Shadowing Practice: How to Make Steady Progress in English | 10 Simple Learning Tips - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hello my friends.
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Welcome back to English Unleashed.
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I'm Tom.
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Today I'm going to talk about something that almost every English learner wants.
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Progress.
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Steady progress us.
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You want to understand more.
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You want to speak more easily.
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And you want to feel that your practice is taking you somewhere.
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You want to feel that your practice is useful.
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But sometimes Sometimes you study for a week, you feel excited, and then you stop.
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Life gets busy, you feel tired, or you start wondering, is this kind of practice even working?
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Today I will share my top tips for making progress that you can keep going with.
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You don't need a perfect routine.
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You need something that fits your real life.
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Let's start with my first tip.
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Make your daily goal small and clear.
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Study more English sounds good.
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But what does it actually mean?
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When will you study?
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What will you do?
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Try something more specific.
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Say, after breakfast, I will listen to five minutes of English and practice three useful sentences.
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Now you have a clear action and a time to do it.
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And on a difficult day, make it even smaller.
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Listen for two minutes.
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Say one sentence.
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A short session still gives you a chance to practice.
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It also makes returning tomorrow feel easier.
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My second tip is to stop changing your main resource every few days.
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Maybe you find a podcast on Monday, download an app on Tuesday,
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and buy a new book on Wednesday.
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by friday you have lots of materials
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but you haven't spent much time using any of them choose one main resource
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that you understand reasonably well and enjoy enough to return to Give yourself time to become familiar with it.
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Finish a section.
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Repeat an episode.
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Complete an activity.
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You can explore other things too,
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but having a clear starting point means you spend less time choosing and more time learning.
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Third, listen to the same short recording more than once.
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I know, new content feels more exciting.
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But familiar content gives you a different kind of practice.
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The first time, listen for the general meaning.
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What is the speaker talking about?
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The second time, notice useful phrases.
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If there is a transcript, check anything that confused you.
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Then listen again without reading.
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Can you hear words that seemed unclear before?
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You don't have to understand every single detail.
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The goal is to make a little more of the recording clear each time.
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My fourth tip is to learn phrases you can actually use.
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Imagine you learned the word depend.
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Well, that's a useful word, but you may still feel unsure about putting it into a sentence.
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Now learn, it depends on the weather.
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You have a whole phrase that you can use and change.
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It depends on the price.
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It depends on how much time I have.
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When you practice a useful expression, connect it to your own life.
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Write one example that is true for you.
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Then say it aloud.
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Make the language personal.
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Tip number five.
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Give yourself regular chances to speak.
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You don't need to wait until you know more grammar.
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Start with the English you already have.
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Describe what you're doing while you make breakfast.
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Talk about your plans while you walk.
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Record a short message about your day.
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At first, you may stop often.
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You may forget simple words.
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That doesn't mean the practice is useless.
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Try saying the same thing again.
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On your second attempt, you already know what you want to say
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so you can focus more on expressing it keep the topic simple and the practice manageable
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my next tip is to check what you remember before looking at your notes let's say you learned three phrases yesterday.
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Today, close your notebook and try to say them.
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Can't remember one?
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That's okay.
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Check it, cover it, and try again later.
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You can also ask yourself little questions.
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How do I explain that I'm tired?
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How do I ask someone to repeat something?
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Tip number seven.
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Make room for feedback without trying to fix everything at once.
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If you have a teacher or conversation partner, ask about something specific.
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Maybe you want help with your past tense or the pronunciation of a useful word.
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Choose one or two things to work on.
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During some speaking activities, let yourself finish your message before stopping to correct mistakes.
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Afterwards, look at what you could improve and try again.
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You need opportunities to communicate and you also need opportunities to notice problems.
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your routine can include both finally expect your routine to have interruptions
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you'll have busy weeks you will miss a session sometimes you simply won't feel interested when that happens
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return to one small action
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you don't need to punish yourself with a huge stubby session open your usual resource listen to a short section
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and say a few sentences
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okay before we finish choose just one tip from today which one could you try tomorrow tell me in the comments.
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Perhaps you will repeat a recording,
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practice three personal sentences, or record yourself for one minute.
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Thank you so much for spending this time with me.
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I'm calm and this is English Unleashed.
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Until next time, keep practicing,
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notice the small changes and keep believing in yourself bye for now
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “How to Make Steady Progress in English”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: practice, tip, useful, listen, English. This video has 103 sentences and 888 words to shadow. The speech runs for 9:00. The speaker talks slowly, about 99 words per minute, so there is time to copy every sound. 90% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| phrase noun | /ˈfɹeɪ̯z/ | A short written or spoken expression. |
| depend verb | /dɪˈpɛnd/ | To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition |
| resource noun | /ɹɪˈzɔːs/ | Something that one uses to achieve an objective, e.g. raw materials or personnel. |
| routine noun | /ɹuˈtin/ | A course of action to be followed regularly; a standard procedure. |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| confused adjective | /kənˈfjuːzd/ | unable to think clearly or understand |
| afterwards adverb | /ˈæf.tɚ.wɚdz/ | At a later or succeeding time; after that; |
| connect verb | /kəˈnɛkt/ | To join (to another object): to attach, or to be intended to attach or capable of attaching, to another object. |
| feedback noun | /ˈfiːdˌbæk/ | Critical assessment of a process or activity or of their results. |
| explore verb | /ɪkˈsploɹ/ | To examine or investigate something systematically. |
| steady adjective | /ˈstɪdi/ | Firm in standing or position; not tottering or shaking; fixed; firm. |
| communicate verb | /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/ | To impart or transmit (information or knowledge) to someone; to make known, to tell. |
| grammar noun | /ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/ | A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general. |
| podcast noun | /ˈpɑdˌkæst/ | A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on… |
| reasonably adverb | /ˈɹiː.zən.ə.bli/ | In accordance with reason. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- You don't need a perfect routine.
- Let's start with my first tip.
- Can you hear words that seemed unclear before?
- How do I explain that I'm tired?
- How do I ask someone to repeat something?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form | start wondering · keep going · stop changing |
| Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain | may still feel · may stop · may forget |
| Future with “will” will + verb — a decision, promise or prediction | will share · will you study · will you do |
| Obligation: must / have to / need to saying that something is necessary | have to understand · need to wait · need to punish |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 14 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, can't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: punish /ˈpʌnɪʃ/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, interruption /ˌɪntəˈɹʌpʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/, reasonably /ˈɹiː.zən.ə.bli/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, interruption /ˌɪntəˈɹʌpʃən/, manageable /ˈmænəd͡ʒəb(ə)l/
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 phrase, depend, resource.
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.