Shadowing Practice: How to Learn Vocabulary and Not Forget It - Learn English Speaking with Video

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How do you learn vocabulary and not forget it?

Let me show you.

Hello there, my friend.

This is Keith from the Keith Speaking Academy.

So listen, how do you learn vocabulary?

Maybe you just memorise lots of new words.

Maybe you repeat and recite words.

Maybe you expose yourself by listening and reading to lots of English.

All of that is really good, but it's not enough.

And actually learning vocabulary, there is a very simple way to do it.

And that is discover, practice and review.

That's all you need.

Great.

What?

Oh, you want more?

OK, so this discover, practice and review, it's actually not a line.

It's more of a circle, right?

Discover, practice and review.

Some people think language learning and vocabulary learning is a line that you go along and you get better.

In fact, some people think it's a bit like shopping.

Do you know, in a course book, you have a unit on food, a unit on sports, a unit on clothes?

So some people think, well, that's a bit like shopping.

So they go to the food shop and they buy different items, the vocabulary, put it in the bag.

They go to the sport shop, buy some shoes, some different items in the bag.

They go to the clothes shop and buy the items and put them in the bag and think,

great, I've gone to all these shops or units in my book and I've got lots of vocabulary.

Great.

But the vocabulary is in your bag, not in your head.

That is the problem.

And it's because vocabulary is not just a line where you collect all the words.

The vocabulary that you learn, this circle of discover, practice and review for each word or vocabulary,

it actually means you've got lots of these little circles developing as you're learning.

They're getting bigger, they're bouncing, they're changing, sometimes they're crashing, sometimes they're overlapping.

This discover, practice and review.

So listen, let me explain to you these three points

and how they can help you learn vocabulary effectively so you don't forget it.

Okay, discover.

This is discovering new words.

Okay, so maybe you find or discover a new word in a story you're reading, in a video you're watching, or a podcast you're listening to.

And then you may guess the meaning or go to a dictionary and check.

So you'll see maybe more examples of the word and you discover its personality.

What do I mean by personality?

I mean, first of all, is it a noun, a verb, an adverb, an adjective?

What does it sound like, the pronunciation?

Which friends does it have?

So in the example, you'll see a collocation, at least one collocation, the words that go together with this word.

So you're discovering all of these aspects of the word.

What does this mean for you?

It means it's really important to learn vocabulary in context so you can get this information,

especially collocations, and you know better how to use the word.

Secondly, it's important you know how to use a dictionary because sometimes you can't guess the meaning and you have to check.

And the dictionary can help you get the phonetic script and other examples.

I think learning vocabulary is a bit like being a detective, right?

When you come across a new word, you have to think, is it important?

Is it worth finding out more?

If the word, you know, you can guess the meaning, it's not very common, you can just let it go.

But if you see a word you don't know, but it keeps coming up again and again and you don't know the word,

then it's time to investigate.

Get your Sherlock Holmes hat on and investigate the word, right?

Find out the meaning, the pronunciation, all the things that I've mentioned.

As a minimum, I would say if a word is important, make sure you know one meaning.

There will be many, but just get the main one you need for the moment.

the word form, noun, verb, adjective, adverb, the pronunciation, and one collocation.

And that's enough.

Over time, remember those little circles, they will grow and you'll learn more about the word over time.

Don't rush it.

Language learning is a marathon, right?

Not a sprint.

Let's take an example, right?

And I'll show you through the dictionary what we might do.

Imagine I've been reading a book and this sentence came up.

Jane thought the jumper was too expensive, so she decided to shop around.

OK, I can guess more or less the meaning.

And I know the word shop as a noun, but here I can see it's a verb.

So I just go into the Cambridge Dictionary to check.

Now, I say the Cambridge Dictionary, you can use

Collins, Merriam -Webster.

They're all good, right?

The Oxford Learners Dictionary is good.

Shop comes up as a noun.

I knew that.

But it's also a verb, right?

To buy things in shops.

And interesting, the examples.

I like to shop at secondhand shops.

I'm shopping for food.

Okay, so I'm learning a bit more.

I'll make a note.

Shop for, that's good to know.

But I want shop around.

So that's a phrasal verb, right?

So I can just actually search for because most dictionaries have phrasal verbs as an entry,

shop around to compare the price and quality of the same or similar object in different shops.

So, it's comparing the prices.

Great.

Got it.

Okay.

I've got the pronunciation, which I can paste and copy.

I can even listen to it here.

