Shadowing Practice: How to Get Band 9 in IELTS Writing Task 2 - Learn English Speaking with Video

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In this video, I'm going to show you everything you need to know to get a band 7, 8 or even 9 in IELTS Writing Task 2.

It doesn't matter if you're just starting your preparation

or you've used tips and strategies that didn't actually help you on test day.

Because in this video, we're going to focus in on one thing and one thing only, because it's the only thing that the examiners use when they give you your mark.

And it's this, the official marking criteria this piece of paper tells you every single thing you need to succeed

and in this video we will make it so simple

that anyone can understand

and here's what makes this video different to all the others I've been teaching IELTS for nearly 20 years

and I've seen every tip and strategy out there

but nothing comes close to understanding how the examiners use this document

and then give them exactly what they're looking for

so instead of throwing away hours of your time

and hundreds of dollars on failed tests watch this video

and by the end of it you'll understand what really works

so there are four general areas to the marking criteria task response coherence

and cohesion grammatical range and accuracy

and lexical resource lexical resource is just a fancy way of

saying vocabulary i'll just refer to it as vocabulary from now on

so there's two major problems with this document like i've already said it tells you exactly what you need to do.

And I've already said that the big problem is that it's difficult to understand.

The other problem is that it is extremely boring and most students won't spend the time to actually understand it.

And to be honest, the first few years that I was teaching IELTS,

like many IELTS teachers, I didn't even understand it because it's so difficult to understand and because it is very boring.

So I'm going to simplify it and make it far more interesting for you.

So what I'm going do is tell you a simple story

that is going to help you understand this stories are great

because they're just easy to understand and it's how we as humans actually learn the most important things

so i'd like to introduce you to my two little boys this is tom this is william

and one of their passions in life they have many many passions

but one thing

that they really love are cakes specifically birthday cakes before their

birthdays they talk about these for months about what they want they get very very excited about them

and as you can see they love their birthday cakes

when they get them on their birthday

so why is this relevant to you well writing an essay is like making a birthday cake

so the first thing we have here is your idea talked

about the first 25 % of your total mark is task

response this is the first marking criteria this is the concept

of your essay another way to say it is did you

actually answer the question then we have the ingredients this is your coherence

and cohesion these are the components of your essay then we have construction

so how we put it all together the rules of your essay this is your grammar and then the decoration on top, the finishing touches.

This is your vocabulary.

So we're going to go through each of these

and explain them in a lot more detail so that by the end of this lesson, you'll know exactly what to do and how to translate this into just a system

that when you sit down and look at that question on test day, you know exactly what to do.

So I call this strategy the birthday cake strategy.

I've tried it with thousands of students over the years.

And what it does is it just simplifies the official marking criteria.

So the first step is your idea, task response.

So for my little boys, this is the most important and the most exciting part of the whole cake process.

They have a very specific idea about what type of cake they want.

So my strategy for understanding their idea so

that I can take it to the person who bakes the cake is I need to first understand what they want.

I need to talk to them and understand that.

Then I need to pick something that the baker can actually make.

So if William said that he wanted a 50 -foot Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cake, I probably could make a, you know, three -foot one,

maybe, but not a 50 -foot one.

And then I need to clearly explain that to the baker, because I don't want to get their idea.

They're very, very excited about it.

And then if I don't explain that properly to the baker, they're going to completely mess it up

and it's going to completely ruin their birthday

and no parent wants to do that

so let's look at each of these three in a little bit more detail

and you'll slowly understand how this relates i promise it'll make sense in a second

so here are just some of the different passions

that tom has had over the years he likes anime he

likes roblox he's into football he loves minecraft there are many many different things that he and his brother have been into.

just like when you see a question there are many many different ideas to choose from

when you see that question there are many many possible ways

and ideas that you could use to answer that question

so this is actually a picture of tom one day where

he was expecting to go to a wedding he heard

that there was a cake at the wedding and he thought

that that cake was just for him he didn't understand

that it was for the bride and the groom and

when he got there and he couldn't immediately eat the cake he got very very upset

and this is him being very upset about that

so was he wrong he no he just had the the

wrong idea he just misunderstood it this is like choosing the wrong idea for your essay

or misunderstanding the question if you misunderstand the question

or you choose the wrong idea normally those two are linked

if you don't understand the question generally you don't generate a

relevant idea then you're going to be in trouble you're going to be like this when you get your results.

