Shadowing Practice: How to teach yourself a language - The Fluency Habit Podcast - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hey, it's Meredith with phoneticfluency.com and welcome to another episode of the Fluency Habit Podcast.

I want to take a moment to say thank you

so much for all of the positive feedback on the first two episodes on YouTube.

They're available on YouTube but also on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

But on YouTube when you leave a comment or like the video, this really helps it reach other people

and all of the positive feedback helps me understand

that this is something that you guys like and enjoy and value so that I can keep making more content like this.

So if you could leave a like or comment on this video as well, I would really appreciate that.

Let's go ahead and talk about today's video, which is how to teach yourself a language.

If I were to include a byline, it would be how to teach yourself a language.

It always takes more than one resource.

And you'll see why I say that later in the video.

I want to start with a certain mindset that a lot of people have about language learning, which is that you need a teacher and you're the student.

And the teacher is the holder of knowledge.

So everything they tell you is how you learn the language.

They're the one with the knowledge and they have to impart this knowledge on you, therefore teaching you and that's how you're going to learn the language.

I'm not saying that you don't need a teacher because you do need a teacher, but this particular mindset is the problem.

Learning in this way leads to failure.

Let's talk about how most people learn in this kind of philosophy of language learning, which is that, okay, you decide, I want to learn a language.

So you're like, I want to learn French.

I want to learn Spanish.

I want to learn Italian, whatever.

So you go find a teacher, maybe a group course, maybe one-on-one, but you find a teacher, you buy the textbook, you buy a brand new notebook and some cute pens,

and you show up to class and you pay attention and absorb what the teacher tells you.

You know, whatever the teacher writes on the board, you write it down in your notebook.

You pay attention, you take the notes, and then at the end of class, the teacher is going to say, okay, study this, and this is your homework.

So now when you go on your own the rest of the week, the rest of the week you study, but your study is limited specifically to what you saw in class.

You practice via homework, but this practice is limited to what you saw in class

and very likely is something that's very visual.

So reading and writing rather than actual use of the language.

The result is that you don't spend nearly enough time with the language as you need to

if you actually want to advance quickly and become fluent in this language.

You advance very, very slowly.

You're moving along at a snail's pace.

At a snail's pace in English means slowly.

So you're moving slowly.

You're moving at a snail's pace.

And in my opinion, this way of learning keeps you from the actual fun part of language learning, which is using the language.

That's the actual fun part.

And when you learn in this way, usually it keeps you from getting to participate in that fun part.

So you're not really having that much fun.

It feels like a task.

It feels like a homework.

And so you're going to eventually lose your motivation and possibly stall out in your language learning journey.

Stall out is another phrase in English that means kind of like, like when you are trying to move forward and you kind of just can't.

So you stall out.

Or possibly even worse, you continue studying the language for years and years and years and years.

And then even after years, you can't really properly use the language.

You're not a fluent speaker of that language despite years of time that you've spent studying it.

So the flaws with this mentality, this way of viewing language learning, is number one, an over-dependence on a single source of information.

That is your teacher.

You view the teacher, again, as the one with all the knowledge.

And so that's your source of everything that you're going to do related to the language.

And their job is to transfer that knowledge to you.

So you're depending too much on one single source.

And the other part of the flaw with this mentality is adopting a passive student role in your learning.

The teacher is the teacher and their job is to teach you and you as a student, your job is passive, which is just to receive the information that someone else has given you.

And this is entirely the problem.

So let's talk about a new philosophy that you need to adopt

if you really want to actually learn quickly and get to the fun part and become fluent in another language.

Let's start with what actually is true.

The previous mentality.

What is true about that is that the language comes from outside of you, your native language.

You've been using it for long enough that it's inside you.

But if you're learning a foreign language, that language isn't in you and you need to somehow do a lot of speaking practice to get it out.

The language exists outside of you and to be able to master it and start using it yourself.

First, you have to absorb it from outside of you.

So that is true.

And the other thing that's true is you do need a a teacher.

But here's where the shift is.

The teacher is only a part of your process.

What you're going to do if you really want to teach yourself a language

and do it more quickly is build a large toolkit of resources

that you use for your learning and the teacher is only one of these.

They're a major part of it, but they are not the guide through your whole language learning journey.

If you take away only one main idea from this episode,

is that learning another language must be active and self-directed by you, not by your teacher.

And you will rely on no one single resource.

