Shadowing Practice: How Foil Surfing Works 🤔 - Learn English Speaking with Video

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5 sentences
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1
If you jump on it like this, you might glide for a moment before sinking into the water.
2
Instead, start pumping the board up and down.
3
This causes water to flow over and under the wings.
4
Just like an airplane, it creates lift, raising the board above the surface with each pump.
5
Now, only the post and wings stay in the water, creating much less resistance and letting you fly across the ocean.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “How Foil Surfing Works 🤔”. This video has 5 sentences and 73 words to shadow. The speech runs for 0:27.

Key vocabulary in this video

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

WordPronunciationMeaning
pump noun/pʌmp/A device for moving or compressing a liquid or gas.
sink verb/ˈsɪŋk/To descend or submerge (or to cause to do so) into a liquid or similar substance.
airplane noun/ˈɛɹˌpleɪ̯n/A powered heavier-than-air aircraft with fixed wings: a fixed-wing aircraft with at least one engine or electric motor.
glide verb/ˈɡlaɪd/To move softly, smoothly, or effortlessly.
wing noun/wɪŋ/An appendage of an animal's (bird, bat, insect) body that enables it to fly.
jump verb/d͡ʒʌmp/To propel oneself rapidly upward, downward and/or in any horizontal direction such that momentum causes the body to become airborne.
flow verb/ˈfloʊ̯/To move as a fluid from one position to another.
resistance noun/ɹɪˈzɪstəns/The act of resisting, or the capacity to resist.
lift noun/lɪft/An act of lifting or raising.
surface noun/ˈsɜː.fɪs/The external boundary of an object or body.
raise verb/ɹeɪz/To cause to rise; to lift or elevate.
ocean noun/ˈoʊ.ʃən/One of the large bodies of water separating the continents.

Grammar in this video

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

StructureIn the video
Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certainmight glide
Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing formstart pumping

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 pump, sink, airplane.

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 →