So let's look at some examples from real essays from real students.

So this is from Kim An, a student from Vietnam.

Don't worry if you can't read the whole essay.

I'm going to put all of this together into one pdf workbook for you

so that you get all the samples

and I'll actually put little exercises in there for you so that you can improve at home as well.

So I'll put that link in the description.

You just click on that and download it for free.

First what I want to do is just get you to focus in on the question.

So some people think that teenagers are happier than adults, but others do not agree.

Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Let's have a look at her introduction to see what she put for her main ideas.

So they sometimes believe that youngsters possess more happiness than their older counterparts.

However, there are some individuals who disagree with this notion.

This essay will delve into both theses before expressing my opinion

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that's not my spelling mistake that's what the student did before you go crazy in the comments

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which leans towards the idea that joy depends more on people's desired things.

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So I just want you to have a think about

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that introduction and think about whether the ideas are clear

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and whether you would be able to take those ideas and write a clear essay about them.

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So let's back up a little bit now

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and do what we always should do

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which is to analyze the question break it down

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and really really understand it so if we break down the question

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and we simplify it into its simplest parts teenagers are happier than adults

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that is one side of this

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and adults are happier than teenagers that's the other side

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that is the simplest way of expressing this so some people think this

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and some people think this instead of trying to think of

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lots of ideas i would like you just to do one thing.

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What is the simplest, most obvious, most straightforward reason to explain why teenagers might be happier than adults?

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So don't try and think of six ideas.

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Try and think of either the simplest idea or the most obvious idea, the one that just pops into your head immediately, or the most straightforward idea,

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the idea that would be easiest for you to actually write about.

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Try that yourself at home.

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And then what is the simplest, most obvious, most straightforward reason to explain why adults might be happier than teenagers.

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Again, so you do that for the second question as well.

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Take a few seconds, pause the video if you want, and then we'll look at some further things.

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So let's look at Kim -Anne's introduction and her ideas.

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This essay will delve into both theses before expressing my opinion, which leans towards the idea that joy depends more on people's desired things

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so joy depends on more on people's desired things first thing

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I want you to think about is could you read that

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and understand what she thinks about the question because

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that is what the examiner is thinking about the examiner is looking at your essay specifically your introduction

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and they are thinking do I actually understand what this person

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is trying to say another way to think about it is writing is basically taking the ideas from your head

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and putting it on paper so

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that a reader the person reading it can clearly understand what

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is in your head a key question is are you helping the reader understand

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because that is what writing is we don't write for the sake of writing some people do like

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if you're writing for in your diary or just for pleasure

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but the type of writing that we're testing here in the ielts test is communication

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when you are writing something are you clearly communicating with

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that reader in the future

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because this is a key point clear communication is key there's something

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that we say on our vip course a lot

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which is clarity is king only thing

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that you should focus on is are your sentences your ideas as clear as possible so your job is not

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to impress the examiner with language.

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It is to clearly communicate with them.

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Normally those two are opposing and we'll talk about that later in the video.

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But to go back to the cake, imagine my little boy tells me I really want a Roblox cake

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or I really want a Messi or Ronaldo cake

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and I email the local baker

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and I say this email will delve into the myriad of ideas my son has for his birthday cake

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which leans towards the idea that his cake should depend on his desired things.

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What would the baker say?

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What would the baker reply?

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If they are, you know, a normal human being and they are a busy person, they would get quite annoyed with this because they have no idea what I'm actually saying.

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You might think that this is extreme, but these are things that we see as people marking IELTS scripts every day.

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We see this a hundred times a day, and I've seen this a hundred times a day for nearly two decades.

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So what we did with Kim and as we do with all of our students is we gave her feedback.

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We told her why this was wrong, what to do better, and we asked her to make an improved version.

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So here is her old version and here is her improved version.

