Shadowing Practice: How To Improve Your Communication Skills: 6 Unique Psychology-Backed Tips - Learn English Speaking with Video
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I want you to do a little experiment here.
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Imagine that this ball is a great idea that you just had.
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And you want to tell people about it.
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Your friends, your colleagues, maybe go up on stage and pitch it to a room full of people.
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You want them to believe in this idea as much as you do.
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Now, there are two ways that you can go about it.
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First, you can just go, start talking about it.
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Maybe you fumble a little, maybe you speak a little too fast.
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Maybe you just try to get your point across as best as possible and hope that it will work.
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Maybe it works.
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Maybe it doesn't.
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The second way that you can try is to get clear on exactly what you want to say
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and then use your words and your body language to strategically communicate this idea.
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Maybe you lean forward.
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Maybe you use your hand gestures to increase focus.
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Maybe you slow down your pace a little to help people connect emotionally with your idea.
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Maybe you look them directly in the eye to make them trust your idea.
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And finally, you pause.
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And that gets you undivided attention.
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Now the question is, how can you become this second kind of person?
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Can you really master skills of good communication?
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And the answer, my friends, is yes.
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Because that is what they are, skills.
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Nobody is born with inherent talent or genetics that make them a good communicator.
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These are skills that you acquire through experience and practice.
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And today, I am going to show you exactly how to do that.
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You cannot be a good communicator without being a good listener.
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Because you are never communicating in a void.
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You are doing it with other people.
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Even now, when I'm sitting and recording this video alone in a room speaking to a camera, I am not doing it in a void.
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I am speaking to you guys.
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So if your natural instinct is to butt in after every sentence someone else has spoken
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or be very quick to give your own opinion in a conversation without waiting for somebody else to finish their point, you are not really listening.
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What you're doing is constantly thinking about what you want to say next
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or how you should respond to whatever point this person is making.
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And that is a major problem with majority of the people out there.
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Active listening is doing the exact opposite of whatever I just said.
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It means being interested in what the other person has to say, paying attention to their body language,
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their expressions, not thinking about your own reaction while they are making a point, and definitely not rushing to interrupt.
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When you do this, you build trust with the other person that you're communicating with, and that makes your interaction a lot more free-flowing.
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It makes you both comfortable with each other and when
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that happens a lot of good communication just happens automatically it
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does not have to be forced it becomes a flow now
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when you do speak on the other hand you want to
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have the right words to say to put across your point
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and that cannot happen without having good vocabulary but the words that you actually use in day-to-day communication
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The words that you use when you want to convey a thought, when you want to put together a sentence, when you want to communicate an idea.
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A lot of you comment on my videos saying that you watch these to improve your English.
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And part of the reason for that is that the vocabulary
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that I use in day-to-day life is slightly more nuanced than what most people use.
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That is what having the right vocabulary does.
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It helps you express your ideas clearly and precisely.
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Here's an example.
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Hi guys, today we are going to talk about things that make your communication better, things that help you sound nicer when you're talking to others.
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Now, compare that to this.
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Hi guys, today we are discussing strategies that enhance your communication skills.
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These tools will make you more articulate and help you sound more persuasive when you're communicating with others.
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Which one was more impactful?
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Which one was clearer?
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The second example is a clear winner.
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It shows you how the right vocabulary helps you express your ideas more clearly.
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And it also leaves very little room for other people to misinterpret what you're saying, right?
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A lot of the times, what we are trying to communicate does not get conveyed
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because the other person doesn't clearly understand what we are trying to say.
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Now, how do you go ahead and improve your vocabulary?
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Don't worry, I do not want you to go pick up a dictionary
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and start memorizing words because that does not help anyone.
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What I want you to do instead is start reading.
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10-15 minutes a day, you can pick up any book or article that interests you on any topic that interests you.
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All I want you to do is do it on a digital device.
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So either your phone, Kindle, iPad, laptop, do not pick up a physical book for this purpose.
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And the reason for this is that whenever you're reading and you don't understand a word with these digital devices,
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you can actually just highlight that word and look up the meaning instantly.
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You can't do that with a book.
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You'll you also have to sit with a dictionary and
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that makes the whole process a little bit more tedious and that is not what you want right now.
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So when you're reading online and you don't know the meaning of a word, you look it up, you understand the meaning.
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And then when you reread that sentence, you understand that word in context and it becomes committed to your memory.
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Another thing that you can do here is watch your favorite shows
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or videos that you like in the language that you are trying to become fluent in and watch them multiple times.
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This helps you understand sentence structure and how particular words are used in the context to different situations.
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When you hear a word you don't understand, just look it up.
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I actually improved my communication, my spoken English a lot by watching all of these shows
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that used to come on Star Wars and now are available on Netflix.
