | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided. |
| meaningful adjective | /ˈmiː.nɪŋ.fl̩/ | Having meaning, significant. |
| intermediate adjective | /ɪn.tə(ɹ)ˈmi.di.ət/ | Being between two extremes, or in the middle of a range. |
| meantime noun | /ˈmiːntaɪm/ | The time spent waiting for another event; time in between. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| look forward to verb | To anticipate, expect, or wait for, especially with a feeling of approval or pleasure; to be excited or eager to. |
| build up verb | To erect; to construct. |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 59 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, I'd, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: combinations /kɑmbɪˈneɪʃənz/, proficient /pɹoʊˈfɪʃ.ənt/, repetition /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/, socialize /ˈsoʊʃəlaɪz/
- Long words — get the stress right: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, intermediate /ɪn.tə(ɹ)ˈmi.di.ət/, combinations /kɑmbɪˈneɪʃənz/, grammatical /ɡɹəˈmæt.ɪ.kəl/, illogical /ɪˈlɒ.dʒɪ.kəl/
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 chunk, drill, verb.
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.