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Many people believe youngsters possess more happiness than their older counterparts because they have fewer responsibilities.

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Okay, so this is idea one.

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And adults have more freedom this is idea two.

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So I want you to think of three key questions.

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Could you read that and understand what she's trying to say for the second one?

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Would it make the reader's job easier?

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And would it make writing the rest of the essay easier for her?

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This is just a demonstration of showing you when you really understand things at a base level,

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then you're able to translate that into the different parts of your essay and give the examiners exactly what they're looking for.

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So whenever I teach this to students the next thing they

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always say is well how do i think of ideas many many of you struggle with this

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and i always show them this game show it's called family

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feud in the uk it's called family fortunes basically what they

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do on this game show it might be called something different where you're from they ask the public a question

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and they get a hundred answers from the public

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and then they show the top answers the most common answers this is the strategy

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that you should use the family feud strategy.

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When you see a question, you shouldn't be thinking, what is the most complex idea?

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Because that's going to be rare.

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You should be thinking, what is the number one idea?

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What is the most common idea?

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If I asked this to a hundred reasonable people, what would be the top answer?

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Those are normally the ideas that are easy to understand.

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The examiner will understand them and easy for you to write about.

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As remember, we talked about that my boy might have some crazy idea

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which the baker can't actually make that is like picking a really really complex idea

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that you don't know how to explain

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that you can't think of any examples for this is why

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choosing simple straightforward ideas is such a good idea okay let's

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look at another essay from a real student to show you another key mistake

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that a lot of students make at this stage

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that messes up their whole essay and their task response score

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so i want you to pay attention to the ideas that they use.

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So if we look at their two main ideas, safer and less traffic or less congestion.

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Now both of these are good ideas.

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You could use them in that essay but there's one major mistake.

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Let's look at her actual main body paragraphs.

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So here's their first main body paragraph.

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You can pause the video and take a look if you want.

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So let's look at her first main idea so there'll be less traffic accidents.

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In other words, it's safer.

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Now they've said that the driver will be replaced by a computer and that will eliminate mistakes.

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They haven't really explained how that actually works.

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They've assumed that the person reading it understands how that actually works and then they've used the example of Google Maps.

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Well Google Maps is a navigation tool.

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Google Maps isn't controlling the actual car

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and then they talk vaguely again about you know computer machines

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and things like that so if you took this

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and showed it to a stranger would they really understand what the person is thinking no it's very confusing

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so their idea is good but their explanations and examples are not clear

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so their second one they're talking about traffic

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so there'll be fewer traffic jams on the road there'll be

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less congestion then they start talking about helping the environment

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and there'll be less oil consumption and things like this again i didn't right?

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This is a real student's essay.

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So they're starting to confuse electric cars with driverless cars.

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But driverless cars and electric cars are not necessarily the same thing.

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There are many gas -powered cars, there are many petrol cars that are autonomous as well.

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And then they start talking about using less oil, and they just start talking generally about the police.

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This is a clear sign that the person doesn't really understand the idea.

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They've used an idea that sounds smart, and then they're just using kind of a shotgun approach to write everything they know about that general topic.

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And the core problem here is knowledge gaps.

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So many students say, I don't know anything about that topic.

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And then they will choose ideas that sound smart, that sound high level.

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And that makes the problem even worse what you need to do instead is simplify

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that and to use simple straightforward ideas that you actually understand

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that will then help you write the explanation

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and the example again the key is simplicity

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so let's look at how we helped another student improve the same problem

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so this is Halima she lives

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and works in Saudi Arabia she's from a different country though this is her essay you can pause the video

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and read that if you want

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but I'd like you just to look at the question try

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to understand the question what ideas would you use for

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that question and then we'll have a look at her essay in a little bit more detail

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so in many countries nowadays consumers can go to a supermarket

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and buy food produced all over the world do you think this is a positive

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or negative development so if we see here not only does the accessibility to global cuisine have a huge benefit to consumers,

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but it also contribute in spreading the culture and tradition of the producers.

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So it spreads their culture.

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That's the main idea.

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A simple fish and chips dish.

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Now, is fish and chips a good example?

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Well, yeah, it's a concrete, relevant, easy to understand example.