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And just doing these two things, which is reading on a digital device to understand, you know, meanings and context of different words and watching your favorite shows,
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videos repeatedly will help you expand your vocabulary beyond just reading from a dictionary or playing word games.
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One of the biggest reasons that people fumble or they go blank
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when they're trying to communicate is because they cannot decide what to say first, how to put across their idea so that people understand them.
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And that is because their brains have not been trained to structure their thoughts.
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This means having a logical flow for not only how you think, but also how you put your thoughts across.
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Structured thinking basically ensures that your communication has a purpose, it flows smoothly, and it is effective and impactful.
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But how exactly can you learn to think and then speak in a structured manner?
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Traditionally, if you ask this question on Google or ChatGPT, it will give you tips like use frameworks, prioritize info, think in steps.
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And while helpful, I think that is not complete information, it's incomplete information.
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What I have personally found helpful here to improve structured thought, and this is one of my favorite ways of doing this,
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is to use a voice notes or a voice transcription app.
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The one that I'm using right now is VoicePal by Ali Abdaal and I absolutely love it.
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It is just so easy to use and it automatically like transcribes my thoughts, turns them into Twitter posts and like newsletter posts, etc. Beautiful.
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There are other free versions also available so you can try Otter AI, you can even use the basic Notes app in your phone.
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And then once you've selected your app basically, what you want to do is every single day, you will set aside two minutes.
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If you have more time, you can do it for longer, but two minutes is the bare minimum that you need to do.
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And you are going to share your thoughts while recording your voice on this app on any particular topic.
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You can tell a story, you can recount an experience that happened, you can talk about your feelings, You can even just rant.
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But when you do this, every single day, it does a couple of different things.
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One, it teaches you how to be more articulate with your thoughts.
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That means you understand how to put your thoughts into words.
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A lot of us just struggle with doing that.
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And because you're not doing it with people, you're not afraid of making mistakes.
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And then you take your time to think and then speak.
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And secondly, over time, when you continue to do this exercise, it teaches you how to put across your thoughts in a structured way.
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So another part of this exercise
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that I want you to do after you've just gone ahead and recorded your voice notes for a month, you start applying frameworks to your speaking to make it even more structured.
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So let's say that you're talking about how the current government is not doing a particularly good job.
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So now while articulating your thoughts on this topic, I want you to try and use the speak framework, which is the situation, talk about the situation, what is happening.
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Then the problem, why is this situation not ideal?
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The evidence, aka what makes you believe that this is actually a problem.
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Action.
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What can the government do or what can you do to make a change?
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And finally, the key takeaway.
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How would you summarize your thoughts in two sentences if you just had that much time to communicate?
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Now, this is often a structure that is used by debaters.
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And when you start to practice it by yourself, by speaking about topics that interest you, it automatically seeps into your everyday communication.
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It becomes a part of your subconscious and that is very very important.
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Your voice is an extremely powerful tool and how you use it can make or break your communication.
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And the two key aspects of great voice modulation are pace and pauses.
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These can transform how your message is received by the Samnaywali body.
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Now pace just basically means setting the tone for your conversation, for your communication.
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Let me show you this with an example.
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Imagine I say something like, you're starting a new project and you're excited but also overwhelmed
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because there's so much to do and you don't know where to begin
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so you just dive in and hope for the best.
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Now compare that to, imagine you are starting a new project, you feel excited but also a little bit overwhelmed,
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there is so much to do and you are so unsure about where to begin but instead of rushing,
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you take a deep breath and focus on one step at a time.
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Now in the first one, I sound anxious and that rushed pace reflects carelessness and the audience is bam, disconnected.
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But in the second one, I'm more calm, I'm more assured, the pace reflects importance.
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It makes the audience connect emotionally with the message that I'm giving.
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And that makes the message a lot more effective.
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Now imagine that I say this instead.
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Imagine that you are starting a new project and you are excited but also a little bit overwhelmed.
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Doesn't that take away the entire impact of what I'm trying to say?
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The ums and the ahs are your biggest enemies when you're trying to be an effective communicator.
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You are much better off just pausing.
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Because pauses are like punctuations for your speech.
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They add rhythm and clarity to your speech.
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Again, let me repeat that sentence with pauses instead of the ums and the ahs.
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Imagine that you are starting a new project.
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You feel excited about it, but also a little bit overwhelmed.
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There is so much to do and you're unsure about where to begin.
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But instead of rushing, you take a deep breath.
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And then you just focus on one step at a time.
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Better, right?
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This is because pauses signal importance.
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They give your listener time to absorb your words and to get emotionally connected with your message.
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That cannot happen with ums and ahs because that also makes people focus on the ums and the ahs.
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Now, most people don't focus on the pacing or the pauses and when they speak, it all ends up sounding like one long sentence or it is
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so filled with ums and ahs that you cannot really pay attention.
