Shadowing Practice: He finally got caught // The Christopher Pence story - Learn English Speaking with Video
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So this guy, his name's Pence, and Pence really wants kids.
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No, no, no, like, bro really wants kids.
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Like, a lot of kids.
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Like, a lot, a lot of kids.
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Which means he's gonna have to do a ton of smashing.
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Luckily for him, he has a wife.
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This woman, Michelle.
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And Michelle also wants a bunch of kids, and so they smash, or however kids are made these days.
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And nine months later, they have a kid.
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And then they have another one.
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And then another one and then another one.
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Okay, real quick.
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You know a major part of my job involves writing scripts.
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I upload a true crime story nearly every day, which means I'm constantly writing.
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And that's why I need tools like Grammarly to help me out with this.
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Grammarly is an AI writing partner that works seamlessly with your everyday apps
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and that helps you get your work done by helping you write better and faster.
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Their AI features help you cut down on the endless rewrites by giving you features like tone adjustments and clarity and engagement.
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One of the biggest problems I face when writing my true crime scripts is
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that I tend to sound a little too formal.
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And you don't want to sound formal when you're telling stories, and Grammarly helps me out with this.
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And so check this out, I come over to this sidebar and I click Write with Generative AI
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and click Improve It and I scroll down until I see Sound Casual.
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boom, suddenly my script is sounding a bit more casual.
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And the best part is that Grammarly writes in your voice and it sounds like you.
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It doesn't sound like AI.
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It actually understands context and it provides relevant and high quality suggestions for you.
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And guess what?
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All of these features are free.
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Not to mention all the benefits you get from upgrading to Grammarly Pro, like Clarity, which will offer wording suggestions to make your writing much more clear.
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Grammarly Pro also offers this cool feature where it will anticipate your audience's questions or concerns, and it helps you fill those gaps up front,
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whether it's suggesting you provide more context or offering you solutions to a problem in your script.
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And for me, this isn't just a tool.
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It's an essential part of my storytelling.
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So sign up and upgrade to Grammarly Pro to level up your writing and your productivity.
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You can use my link for 20% off of Grammarly Pro.
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And so by the year 2000, they have four kids.
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Four kids is a lot, but see, that isn't quite enough for Pence and Michelle.
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And so they smash and have another kid.
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A few years later, they have another one.
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Then years later, another one.
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And then another one.
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And then another one.
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And finally, one more.
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And so by 2017, they have 10 kids total.
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And then, unfortunately, one of them dies of sudden infant death syndrome.
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So they're back down to nine, but then they smash and have another kid So now they have ten again and so Pence,
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Michelle, and their ten kids are one big happy Evangelical Christian family
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because they're super religious and ten kids is a ton But this still isn't enough for Pence and Michelle
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They still want more and one day they finally get what they want
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Cuz they're out in their RV on a family road trip
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and Michelle gets on the internet And she checks a message board for parents who homeschool their kids, and she sees a post.
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And the post says that this other woman and her husband are working on some marital issues, and they're looking for someone to temporarily take care of their six kids.
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And Michelle is like, I want to take care of their six kids!
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We already got ten, but let's add six more!
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And so Michelle writes this couple back, and this couple is Mr. and Mrs. Cordero.
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And so Michelle connects with Mr. and Mrs. Cordero, and they agree to meet up.
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So the Pence family drives their RV all the way up to Massachusetts to meet up with these people.
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Now, the Corderos have six kids, so the Pences agree to take five of these six kids.
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The one kid, the oldest son they don't take, is special needs, so I guess they just leave that kid behind with his parents?
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Which seems kind of messed up.
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But anyway, the Pences take five kids and they put them in their RV with their other ten kids, so now they have 15 kids total.
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And they all drive back to Washington.
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Now back at home, the Pences are somewhat strict.
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They homeschool all these kids, they make them study the Bible, their house is always spotless because I guess they're making the kids clean up the place all the time.
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But whatever, the five Cordero kids seem happy there.
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Meanwhile, back in Massachusetts, the Corderos gave up five of their kids, I guess because they couldn't take care of them.
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However, they still want contact with them.
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So the Pence's agree to let the Cordero's have some contact with their five kids, and they're even allowed to come visit them a couple of times a year.
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And about a year goes by, and I guess this arrangement is still going.
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Which, by the way, the house they live in is only 1900 square feet.
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Which, typically, a 1900 square feet house is maybe three or four bedrooms, which is great, but they got 15 kids.
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So you've got 15 kids and two adults living in, at most, four bedrooms.
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And so therefore, at some point, they decide, eh, we could really use a bigger place.
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And so they finally find one, And the Pence family moves from Washington all the way down to their new place in Texas.
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And it's around this time that they decide to formally adopt the five Cordero kids.
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And here's a picture of all of them in family court.
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Meanwhile, back in Massachusetts, the Corderos actually have another baby.
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Like what, bro?
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You just gave away five of your other kids and you're having another one?
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But then it gets even weirder.
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I guess the Corderos miss their five kids in Texas because they suddenly relocate and move closer to them in Texas.
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Apparently to make it easier and cheaper to visit their five kids.
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After that, the Corderos get pregnant again.
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So they gave away their five kids and then they had two more of their own.
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Make it make sense.
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Now at some point during all this, sh starts to get a little crazy.
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Because a rift starts to grow between the Pence family and the Cordero family.
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And the Pences don't really like the way the Corderos gave their kids away and then had two more.
