Shadowing Practice: How The Artemis II Crew Lived Together in Space - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
346 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
We kind of slept almost as if we were in bunk beds, so like two this way, two this way.
2
At one point I made the mistake of saying I kind of like how I float around and I move around, and so once I said that, then for the next 15 minutes when we would go to bed,
3
Reid would just kick me and I would watch him float.
4
Wow, that sounds so restful on top of everything else you guys were doing.
5
Three, two, one, and lift off the crew of Artemis II now bound for the moon.
6
Good roll pitch.
7
The four crew members of Artemis II made history by traveling farther away from Earth than anyone had ever gone before.
8
They dealt with zero gravity, they stared into the dark void of space and contemplated our place in the universe, and when they got back they were hailed as heroes.
9
They met with the president, they have fielded questions from dozens of journalists, but today they will embark on perhaps their most challenging mission,
10
answering questions from from our most discerning listeners, children.
11
Hello, my name is Celine.
12
This is Clara Jones.
13
My question for the astronauts.
14
Question for the astronauts.
15
So I have a question for you guys.
16
We asked for questions from kids and got about a thousand replies.
17
And so we picked our favorites to ask, along with the questions that we here at The Daily had for the Artemis II astronauts.
18
Crew of the Artemis II, welcome to The Daily.
19
Thank you.
20
So this was a historic trip, of course.
21
You circled the moon, you went to the far side of the moon, you lost contact with people back on Earth briefly.
22
And we got a lot of questions about what that felt like.
23
So here is a question from Colin in California.
24
My question for the astronauts of OEMS-2 is, how did it feel like to be on the dark side of the moon?
25
Was it scary or was it adventurous?
26
Christina, scary or adventurous?
27
Wow.
28
I would say in some ways, I would almost call it solemn.
29
We had so much work to do, so we were also very busy, but we did know it needed to be commemorated amongst us when we were the four people out there by ourselves.
30
And we did that, we took a moment, and then we kind of got back to work.
31
But I can't imagine, Reed, that you're not up there looking at what you're looking at
32
and being at least momentarily distracted from the very important work that you're doing.
33
He'll ask.
34
It's funny that he asked me that question.
35
Because the whole thing, it turned out that Victor's, he didn't know his job before launch would be to always pull me away from the window back into the vehicle, but that did end up being his job.
36
When we're on the far side of the moon, for us, the far side of the moon is often lit by the sun.
37
Whenever we have a new moon here on Earth, that means that the far side is fully illuminated,
38
which was really special for us because human eyes had never looked at what we were looking down.
39
So that was really special for us to get to see.
40
The thing that I just can't stress enough is we did take a moment, but then we had so much science that we were trying to conduct.
41
We were trying to record everything that the human eye saw on the far side
42
because we never see it here on earth.
43
You obviously knew intellectually that you would be the first people to see what you saw, but when that moment came, was there something about how you felt,
44
Victor, that surprised you perhaps?
45
I haven't found good words to describe it, but you know how it felt was overwhelming.
46
There was a time when Reid mentioned that our brains have not evolved to see what we're seeing,
47
and so we were actually you know transitioning from the far side to coming back toward the near side
48
when the sun went behind the moon.
49
It got really bright and then really dark, and looking out at this really large orb,
50
it was all of the things.
51
I mean there were so many different emotions at the same time.
52
I can't tell you how many times I heard something like, oh my god, and I think that was not in vain.
53
That was an appropriate response for what was happening at that moment.
54
It was so unreal.
55
The kids were actually obsessed with every single part of your trip.
56
They wanted to know what space smelled like.
57
They wanted to know whether it was cold, whether it was hot, and they had a lot of questions about what you guys ate.
58
So we're going to play you a a montage to give you a flavor, if you will, of some of those curiosities.
59
My question for the astronauts is, was the food in space as good as the food at your home on Earth?
60
Astronauts have to eat broccoli.
61
Good question for the astronauts.
62
Do they have pizza parties up there?
