Shadowing Practice: How to increase your vocabulary - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hi again.
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Welcome back to www .engvid .com.
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I'm Adam.
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Today's lesson is meant to show you ways of increasing your vocabulary.
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I know some of the other teachers on www .engvid .com have done these lessons.
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I just want to throw my two cents in, if you know what that means.
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It means I want to give my own piece of advice.
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I have a few ideas for you.
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We're going to start with these.
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We'll look at a few others, more practical ones as well.
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The most important thing that you can do to increase your vocabulary is read.
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Read a lot.
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What should you read?
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Anything and everything.
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But the most important thing is read what you are interested in.
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Okay?
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If you like sports, read a sports magazine.
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If you like movies, read a movie magazine.
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Even better, read the script of the movie.
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If If the movie is based on a novel, read the novel.
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For example, recently the movie
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Life of Pi was very famous in the theaters.
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It's based on a novel.
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Read the novel.
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It's a pretty good book.
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My favorite movie, Shawshank Redemption, based on a novella by Stephen King.
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Read it.
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Best way to increase your vocabulary.
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Also, don't just learn new words and try to remember them.
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Write.
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Write a lot.
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Use the words you're learning, right?
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Every time you learn a new word, you should have a notebook with you all the time anyway, write the word in a sentence.
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But not just any sentence.
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Make sure that the sentence clearly shows that you know the meaning of the word.
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Okay, so let's, for example, I know everybody knows this word, but beautiful, everybody knows this word, but let's say it's a new word for you.
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Don't write the sky is beautiful.
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It doesn't tell me anything about the word beautiful.
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The sky is also blue.
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Does Does beautiful mean blue?
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No. Make sure you're using something.
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I love to see a beautiful sky that has pretty clouds and a sunshine and a nice color,
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nice shade of blue because it makes me feel happy.
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Not the best example.
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It's a very long sentence, but you get my idea.
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Now, again, coming back to that notebook.
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Always have a notebook with you, always have a pen with you, and don't limit yourself to one new word.
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When you learn a new word, make sure you learn different forms of the same word, okay?
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So, for example, the word beautiful.
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Let's say this is a new word for you.
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You learn the word beautiful.
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Put it in your adjective column.
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It's an adjective, that's what you want.
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But why not learn the other forms?
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For example, what is the adverb form of beautiful.
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I think most of you know it.
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It's beautifully.
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So you have now two new words.
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What is the noun form of beautiful?
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It's beauty.
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You now have three new words in your vocabulary.
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Is there a verb form of beautiful?
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Yes, as a matter of fact, there is.
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Beautify means to make beautiful.
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You now have four new words.
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Think of other words.
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Beautician.
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Beautician is a person who works making people more beautiful.
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He does facials and manicures and pedicures and wax and whatever else these beauticians do.
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Anyways, try to find other forms, learn many words instead of just one word.
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Okay.
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Now, some people like to study roots and suffixes and prefixes.
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Personally, I'm not a huge fan of this recommendation, but first let me explain what a root is.
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For example, example, you have the root JECT.
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So you learn INJECT, EJECT, OBJECT, SUBJECT, all the different words that come from the root.
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So many people only study the word or the root JECT
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and think that it will help them understand all the words with this root.
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It's a good idea if you have the patience.
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I think most people who are studying English don't like to study root because it's like studying another language.
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If it works for you, do it.
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If it doesn't, don't.
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Okay.
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And now another thing you can do, listen.
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Listen to any spoken English that you can.
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I think some of you may have heard of TED .com.
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It's a good website.
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People give talks and lectures about different topics.
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Listen.
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Listen carefully.
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Anytime you hear a word that you don't recognize, write it down.
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If you don't know the spelling, no problem.
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Write it phonetically.
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Write the word just like it sounds.
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Then, if you have access to a transcript, means all the words that were spoken, written down, check the transcript and find your word.
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If you can't, if you don't have a transcript, go to a dictionary.
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Now, some of you have asked me to recommend a dictionary.
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Very simple.
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And they're online, you can get the paper one or the online one.
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Merriam -Webster's m -w .com American English.
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Oxforddictionaries .com British English.
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Okay?
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Now, I know I've seen a lot of students use, like, their electronic dictionaries.