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But when you get both things right, this is what you end up sounding like.
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Picture this, you are standing in front of a crowd.
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Your heart is racing.
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Your palms are sweaty and the words you've prepared feel like they're slipping away.
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But then you take a moment, you pause, you take a deep breath,
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and then you just start to speak one word at a time.
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And when you do this, you are just commanding the room, whether it is a room full of people or just one person.
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Now, mastering pacing and pauses is actually a lot easier than most people make it out to be.
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You just need to do these two exercises.
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The first is that voice recording exercise from the previous point, because that helps with your pauses, your pacing, all of that.
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And the second is to read aloud from books that you love, but follow the punctuation to a T.
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And pick books with good English and grammar.
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I'm going to share an example from this book by William Dalrymple right here.
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He's a great author.
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He has impeccable English.
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And what you want to do when you're reading is also try
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and speak with the emotion that you are feeling while you are reading this.
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So let me show you.
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The idea for this book was born 16 years ago, on a high, clear Himalayan morning in the summer of 1993.
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I was corkscrewing my way up from the banks of the river Bhagirathi, along the steep sides of a thickly wooded valley.
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The track was soft and mossy, and it led through ferns and brackens, thickets of brambles and groves of tall Himalayan cedar trees.
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Small waterfalls tumbled through the deodars.
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It was May, and after a 10-day trek, I was one day's walk away from my destination, the Great Himalayan Temple of Kedarnath,
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believed by Hindus to be one of the principal homes of Lord Shiva.
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And so, along with Mount Kailash in Tibet, one of the two candidates for the Hindu Mount Olympus.
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And that's it, that's all you need to do these two exercises
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and the more you do them the better your communication becomes
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now when it comes to effective communication your words the vocabulary
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that you're using conveys only seven percent of the message your tone
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which is your pacing your pauses make up 38 of your your message
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and the biggest chunk the rest 55% actually comes from your body language
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and yet that is the part
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that most people rarely pay any attention to let me give you an example I am going to speak
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and you point out what I am doing wrong hello you
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guys it is amazing to have you here I am
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so glad you're watching the video it is
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so nice to have an audience like you what should I have avoided I'm going to pause
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and give you a second to comment your responses down below the correct answer is
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that I should have avoided closing my body language.
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Whenever a human being closes their body language, so hunched shoulders, hands like this or hands folded or hands in your pockets,
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it is a sign that they feel threatened in some way, that they're insecure, that they're not confident.
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Now compare that to this way.
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Hi you guys, it's amazing to have you here today.
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I am so glad you're watching this video because it's an absolute pleasure to have an audience like you.
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Much more effective, right?
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It communicates the emotion more clearly, plus it makes the audience feel more connected.
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Now, when you're talking to someone one-on-one, this would mean not standing with your hands like this, or having your hands in your pockets.
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Instead, hold a drink or use your hands for functional gesturing to enhance your storytelling.
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I felt a rise of emotions, then I hit rock bottom.
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It made me feel so scared.
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See how the hands there were a part of the narrative instead of just being awkward by standards.
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This is the difference that open body language and hand gestures can make.
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Another thing you want to do here is something called mirroring or social imitation.
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Now this applies to both speaking on stage publicly or speaking or communicating in a more intimate setting.
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Our brains have something called mirror neurons that help us naturally imitate the behaviours and the speaking styles that we observe.
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And this is a great hack to make your communication more effective.
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Simple examples of this would be nodding when somebody is telling you something
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or matching the tone of voice to the person you're speaking to, even matching your body language to the person in front of you.
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That is why you'll notice that when somebody you're talking to has a closed-off body language, you also tend to feel the same emotion, right?
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You feel closed off, you don't want to open up to this person.
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Mirroring is extremely powerful and most of the times it happens subconsciously.
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So one way for you to leverage it to improve your communication is to actually watch
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and listen to great speakers and then try and mirror their speeches.
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The more you practice speaking like them, the more you'll be able to improve your own communication subconsciously.
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Now imagine that I'm recording a reel and I start like this.
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Failure is a part of success.
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Learn from your mistakes.
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Compare that with starting like this.
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When I was in college, I failed my first major exam
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and I remember sitting outside the classroom with my head in my hands and bawling my eyes out.
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I kept wondering whether I was even cut out for this.
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I went home crying, feeling defeated, and I was completely ready to quit.
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But then I happened to come across this TED talk on YouTube
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and I just opened it wanting a distraction without knowing that those 15 minutes would completely change my life.
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Which one was better?
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More engaging.
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The second one, right?
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Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools for effective communication
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because it transcends data and facts and taps into the emotions of the people you're communicating with.
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It creates a connection with your audience.
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Stories make abstract ideas relatable.
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People are not going to remember what you said.