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And so the Pences are like, fuck these people.
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And they take their 15 kids and they move again.
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This time from Texas all the way up to Utah.
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And they make sure to not tell the Corderos where they're moving to.
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But then in 2020, I guess the Pence's been smashing because they get pregnant again.
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And this will be their 16th kid.
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And so to break this down for you, there's 16 kids, 2 adults, plus Pence's parents live with them.
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So that's 20 people living in this house.
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And the new house is like 7 bedrooms.
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So there's 20 people in 7 bedrooms.
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Not only that, apparently the Corderos are still all bitter at them,
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and their rivalry is still going because the Corderos are like calling in welfare checks on the Pences, trying to get them in trouble.
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It's a whole mess.
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And so the Pences and the Corderos are like in this weird feud, and it's pretty bad, but it doesn't seem to be like out of control or anything.
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UNTIL.
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One day in 2021, Pence finally just snaps.
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And he starts thinking that the five Cordero kids they adopted would be better off
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if they never see their biological parents again.
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And he decides to make that happen.
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And so he goes and he gets on the dark web and he starts looking for ways to hire a hitman.
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And eventually, he lands on a website that's offering just that.
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A few weeks later, after doing a bunch of due diligence, he finally makes his request.
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He's like, I need someone to unalive Mr. and Mrs. Cordero, and make it look like a burglary gone wrong if you could.
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And then he gives them their address, and he attaches their photos, and a $16,000 Bitcoin payment, and he hits submit.
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But then he's like, holy sh, and he immediately panics and cancels it.
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The next day, I guess he changes his mind yet again, and he resubmits his order.
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Also, apparently, he has the audacity to ask the Hitman website if he can get a discount on these murders, since both the victims live in the same house.
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Bro is really trying to get a buy one murder, get one free.
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But anyway, after submitting, Pence waits.
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And he waits.
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And he waits.
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But yet, nothing happens.
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Why does nothing happen?
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Well that's probably because this Hitman website isn't being run by Hitman at all.
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It's actually a scam website being run by some guys in Romania.
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And so these scam artists just take the $16,000 in Bitcoin Pence paid them and they bounce.
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And they're never heard from again.
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Bro got scammed.
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Oh but it gets much worse for Pence.
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Because all the way over in the UK there's a British hacker who's secretly been hacking this hitman website
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and he's feeding the hacked information to a bunch of TV
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producers who are making some kind of murder for hire TV show.
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And all that information is also being forwarded to the FBI.
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And so the FBI looks into this and now they know
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that this guy Pence tried to put a hit out on these other guys Mr. and Mrs. Cordero.
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And so BAM they arrest him.
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Here's his mugshot.
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And so Pence ends up taking a plea deal and he gets sentenced to seven years in prison.
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Meanwhile his wife Michelle is left to take care of their 16 kids all alone.
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And she apparently has to rely on charity to survive.
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Yikes.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “He finally got caught // The Christopher Pence story”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: kid, Pence, Cordero, Michelle, Grammarly. This video has 140 sentences and 1727 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:03. The speaker talks at a natural 172 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| hitman noun | /ˈhɪtmæːn/ | A male contract killer, especially one paid by a mafia. |
| smash verb | /smæʃ/ | To break (something brittle) violently. |
| scam noun | /ˈskæm/ | A fraudulent or dishonest deal. A swindle. |
| homeschool verb | To educate children at home, that is, at a private domestic place, in lieu of sending them to a public school or private educational institution. | |
| clarity noun | /ˈklæɹ.ɪ.ti/ | The state or measure of being clear, either in appearance, thought or style; lucidity. |
| adopt verb | /əˈdɑpt/ | To take voluntarily (a child of other parents) to be in the place of, or as, one's own child. |
| audacity noun | /ɔˈdæ.sɪ.ti/ | Insolent boldness, especially when imprudent or unconventional. |
| burglary noun | /ˈbɝ.ɡlɚ.i/ | The crime of unlawfully breaking into a vehicle, house, store, or other enclosure with the intent to steal. |
| relocate verb | /ˌɹiˈloʊ̯keɪ̯t/ | To move (something) from one place to another. |
| resubmit verb | To submit again. | |
| rewrite verb | /ɹiˈɹaɪt/ | To write again, differently; to modify; to revise. |
| seamlessly adverb | In a seamless manner. | |
| sidebar noun | A short news story printed alongside a larger one. | |
| spotless adjective | /spɑtlɪs/ | Exceptionally clean. |
| unalive verb | /ˌʌn.əˈlaɪv/ | To make unalive; to kill, especially oneself; to commit suicide. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| give away verb | To make a gift of (something). |
| clean up verb | To make an area or a thing clean; to pick up a mess; to tidy. |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. |
| give up verb | To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone). |
| mess up verb | To make a mess of; to untidy, disorder, soil, or muss. |
| sign up verb | To add a name to the list of people who are participating in something. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | Pence's been smashing · who's secretly been hacking |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are made · being run · being forwarded |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | day, which means · Clarity, which will · bedrooms, which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 23 contractions and reduced forms, such as they're, isn't, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: audacity /ɔˈdæ.sɪ.ti/, anticipate /ænˈtɪs.ɪ.peɪt/, temporarily /ˌtɛmpəˈɹɛɹəli/, productivity /ˌpɹɒdʌkˈtɪvəti/
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 hitman, smash, scam.
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.