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They go from, like, English to Korean, English to Japanese, English to Spanish.
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Don't do that anymore.
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Okay?
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English to English.
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This way, you're learning more words as you're learning one word.
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I don't know this word.
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I look at the definition.
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In the definition, I might be...
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I might be learning other words, okay?
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You will maximize how many words you learn by using an English -to -English dictionary.
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Now, again, about those electronic dictionaries.
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Sometimes, like, especially when people are trying to write, they will write a sentence in their native language and then press
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Translate on this dictionary and get a sentence in English.
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Now, I've seen sentences that I knew came from the.. from the electronic dictionary because they made no sense.
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Okay?
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They were terrible, terrible sentences.
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Don't do that.
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Okay?
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The people who made these dictionaries might not know English very well.
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Keep that in mind.
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Okay?
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So these are some ideas.
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Now I'm going to tell you what I think are the best ideas to increase your vocabulary.
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Okay, so now we're going to look at a couple other ways you can increase your vocabulary.
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These are very effective, but they take a lot of patience, a lot of perseverance.
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You have to try hard, you have to keep doing it, because vocabulary, not so easy, right?
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Okay, so first we're going to start with cards.
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You get yourself a stack of cards, maybe this big, not too big because you want to carry them in your pocket,
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take them with you everywhere you go, okay?
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On one side of the cards, you're going to write words, four, maybe five words that are new words for you.
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You're going to write sentences on the back, on the other side of the card.
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You're going to use these words in sentences, so you have the clear meaning.
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Or you can write the meaning of the word, dictionary meaning.
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Both okay.
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Now, you're going to split your cards into three piles.
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Okay?
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You're going to have the pile of cards of words that you know, words you're very comfortable with.
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Eventually, you will have a pile like this.
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Words that you're very comfortable with, you know them very well, you don't need to look at these cards very often.
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Okay?
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Now, before I continue, where do you get these words?
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You get from a TOEFL site or an IELTS site or an SAT site or an SAT book, for example.
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They have lists of words that you need to learn.
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Put all these words on cards, split them up like this.
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You know these words very well, don't need to look at.
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These words you're almost sure, or at least you recognize these words, you've seen them before, you've heard them before,
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you can guess what they mean maybe in context, so you're not sure, put them in this pile.
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This pile you will look at all the time.
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And And then in the last pile, you put words that you really don't know.
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Okay?
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This is the pile you will look at the most.
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You will study these words.
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As they become more familiar, you move them to this pile.
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This pile you study also very regularly.
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You take the...
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This pile is the one you put in your pocket and take with you when you go outside.
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On the bus, look at your words.
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Long line at the bank, pull out your cards.
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Look at the words, okay?
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When this word becomes very comfortable for you when you know what this word means
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Move it over to this pile leave it at home, okay?
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Don't know almost sure no study move study move put aside
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Once in a while look at them
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Just make sure you remember because if you never look at these again, you will forget them
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Okay, so it's all the time continual you have to practice practice practice practice practice.
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Vocabulary is a lot of memorization.
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That's the way it is.
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Now, here's another thing you can do, okay?
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This is the last one I'll show you today.
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What you do is you make yourself groups of words, okay?
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You take.. you can do it many ways.
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You can make yourself a little.. like a little brainstorm.
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You, for example, if we're looking at roots, you You write the root in here, eject, and then you write reject,
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inject, eject, subject, etc. Or in the list however way works for you.
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So three ways that I will recommend to group words.
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Again, if you like the roots, group them like that.
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Eject, reject, object, subject, inject.
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Now, the reason you're going to make groups is because maybe you don't remember object or object,
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remember noun or verb, but you remember ject, you remember this group.
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You sort of remember what JECT means, so you can apply it to object.
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JECT is like push in most contexts, object is push away, refuse.
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Okay?
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So if you don't remember the word, hopefully you will remember the idea of the group, and then that will remind you what the word means.
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Okay?
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Another group you can use is similar meanings, so synonyms, words that have similar meanings, or a similar function.
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Okay?
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So So for example, I'm going to look at this function, increase, extend, expand, accelerate, intensify, reinforce.
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All of these have some sort, in their meaning, have some sort of connection to increase.
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Extend, make longer, increase length, or time, duration.