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They're going to remember how you made them feel.
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And stories make people feel.
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Now, if you are like, Atiti, but how do I become a good storyteller?
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I actually have a very fun exercise for you.
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You are going to use something called storytelling prompts and do storytelling challenges along with it.
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Again, this is something you can do on your voice recording app.
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So you can go ahead, create your own prompts and challenges if you want, or you can choose from the ones you see on screen.
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Just note these down somewhere or take a screenshot
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and every day you have to pick one prompt
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and one challenge to go along with it and simply tell a story around it.
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For example, if the prompt is the most embarrassing moment in your life and the challenge is use imagery, my story would turn out to be something like,
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the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to took place in 11th grade.
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I was this awkward gawky teenager with short hair, an oily forehead, acne all over my cheeks, my socks up until my calves.
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Just picture a nerd and you'll get what I'm talking about.
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And in the 11th standard, all classes were required to decorate the gymnasium for the annual winter carnival.
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And of course, I was a part of the team because I loved arts and crafts, absolutely.
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I spent all of my time if I was not studying painting and so on.
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The actual story is quite long
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and i am embarrassed to say it out loud on social media
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but you get the gist of how to do this challenge
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because with that it's now homework time i promised in the beginning
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that you are going to get a clear roadmap to help with your communication journey
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and this is what that is
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so homework number one you are going to download a voice transcription app transcription
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because it also allows you to read what you're saying
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and then improve accordingly i'm linking a few in the description
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and then you're going to spend one
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or two minutes every single day just articulating or speaking your thoughts out loud onto this app.
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And then, of course, listening to them again and trying to do better the next day.
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The second thing you're going to do is read out loud.
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You're going to pick a book, spend five minutes a day reading out loud from the book, following the punctuation and the emotion that the paragraph or the text is trying to convey.
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And look up any words that you don't know to improve your vocabulary and your sentence structure and your voice modulation.
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And finally, you are going to do the storytelling challenge for yourself try
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and do it daily if that's not possible try
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and do it every other day
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because the more you challenge yourself the better your communication will turn out to be
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and that is it that is all it takes continuous small daily efforts
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and bam you're a better communicator
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if i can do it you can do it too trust me
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so let me know in the comments
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which of the tips from today's videos you found most helpful
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and don't forget to check out this video next
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if you want to glow up and become your best self before 2025
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and I'm going to see you guys very very soon with another one.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 283 sentences and 3822 words to shadow. The speech runs for 20:37. The speaker talks fast, about 185 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 86% 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
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| pause noun | /pɔːz/ | A temporary stop or rest; an intermission of action; interruption; suspension; cessation. |
| communicate verb | /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/ | To impart or transmit (information or knowledge) to someone; to make known, to tell. |
| pace noun | /peɪs/ | A step taken with the foot. |
| 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. |
| emotion noun | /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/ | A person's internal state of being and involuntary physiological response to an object or a situation, based on or tied to physical state and sensory data. |
| storytelling noun | The act and skills of presenting stories and tales. | |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| rush verb | /ɹʌʃ/ | To hurry; to perform a task with great haste, often not properly or without thinking carefully. |
| mirror noun | /ˈmiɹɚ/ | A smooth surface, usually made of glass with reflective material painted on the underside, that reflects light so as to give an image of what is in front of it. |
| compare verb | /kəmˈpɛɚ/ | To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things [“to compare X with Y”]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it… |
| prompt verb | /pɹɑmpt/ | To lead (someone) toward what they should say or do. |
| convey verb | /kənˈveɪ/ | To move (something) from one place to another. |
| articulate verb | /ɑːɹˈtɪk.jə.leɪt/ | To make clear or effective. |
| tone noun | /ˈtəʊn/ | A specific pitch. |
| helpful adjective | /ˈhɛlp.fl̩/ | Furnishing help; giving aid; useful. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| go ahead verb | /ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/ | To proceed with; to begin. |
| pick up verb | To lift; to grasp and raise. | |
| put across verb | to explain or state something clearly and understandably. | |
| close off verb | To seal or block the entrance to a road, an area, or a building so that people cannot enter. | |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| look up verb | /ˌlʊk ˈʌp/ | To have better prospects. |
| read out verb | /ˌɹiːd ˈaʊt/ | To read something and say the words to inform other people; to call. |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is born · be forced · are used |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has spoken · have not been trained · have personally found |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | things, which is · framework, which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 64 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: rhythm /ˈɹɪð.əm/, threaten /ˈθɹɛt.n̩/, smoothly /ˈsmuːðli/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, rush /ɹʌʃ/, emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/, dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/, transcription /tɹænˈskɹɪpʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, articulate /ɑːɹˈtɪk.jə.leɪt/, emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/, dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/
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 pause, communicate, pace.
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.