Shadowing Practice: For beginners| One story a day| Book 2 - 9 Setting the Table - Learn English Speaking with Video

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8 sentences
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1
story nine setting the table
2
mike was hungry mom when will dinner be ready he asked soon she said as she cooked the soup
3
Can I help you? he asked.
4
Sure, you can set the table, she said.
5
Mike put cups, bowls, and spoons on the table.
6
Good job, Mike, said his mom.
7
Now that the table is set, we can eat even sooner.
8
Mom, the table is all set.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This A1 speaking lesson is built on the video “For beginners”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: table, mike, mom. This video has 8 sentences and 70 words to shadow. The speech runs for 0:45.

Key vocabulary in this video

8 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

WordPronunciationMeaning
hungry adjective/ˈhʌŋ.ɡɹi/Affected by hunger; having the physical need for food.
soup noun/sup/Any of various dishes commonly made by combining liquids, such as water or stock, with other ingredients, such as meat and vegetables, that contribute the food…
spoon noun/spuːn/An implement for eating or serving; a scooped utensil whose long handle is straight, in contrast to a ladle.
microgram noun/ˈmaɪ.kɹəˌɡɹæm/An SI unit of mass equal to 10⁻⁶ grams. Symbol: μg A unit of mass equal to one millionth of a gram, or 0.000 001 grams.
cook verb/kʊk/To prepare food for eating, typically by heating it, combining it with other ingredients, seasoning it, preparing it for serving, etc.
bowl noun/boʊl/As much as is held by a bowl.
nine noun/naɪn/The digit or figure 9.
dinner noun/ˈdɪnɚ/The main meal of the day, often eaten in the evening.

Grammar in this video

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

StructureIn the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does itis set
Future with “will” will + verb — a decision, promise or predictionwill dinner

How to practise with this video

  1. Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
  2. Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
  3. Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like hungry, soup, spoon.

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 →