Shadowing Practice: How to Study English by Yourself - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Hi everybody, welcome back to my channel.
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Today we're going to talk about how to study English by yourself so you get fast results.
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And if you see a bug flying around or you hear a dog barking or waves crashing, just know that I'm at the beach here in Vancouver, so let me show you my view.
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So this is my view right now while I'm filming, so if anybody's wondering why I moved to Vancouver, just so you know, this is downtown.
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I walked for 10 minutes and I got here.
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So let's start with the fact that you don't need to move to a different country to practice English.
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You can do it all by yourself.
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All you need is just a system and consistency.
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So today I'm going to show you how to put that together.
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So English is not my first language.
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My first language is Romanian.
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I started learning English in school and then I continued studying it at the university and then I started teaching it and then I worked a couple summers in the US and then I moved to Canada in 2018.
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And these are the things that I learned from my experience and through my students' experience while learning English.
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So here's what I recommend if you want to learn English by yourself.
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I'm going to divide this in a couple pillars so it's easier for you to remember and to follow along.
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Pillar number one listening is your foundation.
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Before you can start speaking English, you have to get used to listening to English and hearing English so you understand the language without translating it in your head.
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And this is a mistake a lot of self-learners make.
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They jump straight into grammar books and they skip listening altogether.
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It's almost like they're scared of it.
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So here's what you need to do instead.
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Every day for at least 20 minutes, listen to something in English.
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Podcasts, YouTube videos, TV shows, whatever.
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It does not matter as long as you are enjoying it.
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So it has to be something that interests you.
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And very important, there are two types of listening.
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So there's passive listening and active listening.
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Passive listening is the listening you do while you're doing other tasks like cooking or driving or cleaning your house.
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This is just in the background, right?
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You're not paying too much attention but you're getting your ear used to the melody and the rhythm of the language.
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And there's active listening.
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When you sit down, you pay attention, you follow the ideas, you stop, you pause, you rewind, you look up the words you didn't understand.
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Maybe you write them down in your vocabulary notebook.
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And the thing is, you can't do one and not the other because passive listening builds familiarity and active listening builds comprehension.
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And with modern technology nowadays, you can create different fun activities so you keep the learning process a little bit more entertaining.
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So if you're studying solo, you can build your own personalized curriculum, your own pace, your interests, all of it.
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And this is where Kimi AI comes in for me.
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They're also the sponsor of this video so big shout out to Kimi.
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Kimi is a free AI assistant and honestly what makes it different from any other AI tool is how much it can actually handle.
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It can go through 50 files at once and each conversation can hold up to 200,000 words.
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It can even run up to 300 AI agents at the same time to get stuff done for you.
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So if you're a student, an entrepreneur, a lawyer, a researcher, a PhD, basically anybody drowning in documents, this tool is built for you.
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And its file skills are insane.
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Like this, this and this.
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I made all of these with Kimi.
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If you're ever making PPTs or writing papers, this thing is a game changer.
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I'm gonna put the Kimi link and the prompts I used in the description so you can grab whatever you need.
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So to give you a real example, let's say you have an exam tomorrow.
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You haven't even started studying, you have a million pages of notes and there's no way you're gonna get through it in one day.
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So what I do, I drop everything into Kimi.
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Slides, notes, whatever, all at once.
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And it spits out a summary of just the key points.
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So instead of reading everything, you just review that and that is way better than not studying anything.
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It also does excellent research in language learning and it can create all kinds of activities like games, quizzes, vocabulary flashcards, grammar exercises and much more.
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So Kimi is great for both students and teachers who want to diversify their programs.
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I even use Kimi to analyze my YouTube comments and identify my audience's main concerns, questions or requests.
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This way I can create content that actually helps my viewers.
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So yeah, if you want to live a smarter life, go check the link below and try Kimi for yourself.
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It's free so you've got nothing to lose and a whole lot of time to gain.
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Let me know in the comments how you end up using it.
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Okay, going back to the English studying pillars.
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Pillar number two, shadowing for speaking.
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So how do you practice speaking when you don't have anybody to talk to?
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That's where shadowing comes in.
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Shadowing means listening to a native speaker and repeating everything they say right after them or at the same time as them, copying their melody, their rhythm and their pronunciation.
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You're basically a parrot.
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So you can start easy.
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You can just pick 30 seconds to a minute from a podcast episode where you have clear audio and clear speech and just listen to the native speakers talk first.
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You don't need to do anything, you just listen first.
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And you can do that a couple of times.
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Once you've done that, you play the audio again and you try to repeat whatever they say right after them.
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Do this a few times with the same clip and don't be afraid of repetition.
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Repetition is the only thing that helps.
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If you do it only once, this will be a waste of time because you will not notice results right away.
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And this is uncomfortable at first.
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You will feel silly.
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I felt silly.
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All of my students felt silly at first.
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But then it gets better.
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And shadowing is great because it doesn't just train your brain, it trains your mouth muscles and it's free.
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Oh, and another completely free activity is narrating everything around you and talking to yourself.
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So you can narrate everything you're doing while you're cooking, you're cleaning, you're walking, you're driving.
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You can label everything you see.
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You can comment on different events.
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You can express your opinions out loud about different conversations you've had, your impressions about whatever happens in your life.
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So whatever thought comes to your mind, you need to try to convert it into English.
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And I know it sounds like it's not very efficient or it's not useful because you think, "Well, if I'm making mistakes, I don't want to keep saying and making the same mistakes and remembering the wrong thing." That's just not it.
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When you're talking to yourself, it's not about saying things perfectly.
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It's about grabbing the words that have been just sitting on the shelves in your brain that are not used, that are passive vocabulary.
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So through this activity, you actually put them into your active vocabulary.