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It's great.

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So, now I'm building up all this information like a criminal record on this word, right?

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That's it, the discover process.

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The second step, practice.

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And this is where you try to use the words, right?

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I mean, it's all well and good having all these new words in your book,

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in your bag, but you need to practice them to learn them more deeply.

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Now, you can practice through writing, through speaking, through just repeating words,

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or better still, all of the above.

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All of those, right?

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Now, there's a very simple technique that I show in my course, my online course, which is the Speaking Success System,

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which is where you change different parts of a sentence.

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So, let's take an example, right?

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For example, I am shopping around for a new jumper.

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Okay.

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Now, I'm going to ask you to repeat that, but to change the noun, okay, to a new noun.

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I'll show you a picture and then you change the word, change the noun.

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I'm shopping around for a new jumper.

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Change new jumper to this.

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I'm shopping around for a new phone.

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Great.

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Now change to this.

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I'm shopping around for a new car.

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Excellent.

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Now change the tense to the past tense.

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I was shopping around for a new car.

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Or it could be I shopped around.

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I shopped around for a new car.

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Right?

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Change to the future.

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I will shop around for a new car.

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Or I'm going to shop around for a new car.

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Could even say I will be shopping around for a new car next week.

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Okay.

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Finally, you could change the person.

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Instead of saying I like to shop around, what about she?

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she likes to shop around okay so through this kind of changing different words vocabulary

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and different tenses you're practicing and practicing and building your flexibility

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and then finally you could just make up little stories

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or make up your own sentences which are true for you right something

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that is true for you i actually hate shopping around but my wife always shops around when we go to buy something.

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It's absolutely true.

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Saying things that are true for you make the language more personal and deeper.

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Your learning is deeper.

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So what does this mean for you?

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Practice, practice, practice.

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That's what it means for you.

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If you're on your own, you can practice like this, repeating.

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If you're, I don't know, with other people or have friends you can practice with in conversation, you can do it or just writing as well.

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Or all of the above.

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Let's move on.

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Okay, part three is review.

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And this basically means getting some kind of feedback so you deepen your understanding of the word.

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There are maybe two main ways to get feedback on your practice of the word and your understanding of the word.

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One is the classic, a teacher or another student corrects you when you make a mistake, right?

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You say, oh, she shop around for new clothes.

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And the teacher says, no, no, no, she shops around.

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Oh, right, got it, right?

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So that's one way of getting feedback.

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You can get feedback from a teacher.

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Actually, you can also get feedback from real life.

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I think this is quite funny.

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Talking about the classroom is not real life.

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Real life is out in the world.

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No, but in the classroom, I'm still alive.

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Yes, but it's not real life.

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But when you're out in the real world, okay, the other real world, I know many of you are living in English speaking countries.

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And when you're out practicing language, you say something and the reaction of the other person,

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the native English speaker, makes you think, oh, something's not right.

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And you often learn from that experience, right?

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For example, shop around.

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Maybe you go to a shop, you speak to the shop assistant and you say something like, well, I like this jumper.

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It's nice, but I'm going to shop around your prices with other shops.

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And the shop assistant goes, what?

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What do you mean shop around our prices?

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You can't shop around our prices.

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And you think, oh, something's not right.

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And you discover, maybe you go and check or you ask and they tell you that you can't shop around prices.

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You shop around for something, but shop around already means comparing price.

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So you can't say shop around your prices.

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So that situation gives you feedback.

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The other way to get feedback is when you expose yourself to English and you're listening to stuff,

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watching videos and reading, and you see the word again and again in different contexts.

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And each time you see the word in a new context, it reinforces your learning and deepens your understanding of how to use it.

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Especially if you're actively noticing that, right?

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Making an effort to notice, oh, shop around.

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I learned that last week and here it is again.

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And just notice how it's used.

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Also, the fact that if you can learn vocabulary not only in reading

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but in listening and watching the different medium help you deepen your understanding

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so that's it it's the review is basically getting the feedback what does this mean for you i think

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it means

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that you must as well as practice is you must expose yourself to the language as much as possible

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so that you can see it in different see that the word in different contexts and different situations and deepen your learning.

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If you can get a teacher to give you feedback, that could be useful.

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Teacher correction is not always the best way because, as teachers know, students often don't listen to correction.

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They just carry on.

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So correcting only works if the student is ready, right?

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But there are other ways to get the feedback and reviewing

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and exposing yourself to the language is a great way to do it.