63
How do you guys get food if there's no restaurant?
64
What do you eat in space for dessert?
65
I'll take first stab at this.
66
First, yes, we have broccoli.
67
And it's actually delicious.
68
Broccoli au gratin, one of my favorite things to eat.
69
You're just saying that.
70
You're just saying that because you're talking to parents of the children.
71
It's got cheese in it, but you just add a little bit of water and heat it up.
72
It was very good.
73
The food is magnificent.
74
Our food research team has done a great job making food in space very good.
75
We have tortillas.
76
You can put brisket on a tortilla.
77
We have chicken and beans, broccoli.
78
Spicy green beans is another favorite.
79
What were some of your favorites?
80
Beets.
81
Yeah.
82
Kale salad.
83
Kale salad.
84
Chicken noodle salad.
85
Wait, are you talking about tortillas because if you fold it, the food doesn't float away?
86
Is that the idea?
87
That's the tactic?
88
And I wanted to bring in tortillas because Jeremy, on the first day, I don't know if you invented it, but you may have seen we had Nutella.
89
And taking Nutella and spreading it on a tortilla and then folding that in half, it almost made like a chocolate crepe.
90
And Jeremy was just distributing those around the cabin and they were a great dessert.
91
Did any of that stuff spill?
92
Did you have a moment where the tortilla opened?
93
Constantly.
94
But you know what?
95
It's funny.
96
I like to say that we shared a lot of meals.
97
Sometimes it was on purpose.
98
So pieces of things would fly by and you make sure it's food, but then you just enjoy what your cremation is.
99
Make sure it's food.
100
First day up there, I had some oatmeal and I didn't put quite enough water in it to rehydrate it.
101
So when I opened it, there was crumbs of oatmeal that just started floating out.
102
And I don't mean like two crumbs.
103
I mean like 10,000 crumbs of oatmeal.
104
And I was very embarrassed.
105
You know, I've flown in space before, I shouldn't be making these mistakes.
106
And instead of being annoyed, Victor just floats over and goes, oh, this is my favorite game.
107
It just starts eating them all out of the floating area around me, and it was really great.
108
That's amazing.
109
I think there's actually a Simpsons episode with that exact thing.
110
With them in a chest, yes.
111
Yes, exactly.
112
I'll take care of it.
113
our next question is from leonardo in new york city it is about another aspect of daily life
114
my big question for the artemis 2 crew is what does it feel like to sleep upside down in space
115
when there is no gravity also is there gravity in your dreams thanks i want to be an astrophysicist
116
when I grow up.
117
I'll just say that one of the great things about being in weightlessness is there is no upside down.
118
There is no upside down.
119
I'm just thinking that through, meaning that any side could be right side up.
120
It all feels the same.
121
It's all convention.
122
What do you call the floor and what do you call the ceiling?
123
It could be anything.
124
Wow, you just blew my mind.
125
Everyone listening, their mind just got blown in that moment thinking about that.
126
And the way we slept reflected it.
127
What did we say?
128
The bat cave or something?
129
We were trying to figure out how we were going to arrange ourselves
130
And I kind of called shotgun on the best part, the best place, I think.
131
I hung from the ceiling.
132
Did you have to strap yourself in in some way?
133
Did anybody ever bump into anybody else in their sleep?
134
I'm sorry, Jeremy.
135
Yes.
136
It was you?
137
Yes and yes.
138
No, it was me.
139
Well, we kind of slept almost as if we were in bunk beds.
140
So like two this way, two this way, but in opposite directions.
141
And I ended up sort of in this middle space with Reed and Victor underneath me.
142
And he would just every once in a while, at one point I made the mistake say I kind of like how like I float around
143
and I move around and so once I said
144
that then for the next 15 minutes
145
when we would go to bed Reed would just kick me and I would watch him float
146
bouncing around for a bit and then I would just be drifting off
147
and then I get another kick and I could go for another ride.
148
Wow, that sounds so restful on top of everything else you guys were doing.