You're not going to ever be able to fully learn a language to fluency using only one single resource,

whether that's an app like Duolingo or a course or a teacher,

there's never going to be just one thing that's going to bring you from beginner to fluent.

I like to think of language learning like crossing a river on stepping stones.

So imagine you're on this bank of the river

and you look across to the other bank and that's where you want to go.

And it looks really far away and you can see that there's some stones in the river that you can walk across, but you don't really see a clear path.

Some of the stones look kind of far apart, especially as you look further out into the river, you see stones that are really far and you're like, oh my gosh, what am I gonna do when I get there?

The problem is you're not even on the first stone

and you're already looking at the 50th stone and wondering how you're going to handle it once you get there.

So what we need to do is come back to only the thing that's directly in front of us

and focus on that.

And the stones in this analogy are your language knowledge.

Here, you're a beginner on this bank of the river.

The other bank of the river is fluency or mastery of this language.

And the stones are your language knowledge.

So when you are on the first couple of stones, this is your basic conversation kind of knowledge.

So you have some basic vocabulary, you know how to conjugate verbs in the present tense.

So you can have like a really rudimentary conversation with someone in this language.

And as you're having this conversation, you realize like, oh my God, this conversation is very limited because I can't conjugate in the past tense.

So that's how you identified your knowledge gaps.

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Your knowledge gap is the past tense.

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I can't even tell this person what I did yesterday because I don't know how to conjugate in the past tense.

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So you learn the past tense and now you can step onto the next stone.

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So you've advanced just a little bit further in your language learning journey.

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And that's how you teach yourself a language.

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You constantly discover what your knowledge gaps are

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and you fill them by learning the information you need to learn

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and you continue progressing forward the thing about this is you

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don't rely on your teacher to do this this is something

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that you do yourself

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so in this old mentality the teacher is the guide the teacher is the holder of knowledge

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and you're the student and

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so the teacher is the one whose job is to make you learn the language right and

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so you don't ever look on your own where's my knowledge

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gap what's the next thing I need to do you just rely on the teacher for that so

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when we shift this mentality now the onus onus means like

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responsibility the onus is on me as the learner to say okay there's my knowledge gap

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and now I need to fill it the teacher is going to greatly help you in filling the gap

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but it's not their job to identify the gaps the way

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that I see language is made up of three pillars

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so it's a knowledge thing and the three pillars of knowledge that you need to really master another language are vocabulary,

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grammar, and phonetics.

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The reason that my brand exists is because we already have plenty of information

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and courses and education out there about grammar and vocabulary.

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There's like a million teachers and a million courses who will teach you English grammar and English vocabulary,

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but for whatever reason, phonetics is this pillar of language learning that is treated as disposable, as optional, as something that you don't necessarily need to do.

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But in reality, you do.

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You need to have all three to truly be fluent in another language.

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You need to have good grammar, good vocabulary, and good phonetics.

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So if you have one, but not the others, if you have a lot of vocabulary, but you can't conjugate verbs and your phonetics is really bad, you're not fluent.

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And on the other hand, if you have two, but not the other, like if you have excellent phonetics and you know how to conjugate verbs, but you have no vocabulary,

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you can't even really form a sentence because you don't know the vocabulary to do so, so you're not fluent.

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The same is true if you are very fluent in vocabulary and grammar, but basically level zero phonetics.

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This is how people end up having a very high theoretical fluency, like the knowledge of English or whatever language is very,

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very, very strong, but their verbal fluency is not at a hundred percent because when they speak, they don't have the correct phonetics.

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And so people don't understand the things that they're saying in order to be really fluent in a language all three.

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And as you advance across the river using your stepping stones, filling your knowledge gaps to get there, you are going to interact with all three of them in different ways.

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But the first stone, the very first step that you take when you start crossing the river, has to be phonetics.

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Think about how babies learn their first language.

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When they are little and tiny and can't say anything, they don't understand what language is or how it works, but they can still start making sounds.

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And they make sounds and the people around them react to those sounds.

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And so So they start tuning their ear and creating sounds

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that are used in the language that will become their native language.

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So as adults, when we start with phonetics as our very first step, you set a foundation for correct pronunciation later on.

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In my last video, I said that reading is a waste of time.

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Obviously, context is important.

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And what I was saying there is that reading is a waste of time only in the very beginning.

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Because if you have not mastered phonetics,

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then reading prematurely can create incorrect letter to sound mapping because you're already using a writing system in your native language.

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And if you're speaking one of the languages that I mentioned in this video, like English or Spanish or French or one of these languages, you're probably using the Latin alphabet.