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A lot of people understand that in Britain, a big dish, a traditional dish, is fish and chips.

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But then she talks about it can tell an abundance of stories about Britons. Does it? Can it?

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How they used to live, what they depended on for food, and much more. Does it?

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That's extremely vague and sweeping.

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It sounds impressive, but it doesn't actually mean anything.

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And then she talks again about it helps dive deeper into their history and understand the significance of their culture.

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It would be much, much better if she took a specific aspect of the culture

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or the history and actually explained how that connects to that good example.

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So she's good ideas, good example, but the explanation is just far too vague.

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Again, taking that kind of general shotgun approach of let's just write a bunch of things that sound good, but are essentially meaningless.

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So how could she improve this?

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We gave her feedback on that and asked her to do it again.

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So she's changed it from fish and chips to potatoes and the Irish.

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So a simple potato dish can tell an abundance of stories about the Irish, how they used to live, what they depended on for food, and much more.

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Then she's actually going to explain that.

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For many years, this was the cheapest source of calories on the island of Ireland,

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explaining why it was so popular in a country ravaged by poverty and famine during the occupation of the British.

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And then she goes into even more detail.

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In fact, half the population of Ireland either starved to death

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or emigrated from Ireland during the Great Famine of the 19th century,

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explaining Ireland's relatively low population and Anglo -Irish relations to this day.

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That famine was triggered by a potato blight.

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So she took something that she actually knew about and used that as a concrete example.

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Now, you might know nothing about this.

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But I guarantee you know something about food and about how it relates to culture.

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And it is fine to write about your own culture as well.

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If you're from Vietnam, you might talk about pho.

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If you're from Thailand, you might talk about pag kripau.

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The important thing is not the idea.

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The important thing is that you pick an idea

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that is easy for you to write about and easy for the examiner to understand.

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So to clearly explain your ideas, understand what they want, what does a question actually say pick something

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that the baker can actually make and then clearly explaining

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that to the baker so after my little boy decided

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that a ronaldo cake wasn't possible he decided on a sonic hedgehog cake

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and i needed to explain exactly what i wanted clearly to

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the baker this brings us to the next big error

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so here's my email to the bakery william decided he wants

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a sonic hedgehog cake sonic the hedgehog is a video game

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series a media franchise created by the japanese developers yuji naka nato oshima

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and hirazako yashuhara sorry for completely messing up the japanese pronunciation

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for sega yuji naka born bababa sometimes credited by youtube as a japanese video game designer

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and programmer he is the co -creator of sonic a hedgehog series

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and was the president of sonic team at sega until his departure in 2006 is there any problem with this email.

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What would you say if you were the baker?

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So let's look at some student examples of this exact problem.

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So we're going to look at Mohammed.

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He's an accountant from Bangladesh.

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Here's the question. In education and employment, some people work harder than others why do some people work

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harder is it always a good thing to work hard

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so i want you to read his second paragraph here

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so what he's going to do is he's going to talk

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about the negative consequences of working hard however excessive hard work

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does not always yield positive outcomes it's not good overworking can lead to several physical

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and mental exhaustion reducing overall productivity in the long run.

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So we have physical exhaustion, we have mental exhaustion, and it leads to a drop in productivity.

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For example, teachers who consistently take on extra responsibilities beyond their scheduled classes may experience burnout,

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negatively impacting both their teaching quality and personal health.

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Similarly, employees who work long hours without adequate rest may face stress anxiety and deteriorating relationships they're kind of connected

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family and colleagues additionally exceeding prescribed working hours without official approval may disrupt workplace operations

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and create dissatisfaction among other employees who adhere to standard schedules in many cases companies do not offer additional compensation

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or recognition for excessive work, leaving employees feeling undervalued.

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So can you spot the main problem here?

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The main problem is that there's just way too many ideas

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and just thrown in a bunch of stuff and it's very difficult to understand.

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Are there any problems with the ideas themselves?

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No, you could take any of these ideas and write a very good main body paragraph about them.

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But when you throw in way too much stuff, it is very difficult to understand.

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So it is not a quantity game.