149
The second part of Leonardo's question was is there gravity in your dreams?
150
Did anybody dream of gravity?
151
I think we all dreamed that we were floating at different times.
152
And one really neat thing that happened, I think, to all of us was when we got back and woke up in our beds at home, we all felt like we were floating for a little while.
153
Wow.
154
What is an experience like to wake up for the first time
155
when you get home and you're not strapped in and you're not banging into anybody next to you?
156
Confusion.
157
100%.
158
Yeah, a little bit disappointing when you realize the microgravity is not real anymore.
159
Do you ever wake up in a hotel room
160
and you have to take a few seconds to figure out where you are?
161
Yeah.
162
Even in my bed at home, I would wake up and I would look for the displays.
163
I'm like, oh, wait, where am I?
164
Oh, I'm at home.
165
I'm under gravity.
166
I'm safe.
167
We could not talk about questions from kids without a question about aliens.
168
So we have one.
169
Hello, my name is Celine.
170
I'm eight years old and I live in California, but I want to live in New Jersey.
171
So I have a question for you guys the Artemis 2.
172
Is there other life out there, aka aliens, and did your experience on the dark side of the moon change your answer?
173
Yeah, that's it.
174
Bye!
175
Aliens, guys?
176
Who wants to answer?
177
I mean, I've been to New Jersey.
178
Jeremy?
179
When we think about the universe, and I was talking to you before, every star you see is in our galaxy, the Milky Way.
180
But then we think there's maybe a couple trillion other galaxies out there.
181
So it's pretty hard to fathom that there's not alien life out there.
182
We've looked.
183
I mean, we have a lot of resources pointed at this dark sky looking for answers, and it's a great question, and I hope it continues to drive us to explore further.
184
I just want to point out that no is the answer
185
that somebody who saw an alien but wasn't allowed to talk about it would say.
186
You realize if we found alien life out there and we came back and reported on it, NASA would never have a budget issue for the rest of eternity.
187
So trust me.
188
Why would we hide that from you?
189
That is one good argument.
190
I'm not going to argue with that.
191
Also, we tell Reed not to say things all the time, and he goes.
192
Okay, we did get one question
193
that I think embodies a little bit of the skepticism that some people have about the cost-benefit analysis of space travel.
194
So here is Isaac from Arlington, Virginia.
195
Hello, I'm 13.
196
I'm a normal listener of The Daily
197
and I just want to know why is it important that we're spending billions and billions of dollars
198
on something rather than looking at it?
199
First of all, Isaac, I think it's a really important question to ask
200
because we have a lot of problems here on the planet that we need to tackle.
201
And we are investing a lot of money in space exploration, but I do see it from a different perspective.
202
I see the genius that we bring together under the focus of a common goal.
203
And the things that and the solutions that people create
204
that allow us to go out into deep space do benefit us here on the planet.
205
And I think if we didn't have that push of exploration,
206
we would miss out on these extraordinary innovations that only come together when it's not one mind,
207
but when it's a thousand minds trying to solve a problem together.
208
Christina, do you have anything to add?
209
Yeah, absolutely.
210
I personally agree with Jeremy.
211
I I love that we do devote less than 1%, less than a half of a percent of what our government does to benefit this planet
212
and all of humanity to exploring deeper.
213
I see industrial benefits, commercial benefits coming back, medical benefits, studying our own bodies.
214
Those things are tangible.
215
You know, we can talk about those.
216
There's intangible in terms of inspiration.
217
And to me, one of the other intangibles is what questions are we answering for our time
218
that can only be answered by doing the exploration that we are doing?
219
Are we alone?
220
What's important about ourselves?
221
Who are we as humans?
222
We have to leave our planet to know those answers.
223
So you obviously traveled more than a quarter million miles away from people that you love and your home.
224
And we got a lot of questions from kids about what that distance might have felt like.
225
This one is from Aiden.
226
He's eight years old and he lives in Santa Cruz Mountains, California.