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Great, so there it is.

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Discover, practice and review.

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This cycle, when you're learning vocabulary, it's going on and on.

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And I think being aware of that and trying to do this is really useful.

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I guess one of the key messages is that when learning vocabulary,

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to not forget it, try and see or hear vocabulary in as many different ways as possible,

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different contexts, and try and use it in lots of different ways as well.

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This methodology, if you like, is a simplified version of the methodology I use in my online course,

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IELTS Speaking Success, Get a Band 7 Plus Gold.

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The methodology is the speaking success system, and it's a way that I use to help students learn vocabulary so they don't forget it.

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What they do is that they discover the language through the model answers in the course.

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They're then practicing chunks.

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like changing different parts of the sentence with recorded videos.

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And I'm giving them prompts and the answer as well.

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They can practice in breakout rooms.

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So that's real -time breakout rooms online with other students in very small groups.

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And they can review the language with quizzes.

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We have mini stories to help see the language in different contexts.

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All of that to help you learn vocabulary so that you don't forget it.

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Do remember, it takes time, right?

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It's not a line that you accumulate.

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It's not shopping.

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It's building up all these little circles over time with patience and practice.

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So be patient, be curious, notice things, and remember to be a detective.

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You have to decide if it's worth investigating a word,

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and then how best to investigate the word so you can learn about it in a deep way.

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Nice.

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Listen, if you've enjoyed this video, please do subscribe and turn on notifications.

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And if you like this, then I think you should watch the next video coming up, which will show you how to think in English.

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Oh, and by the way, if you want a summary of this with some extra examples

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so you can start practicing and developing this habit to help you learn vocabulary and not forget it.

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Download this free PDF.

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Just click on the link in the description below.

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You just exchange your email and I will give you the PDF for free.

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If you give me your email, you can also get more free lessons,

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resources, and other things that will help you on your journey to learn English, develop your speaking skills.

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And if you're studying IELTS, ace the IELTS speaking test.

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Take care, my friend.

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Bye -bye.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “How to Learn Vocabulary and Not Forget It”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: shop, word, vocabulary, practice, learn. This video has 238 sentences and 2386 words to shadow. The speech runs for 16:55. The speaker talks at a steady 141 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 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
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.
discover verb	/dɪˈskʌvə/	To find or learn something for the first time.
feedback noun	/ˈfiːdˌbæk/	Critical assessment of a process or activity or of their results.
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…
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…
verb noun	/vɝb/	A word that indicates an action, event, or state of being.
jumper noun	/ˈd͡ʒʌmpɚ/	A woollen sweater or pullover.
investigate verb	/ɪnˈvɛs.tə.ɡeɪt/	To inquire into or study in order to ascertain facts or information.
expose verb	/ɪkˈspoʊz/	To reveal; to uncover; to make visible; to bring to light.
pronunciation noun	/pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/	The formal or informal way in which a word is made to sound when spoken.
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…
cloth noun	/klɒθ/	A fabric, usually made of woven, knitted, or felted fibres or filaments, such as used in dressing, decorating, cleaning or other practical use. Sometimes…
tense noun	/tɛns/	The property of indicating the point in time at which an action or state of being occurs or exists.
methodology noun	/ˌmɛθ.əˈdɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/	The study of methods used in a field.
detective noun	/dɪˈtɛktɪv/	A police officer tasked with collecting evidence and information in order to solve a crime; an investigator.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
come up verb		To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly.
build up verb		To erect; to construct.
find out verb		To discover, as by asking or investigating.
make up verb	/ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/	To constitute, to compose.
come across verb		To change sides; to cross over to work for the opposition.
go along verb		To participate, cooperate, or conform.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

How do you learn vocabulary and not forget it?
What do I mean by personality?
What does this mean for you?
Let's take an example, right?
What do you mean shop around our prices?

Grammar in this video

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

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've gone · I've mentioned · you've enjoyed
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	course, which is · sentences which are

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 57 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: cloth /klɒθ/, methodology /ˌmɛθ.əˈdɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, marathon /ˈmæɹəθən/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, correction /kəˈɹɛkʃən/, rush /ɹʌʃ/, shoe /ˈʃu/
Long words — get the stress right: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/, investigate /ɪnˈvɛs.tə.ɡeɪt/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, methodology /ˌmɛθ.əˈdɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like vocabulary, discover, feedback.

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 →

Shadowing Practice: How to Learn Vocabulary and Not Forget It - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?