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It is a quality game.

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You don't get extra marks for having nine ideas.

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You get extra marks for taking a limited number of ideas and fully developing them, fully explaining them.

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So let's look at the problems in a little bit more detail.

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So the first one is a bundling of ideas.

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So the sentence, exceeding prescribed working hours may disrupt workplace operations

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and create dissatisfaction among other employees so it links two different consequences an operational one

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and a social one without really explaining the connection like how

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does one person working late disrupt the entire operation again they're assuming

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that the person reading this understands what is in their head you need to take one idea

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and assume that the person reading it knows nothing about what is in your head

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and then there's also like the shifting focus do you know anybody in your life i do who

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when you speak to them it's like it's like listening to

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a machine gun they're just idea after idea after idea they

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never really finish a thought they're just very very scatterbrained this is what

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that paragraph actually reads like and this is not a problem with the person

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when i spoke to this student they weren't

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that type of person they weren't

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that kind scattered brain manic person they were actually the opposite

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but they had been told that the more ideas you have the higher your score is

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and that is a complete misunderstanding of the official marking criteria

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so it's not just about teaching you what the examiners want it's also teaching you what they don't want

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so what we did was we gave them that feedback take one idea and clearly explain that.

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So this is their paragraph with this one clear focus.

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Additionally, hard work can have negative consequences when it is not properly acknowledged by an employer.

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In many cases, companies do not offer additional compensation or recognition for excessive work.

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Why does that matter?

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This lack of reward can be damaging.

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How can that be damaging?

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Leading employees feeling undervalued for their sacrifices.

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Okay, so the problem is that people feel undervalued and they explained that clearly.

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But I need to know, okay, can you give me an example of that to help me really understand?

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For example, an accountant, he is, Mohammed is an accountant, might voluntarily work all weekend to finish a financial report ahead of a deadline.

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However, if their manager simply takes the report without thanks and offers no praise or bonus, the employee will likely feel that their dedication was pointless.

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This shows that without recognition, excessive work can harm an employee's morale rather than help their career.

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So not only have they clearly explained that, they've then further explained it even more.

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So you see the difference between nine ideas and one idea.

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And if we go back to the marking criteria, past response, 25 % of your total mark is, did you answer the question?

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Did you understand the question?

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Did you pick the right ideas?

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Then the next 25%, coherence and cohesion.

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Coherence, if you see coherence, just think, clarity just think will the reader understand what I'm actually writing about just

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that little piece of feedback don't pick multiple ideas pick one idea

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and clearly explain that with clear examples clear explanations about something

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that he knows about it just forces him to give the examiners exactly what they want

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so by getting into the head of the examiner

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and we're forcing you to do those things then your score is going to improve

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and it makes your life just so much easier

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because you're not going into the exam thinking am i doing the right thing

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or i need to think of nine ideas

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or my ideas need to be high level we're just reducing your stress as much as possible

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so here are just some quick tips state one idea clearly

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simple explanation use a clear example from your own experience

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so it doesn't have to be like i did this

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or my cousin did this or anything like

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that just like Mohammed is an accountant think about your own experience how does your own life experience relate to

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that idea and just stay focused don't go into

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that machine gun mentality where you're just you know firing off as many ideas as possible

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and the result this is his sonic the hedgehog cake we understand what he wants I understood

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that he wanted that cake that is a clear idea

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that answers the question picking something that the baker can actually make

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so instead of you know a massive 50 foot ronaldo

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which wouldn't be very practical we use simple ideas

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that you can explain and support with examples

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and then we clearly explain i clearly explained

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that to the baker write those ideas clearly in your essay

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and then just like you have a happy little boy here you will have a happy little examiner

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so if you're working on this at home

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or maybe you're working with another teacher or another school or anything

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and you're you're wondering how can i actually give myself feedback

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at home just think of these three things number one are my ideas clear could you take your essay

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and walk out into the streets of london or sydney

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or toronto handed to a stranger would they understand you without

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talking to you like you literally just hold it up they can read it

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or you post it to a stranger would they understand

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that number two did i pick ideas that i could support with clear explanations

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and examples so if you've picked ideas