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So whenever you need them next time, you can recall them faster.
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Pillar number three, build vocabulary the right way.
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Do not memorize long vocabulary lists.
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I know that's what you want to do, but that doesn't work long term because you're learning them out of context.
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Instead, learn vocabulary in chunks.
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So not just the word "decision," but the phrase "make a decision." And not just the word "interested," but the expression "interested in learning." When you're watching or reading something and a new word comes up, write down the whole sentence, not just the individual word.
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And review these sentences a few times a week because your brain memorizes patterns and not just isolated words.
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And please don't try to learn 50 new words a day.
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That simply doesn't work.
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Aim to actually use five to ten words a week because that's what makes vocabulary stick.
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Writing down 20 or even ten words a day only gives you the illusion of learning.
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And best case scenario, you're just adding these words into your passive vocabulary, which basically means you're just going to be able to understand them when someone else uses them.
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Until you add them into your active vocabulary, you will never be able to use them whenever you need them.
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Pillar number four, grammar without a teacher.
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You do not need to study grammar rules for hours.
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What you need to do is identify patterns.
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When you read or listen, pay attention to how sentences are built.
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And if something sounds off to you, that means that your brain is actually picking up patterns already, which is a very, very good sign.
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For example, if you say, "I'm going to home," instead of "going home," you can hear that "going to home" just sounds a little off.
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Like you've never heard that before actually because it's wrong.
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Or "she don't like that" sounds off because the correct form is "she doesn't like that." So if you listen to any native speaker, they will never say "she don't like that" unless it's a rap song.
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But you should never learn English from rap songs.
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So once you notice these patterns, every time you make a mistake, your brain is going to be like, "Hold up, you said something wrong.
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We need to correct ourselves there." But for the technical side, pick one grammar point a week.
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Past tense, conditionals, whatever you're struggling with.
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Study it for 15 minutes and then look for it in all of the content that you're consuming.
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Have a very specific grammar target for that week.
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Let's say you're looking at conditionals.
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Maybe conditional number one.
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If you don't take the pie out of the oven in 10 minutes, it will burn.
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So you know that the structure is "if something happens, this other thing will happen as a consequence." So just look for those examples in real life.
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This connects the rule to real language instead of just memorizing a chart.
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Pillar number five, reading for fluency.
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Reading is so underrated.
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It builds vocabulary, grammar intuition, and sentence structure all at once.
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So make sure you read things slightly above your level.
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Not something too easy and not something too hard.
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If you understand 100%, that's too easy.
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If you understand less than 70%, that's too hard.
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News articles, short stories, or even social media captions work.
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And read a little every day instead of a lot once a week.
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Reading out loud is also very helpful, but you have to make sure you're following the melody and the tone of the idea or the thought in the sentence.
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And don't read like a robot.
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You have to add emotion into your reading.
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For example, "Is it really finished?" he murmured, stepping down from the platform.
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"Quite finished," said the painter, "and you have sat splendidly today.
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I am awfully obliged to you." How did that sound?
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Not very natural.
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Okay, let's do it better.
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"Is it really finished?" he murmured, stepping down from the platform.
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"Quite finished," said the painter.
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"And you have sat splendidly today.
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I am awfully obliged to you." Do you see how I made that sound more humane, like a real person was saying that?
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Okay, and then my last final thought.
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It's not really a pillar, but it's something very, very important.
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One of the biggest mistakes people make is being afraid of repetition and consistency.
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People do intense study sessions once a week instead of small sessions every day.
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Your brain needs repetition spread out over time, not cramming.
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20 minutes a day will get you further than 3 hours once a week.
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And it doesn't have to be 20 minutes.
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It can be 5 minutes, it can be 10 minutes, but it has to stay consistent.
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Because you don't get better at things just by doing them once.
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And you don't get better at doing things just by learning about them.
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You have to learn about the things, and then you have to practice the things, especially when it's skills, like speaking.
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So this is how I would set up a simple daily system for you.
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10 minutes of listening, active or passive.
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10 minutes of shadowing.
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5 minutes reviewing vocabulary sentences from the week.
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10 minutes reviewing the grammar point that you're focusing on that week.
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That's about 30 minutes a day and you will see real progress in just a few months.
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And that's free.
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Okay everybody, thank you so much for watching and let me know if you have any questions in the comments down below.
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You enjoy the rest of your day and I'll see you in the next one.
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Bye!
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Who Can Benefit from This Self-Study Guide?
This video is a goldmine for IELTS speaking practice aspirants, self-learners, and anyone craving to move beyond grammar books. Whether you’re a beginner building basics or an intermediate learner aiming to sound more natural, the focus on consistency and listening makes it perfect. The tips work for those who want to learn at their own pace, using tools they love—no need to move abroad!
Useful Phrases to Add to Your Toolkit
The video is packed with everyday expressions. "Get fast results" (achieve progress quickly) and "build familiarity" (become comfortable with) are great for talking about learning. "Drowning in documents" (overwhelmed by paperwork) is a vivid idiom to describe stress. Keep an eye out for these—they’ll make your speech sound more natural, especially in IELTS speaking practice.
Mastering Pronunciation: The Shadowing Secret
Want to improve English pronunciation? The video hints at "shadowing"—a technique where you repeat phrases right after a speaker. This is called shadowspeaks or shadow speak, and it’s a game-changer. Try it with the speaker’s casual tone: notice how she says "so" and "right" to connect ideas. For structured practice, use a shadowing app to mimic rhythm and stress. Pair this with active listening (pausing to repeat tricky words) and passive listening (background English while cooking) to build fluency. Even 10 minutes a day can make your accent sound more natural—perfect for nailing IELTS speaking practice or casual conversations.
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.