227
My question is for Reed, Thinker, Christina, and Journey.
228
How did you feel when you were that far away from North?
229
Was it lonely?
230
It was obvious that's how far away we were.
231
But I still felt the same connection with everything back home.
232
So whether that's how we're intertwined together, but I didn't feel lonely at all.
233
But what I did get this new sense of is how everything is sort of distributed in our galaxy.
234
When you look up in the night sky, every star you see is in our galaxy.
235
This is one galaxy in the entire universe.
236
And we were looking out from our spacecraft and we were just seeing these other stars in our galaxy.
237
But I was seeing them in a three-dimensional space.
238
Some of them look closer than others and the earth and the moon and seeing them and just seeing how they're juxtaposed.
239
I have such a hard time explaining it to people, but it was very different than I expected.
240
Every time I would look out and I would see that sort of three-dimensionality of things, I would sort of see our place in this galaxy, if you will.
241
Like that was pretty profound for me.
242
And I kept having the same sense of being very insignificant as an individual amongst that.
243
Extremely, yet extraordinarily powerful as a human race and what we can do.
244
When we would let our eyes adjust, you could look to the left and see a tiny Earth.
245
We would call it tiny Earth, and we really, it was in doing.
246
We called it tiny Earth.
247
It is tiny.
248
I mean, at some points, it's like a fingernail just sitting out there.
249
But you could let your eyes adjust, and you could see a lot of the cosmos.
250
I don't know that this will relate, but if you look at the crescent moon,
251
it's rounded and it stops where the sun goes to shadow.
252
But when you look at a crescent Earth, the same thing happens, but the edge of the Earth just extends a little bit longer.
253
And if you look at it, you realize the extension right there, this tiny, it's like two little tiny whiskers coming off the edge of Earth.
254
It's the whole atmosphere.
255
It's everything that keeps us alive.
256
You really sense fragility.
257
You just sense such a special little tiny thing right there, that atmosphere.
258
It looks different than the Moon.
259
You can just tell the moon cannot sustain life, but Earth can.
260
And when you put those two things next to each other, the thing that enables us to live here is so tiny, it's impossible to even rationalize in your mind.
261
The Earth looked as if you put a high-definition computer graphic into an original movie like when we started Steamboat Willie,
262
the first black-and-white moving pictures.
263
It just stood out.
264
It was so different.
265
the colors, the shapes, our planet looks alive.
266
Even though we can't see human structures and boats and roads, it looks alive because the swirls change.
267
And it just, it demands your attention.
268
When you see it out the window, you have to stare at it.
269
I think one of the most beautiful moments from this, at least for people watching back home,
270
was the video read where you dedicated the crater to your late wife, Carol.
271
A number of years ago we started this journey in our close-knit astronaut family and we lost a loved one.
272
Her name was Carol.
273
The spouse of Reed, the mother of Katie and Ellie.
274
Would you mind describing that moment and what you were thinking and feeling?
275
Well thank you for that.
276
I mean that was that was a special moment for this crew and it was clearly a special moment for everyone watching.
277
Christina had the idea and Jeremy approached me before we launched and said, hey, the crew would like to do this.
278
I mean, that's an amazing moment when three of your best friends propose something like that to somebody who's very special.
279
And I said, Jeremy, that would be an amazing honor for my family
280
and I would love it if you all did that, but I cannot do the talking.
281
And so Jeremy did.
282
There's a feature in a really neat place on the moon, and it is on the near side, far side boundary.
283
In fact, it's just on the near side of that boundary.
284
And we would like to call it Carol.
285
And you spell that C-A-R-R-O-L-L.
286
It was very emotional for all of us.
287
It was, I mean, I just, Jeremy, I still can't believe you We made it through that.
288
And I can't believe that the thought that you all put into that was very special for me.
289
That was the moment that our crew coalesced, and I think we were bonded there forever.
290
I have one last question for you guys.