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and you really don't know how to explain them

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and support them with examples you need to go back

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and think what is a simpler idea that I actually understand

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so you can simplify it

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or think what from my own experience in life could I use to answer this question

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and then did I write those ideas clearly in my essays with supporting explanations

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and examples so if you have to go back

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and think of a simpler idea then you should get to the point where you are happy with

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that that you've clearly explained that and supported it with examples

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and if you don't feel confident enough to give yourself feedback

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or you know your test is coming up soon

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or you don't want to throw away hundreds of dollars on failed tests

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and you want someone who knows what they're doing to just give you feedback

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and give you a whole system that's where a VIP course comes in there are limited places available

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but if you go to the description

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and click on the link there i've added a 10 discount

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because we want to work with students who make it this far in the video

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because we know you're serious about getting the scores that you need

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and we want to work with serious students so if

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that is something that you want go and click on that

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or if you have more questions about it feel free to email us about it

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so today we focused on 25 percent of the marking criteria and 25 percent here but the remaining

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50 % of your total score is for grammar and vocabulary.

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You need to know how to put all the ingredients together.

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You need to follow a recipe

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and you also need to know how to decorate the cake

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because if you just have a plain cake then the kid isn't going to be very happy.

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You need to decorate that with vocabulary.

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So most of the students that we work with normally have a few small errors

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when it comes to grammar and normally have the wrong idea when it comes to vocabulary.

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So if you think that you need help understanding grammar, this is the video for you.

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And if you need help with vocabulary, this is the video for you.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 420 sentences and 5235 words to shadow. The speech runs for 29:15. The speaker talks at a natural 179 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.

Key vocabulary in this video

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

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
essay noun	/ˈɛs.eɪ/	A written composition of moderate length, exploring a particular issue or subject.
baker noun	/ˈbeɪ.kɚ/	A person who bakes and sells bread, cakes and similar items.
explanation noun	/ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/	The act or process of explaining.
feedback noun	/ˈfiːdˌbæk/	Critical assessment of a process or activity or of their results.
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.
examiner noun	/əɡˈzæmɪnɚ/	A person who investigates someone or something.
sonic adjective	/ˈsɑnɪk/	Of or relating to sound.
teenager noun	/ˈtiːnˌeɪ̯d͡ʒə/	A person between thirteen and nineteen years old (inclusive).
paragraph noun	/ˈpæɹəɡɹæf/	A passage in text that starts on a new line, the first line sometimes being indented, and usually marks a change of topic.
straightforward adjective	/ˌstɹeɪtˈfɔː(ɹ)wə(ɹ)d/	Proceeding in a straight course or manner; not deviating.
reader noun	/ˈɹi.dɚ/	A person who reads.
chip noun	/t͡ʃɪp/	A small piece broken from a larger piece of solid material.
dish noun	/dɪʃ/	A vessel such as a plate for holding or serving food, often flat with a depressed region in the middle.
grammar noun	/ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/	A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general.
excessive adjective	/ɪkˈsɛsɪv/	Exceeding the usual bounds of something; too much (of amount); extravagant; immoderate.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
go back verb	To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time.
go back to verb	To stem from; to originate in.
mess up verb	To make a mess of; to untidy, disorder, soil, or muss.
throw away verb	To discard (trash, garbage, or the like), to toss out, to put in the trash.
back up verb	To move backwards, especially for a vehicle to do so.
break down verb	To stop functioning.
come up verb	To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly.
go through verb	To travel from one end of something to the other.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 108 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, dish /dɪʃ/, recognition /ˌɹɛkəɡˈnɪʃ(ə)n/, passion /ˈpæʃən/, compensation /ˌkɑm.pənˈseɪ.ʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, examiner /əɡˈzæmɪnɚ/, recognition /ˌɹɛkəɡˈnɪʃ(ə)n/, compensation /ˌkɑm.pənˈseɪ.ʃən/

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 essay, baker, explanation.

Grammar in this video

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

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if you want, and then we'll look
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true	used to live
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've seen · i've already said · I've tried
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	are linked · might be called · will be replaced

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 →

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

Grammar in this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?