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Expand, increase size or scope,
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accelerate, increase speed, intensify, increase intensity, Reinforce, increase strength.
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So maybe you see the word reinforce, you're reading something, you see the word reinforce
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You're not exactly sure what it means, but you remember the group it was in.
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The group was the increase group
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So reinforce means increase plus the context of the sentence you saw it in Will help you understand it means increase strength
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Or sometimes it could be increased number like number of soldiers reinforce the position
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The last group is theme.
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For example, let's say for today the theme is technology.
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Okay?
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So you write words that have to do with technology.
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Obsolete, state -of -the -art, update, downgrade, cutting -edge.
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All these words we can talk about like computer softwares or computers.
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Obsolete, old, not useful anymore.
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Nobody uses this anymore.
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Windows XP.
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Maybe not completely obsolete, but almost obsolete hardly anybody uses it anymore
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State of the art means the newest
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Cutting edge the newest the most modern the most advanced you can get
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Update to make newer Downgrade to make less for example.
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I have Windows 8.
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I don't like it I want to downgrade to Windows 7, but can't do it
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Windows 8 won't let me
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But anyway, so you have a theme, you have a function, you have the root.
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Learn in chunks.
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If you don't remember one word, you'll remember the group.
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It'll help you understand the word you're looking at, okay?
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Go to www .engvid .com.
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I'll give you a quiz, give you some more practice with these ideas.
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And subscribe to my YouTube channel.
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And come again, we'll do this again.
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Thanks.
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Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “How to increase your vocabulary”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: word, write, increase, English, beautiful. This video has 87 sentences and 2058 words to shadow. The speech runs for 13:08. The speaker talks at a natural 157 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. 27 of its 87 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| pile noun | /paɪl/ | A mass of things heaped together; a heap. |
| dictionary noun | /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/ | A reference work listing words or names from one or more languages, usually ordered alphabetically, explaining each word's meanings or senses, oftentimes also… |
| 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. |
| reinforce verb | /ˌɹiː.ɪnˈfɔːs/ | To strengthen, especially by addition or augmentation. |
| obsolete adjective | /ˈɑbsəlit/ | No longer in use or no longer useful; now disused or neglected (often in favour of something newer, better, or more fashionable); outmoded. |
| notebook noun | /ˈnoʊtˌbʊk/ | A book (physical or digital) in which notes or memoranda are written. |
| transcript noun | /ˈtɹæn.skɹɪpt/ | Something which has been transcribed; a writing or composition consisting of the same words as the original; a written copy. |
| pocket noun | /ˈpɑ.kɪt/ | A bag stitched to an item of clothing, used for carrying small items. |
| lesson noun | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided. |
| expand verb | /ɪkˈspænd/ | To change (something) from a smaller form or size to a larger one; to spread out or lay open. |
| extend verb | /ɛkˈstɛnd/ | To increase in extent. |
| patience noun | /ˈpeɪ̯.ʃəns/ | The quality of being patient. |
| verb noun | /vɝb/ | A word that indicates an action, event, or state of being. |
| accelerate verb | /ɪkˈsɛl.əˌɹeɪt/ | To cause to move faster; to quicken the motion of; to add to the speed of. |
| noun noun | /naʊn/ | A word that functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as person, animal, place, word, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality, or idea… |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| pull out verb | To withdraw; especially of military forces; to retreat. |
| push away verb | To apply a force to (an entity) such that it moves to a more distant position. |
| put aside verb | To save or keep (something) to be used at a later time. |
| write down verb | To produce or set (something) down in writing; to record something. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- What should you read?
- Use the words you're learning, right?
- Make sure you're using something.
- Isn't there a verb form of "beautiful"?
- If you don't know the spelling, no problem.
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 don't remember one word, you'll remember |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is meant · is read · is based |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have done · have asked · I've seen |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | person who works · people who are · people who made |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 59 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/, patience /ˈpeɪ̯.ʃəns/, shade /ʃeɪd/, sunshine /ˈsʌnʃaɪn/, duration /dʒʊˈɹeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, accelerate /ɪkˈsɛl.əˌɹeɪt/, intensity /ɪnˈtɛnsɪti/, recommendation /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/
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 pile, dictionary, vocabulary.
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.