291
I wonder whether being up there with no life gave you a renewed appreciation
292
or wonder for what I think is sort of the unlikely scenario of life down on Earth
293
and just all the things that had to come together.
294
for us to even be here right now.
295
1,000%.
296
Absolutely.
297
That was one of the biggest takeaways.
298
Because when you look out and you see the earth, tiny earth, and you mostly see blackness around it,
299
you recognize what a completely unlikely scenario this is.
300
And what had to come together to make it.
301
There is some such thing as a global scale.
302
And we have a choice as to what we do with that.
303
there is not just a background here that's unchangeable.
304
It's just a small place in a really big universe.
305
This is the second time I've lived in space.
306
I had to become very comfortable with, we don't always have the answers.
307
We think through a lot of scenarios and we have a lot of answers, but we don't have all the answers.
308
And that's okay.
309
I'm comfortable with not having all the answers.
310
But also the questions we ask, like were we created?
311
Did we evolve?
312
I look out at the earth and go, that looks too unique to be a mistake,
313
but it also could have been things coming together that we can't explain right now.
314
Whether you believe in Big Bang or whether you think this was intelligently done, I think all of us can find something to connect to in it.
315
And just being willing to have a dialogue instead of being certain about the answer is, to me, more important.
316
You're reminding me of what the great scientist Richard Feynman once said about, it's okay to not know, it's the question that's important.
317
Do you have any final thoughts about that?
318
What I sort of wanted to end with for me is just a gratitude to people who paid attention to the mission.
319
And I think there's something really special there that we did something positive, not we, not the four,
320
we global we did something positive and we paid attention to it.
321
And so what I have a renewed sense for is
322
that people are willing to spend energy and pay attention to the positive things
323
and therefore we have a choice of where we put our energy and our attention.
324
And yeah, the negatives are out there, but we don't have to just focus on them.
325
Let's focus on the positive.
326
Our world, our choice.
327
Thank you all so much for spending this much time with us.
328
I get my last word.
329
Oh, sorry.
330
I was looking.
331
I thought you were nodding like you were the last thing.
332
This is the most profound three comments you could ever hear.
333
So if there's kids listening, I want to give homework.
334
One thing I've noticed since we've been back, we have an appreciation for the beauty of nature that I didn't recognize before we launched.
335
And I noticed this, we were touring a very special area of the White House and we went into the flower shop.
336
We were very lit up.
337
You could just tell the smell, the sights, everything was incredible.
338
And as we were walking in here, spring is here.
339
And there was just a row of tulips that were in bloom.
340
and my homework would be the next time you see something in bloom or something growing out of the ground, just stop for a second and look at it and just be impressed by it.
341
Just take a second and be impressed by it
342
because sometimes you have to leave and look back
343
and then come back to realize the simplest little thing can be the most impressive thing you have seen all week.
344
Crew of Artemis II, it has been such a pleasure and congratulations.
345
Thank you.
346
Thank you.
Download App
Everything you need to speak fluently
AI PronunciationScore every sentence
IPA PracticeMaster every sound
VocabularyBuild your word bank
Vocab GameLearn while playing
Same Channel
FOR YOU
Recommend Video
B21
14 sentences
Artemis II Astronaut talks about being a Crew ✨🌎 #nasa #space #artemis
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B22
246 sentences
You Are Alive to Watch the Space Station Fall From the Sky
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B218
41 sentences
Unit 6: Living on Mars
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
86 sentences
First reactions | Francis Halzen, Nobel Prize in Physics 2026 | telephone interview
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
129 sentences
Charlize Theron, Zendaya, Samantha Morton Talk ‘The Odyssey’
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B25
16 sentences
Let’s Steal a New Moon
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B25
5 sentences
Spending a Day on Earth 200 Million Years Ago
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
C12
47 sentences
We Found Galaxies Too Old for the Universe
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B26
196 sentences
SpaceX preparing two Starship flights in parallel - Starbase Summary
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B25
322 sentences
I Visited the Top 10 Places in America - Finale
American AccentTravel EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
C12
201 sentences
Cleo Abram Answers The Web's Most Searched Questions | WIRED
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B23
66 sentences
5 "Impossible" Things That Can Happen On Other Planets
Daily ConversationUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “How The Artemis II Crew Lived Together in Space”. This video has 344 sentences and 3960 words to shadow. The speech runs for 20:31. The speaker talks fast, about 193 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 85% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| float verb | /fləʊt/ | To be supported by a fluid of greater density (than the object). |
| astronaut noun | /ˈæstɹəˌnɔt/ | A member of the crew of a spaceship or other spacecraft that travels beyond Earth's atmosphere, or someone trained to serve that purpose. |
| tortilla noun | /tɔɹˈti.ə/ | A type of Mexican flatbread made out of cornmeal or flour. |
| broccoli noun | /ˈbɹɑ.kə.li/ | A plant, Brassica oleracea var. italica, of the cabbage family, Brassicaceae; especially, the tree-shaped flower and stalk that are eaten as a vegetable. |
| crumb noun | /kɹʌm/ | A small piece which breaks off from baked food (such as cake, biscuit or bread). |
| oatmeal noun | /ˈoʊtmil/ | Meal made from rolled or round oats. |
| upside noun | /ˈʌpˌsaɪd/ | The highest or uppermost side or portion of something. |
| salad noun | /ˈsæl.əd/ | A food consisting principally of raw vegetables (especially greens, e.g. lettuce), other savoury ingredients (typically cooked), fruit, or confectionary; often… |
| scenario noun | /sɪˈnɛəɹioʊ/ | An outline or model of an expected or supposed sequence of events. |
| exploration noun | /ˌɛkspləˈɹeɪʃən/ | The process of exploring. |
| adventurous adjective | /ædˈvɛn.t͡ʃɚ.əs/ | Inclined to adventure; willing to take risks; prone to embark on hazardous enterprises; daring. |
| bunk noun | /bʌŋk/ | One of a series of berths or beds placed in tiers. |
| intangible adjective | /ɪnˈtæn.d͡ʒə.bəl/ | Incapable of being perceived by the senses; incorporeal. |
| kale noun | /keɪl/ | An edible plant, similar to cabbage, with curled leaves that do not form a dense head (Brassica oleracea var. acephala) |
| restful adjective | /ˈɹɛs(t)fʊl/ | peaceful; having a peaceful aspect |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| come together verb | /ˈkʌm tʊˈɡɛðɚ/ | To assemble; to congregate; to combine. |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| get back verb | Return to where one came from. | |
| look out verb | To be vigilant and aware often as an imperative to alert a person to danger. | |
| move around verb | To relocate to new homes repeatedly; to not live in any one place for long. | |
| bring together verb | To cause people to do something together; to bring about togetherness. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Victor, that surprised you perhaps?
- How do you guys get food if there's no restaurant?
- What do you eat in space for dessert?
- What were some of your favorites?
- I'm like, oh, wait, where am I?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have fielded · haven't found · have not evolved |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | were hailed · be commemorated · is often lit |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | somebody who saw · people who paid |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 58 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, can't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: fathom /ˈfæðəm/, underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: exploration /ˌɛkspləˈɹeɪʃən/, appreciation /əˌpɹiː.ʃiˈeɪ.ʃən/, cremation /kɹɪˈmeɪʃən/, dimensionality /dɪˌmɛn.ʃəˈnæl.ə.tɪ/, shotgun /ˈʃɑtɡʌn/
- Long words — get the stress right: exploration /ˌɛkspləˈɹeɪʃən/, adventurous /ædˈvɛn.t͡ʃɚ.əs/, intangible /ɪnˈtæn.d͡ʒə.bəl/, appreciation /əˌpɹiː.ʃiˈeɪ.ʃən/, astrophysicist /ˌæstɹəʊˈfɪzɪsɪst/
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 float, astronaut, tortilla.
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.