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So these letters already have a phonetic meaning in your language.

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So if you start reading before you've mastered phonetics, you're going to incorrectly make connections between letters and sounds in your language instead of in the new language.

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So this is going to set you up for reading incorrectly and pronouncing incorrectly.

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So reading prematurely is the problem, not reading in general.

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So you need to start with phonetics and that's exactly what I did with Spanish.

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The way that I did this was I went to the Wikipedia page for Spanish phonology.

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So you can just Google Spanish phonology.

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The first thing that comes up will be the Wikipedia page for Spanish phonology.

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And this is true for most languages.

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You can Google Italian phonology, Portuguese phonology, and you'll find the Wikipedia article.

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And on that article, it will give you charts.

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You don't necessarily need to know how to read these symbols, which are the IPA, International Phonetic Alphabet.

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You don't need to know how to, but it would be very helpful if you did.

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So I learned bit by bit as I was going.

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So some of them are the same as the letters that you would expect them to be.

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Some of them are different.

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But anyways, the point is you'll see these charts, and if you click on the symbol, it will take you to an article for that specific sound.

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And you can click on the audio file and listen to it over and over and over.

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So if you're learning Spanish and you're an English speaker, you're probably not used to saying these short vowels without movement.

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So for example, A, A, E, E, E, E.

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And so that's what I did.

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I clicked on all the sounds of Spanish, not just vowels, but all of them.

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I was like, okay, like listening to the audio file, repeating it.

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I was like, okay, all right, I think I can make my voice sound like the voice that I'm hearing.

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So through mimicry, through my ears being the tuning fork to see

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if the sound coming out of my mouth sounds like the sound that I'm hearing, I was able to start mimicking those sounds.

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And then after that, I started listening to slow Spanish.

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And this is with no comprehension.

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Of course, I was able to comprehend things that are cognates or things I had heard or picked up from, you know, just exposure to Spanish, but I wasn't really aiming for understanding at this point.

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I was aiming for exposure to the oral language.

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So I learned the sounds with Wikipedia.

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And then after that, I started listening to Spanish.

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I was like, okay, I'm like hearing this.

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Okay, yeah, uh-huh.

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Okay, I can see how they're using these sounds that I learned.

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And at that time, I started to do a little bit of shadowing.

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Once again, accuracy at this point is not important because I don't understand anything, but I'm making sure that I understand the sounds I'm hearing and that my mouth can also make those sounds,

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the Spanish sounds, not sounds of my native language, English.

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And doing this only takes a very short amount of time.

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Like it depends on what language you're learning, but in my example of learning Spanish, it took me a couple of days.

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And then after that, I Googled, you know, Spanish spelling phonetics or something like that.

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And then I can find, okay, like in Spanish, the letter, you know, S makes this sound and the letter C makes this sound in this situation, but in this situation, it makes this sound.

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And so I'm like, okay, you know, now I know the sounds.

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Now I can see the letters.

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Now I can see how they connect.

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And so my brain can do correct letter sound mapping in Spanish.

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And so at that point I was ready to move on.

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Again, not a long process.

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So the second stone I'm ready to step on now is vocabulary and a little bit of beginner grammar.

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Imagine that someone comes up to you and says to you, me late flight, where location airport at?

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None of that is grammatically correct, but you know what they wanna say.

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They wanna say that they're late for their flight and they're asking you where the airport is.

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Zero percent grammar, but 100 percent comprehension, right?

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The problem is in traditional language learning, most of the time in the first class, it's like, okay, take out your notebooks and write down to be, and then you start conjugating,

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I am, you are, da, da, da, da.

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This imaginary guy who came and asked you where the airport is because he's late for his flight, he didn't know how to conjugate to be,

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but he had vocabulary, and so he was able to express an idea to you.

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So that's why vocabulary is more important than grammar in the beginning.

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At this stage in my learning journey, now that I had correct letter to sound mapping in my brain,

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I went on EnkiWeb to the shared deck section and I searched 2000 most common words in Spanish.

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And I found a deck and I downloaded it and started studying on Enki.

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I've mentioned Enki probably like a million times already, but it's truly like one of the biggest tools in my toolkit for language learning.

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I'm gonna make a video about it soon, but what you need to know is Enki is a flashcard studying app,

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but it uses spaced repetition so you don't see cards that you already know over and over and over again.

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If you've told Enki, I know this word, it's gonna stop showing it to you.

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So I started studying the 2000 most common words in Spanish on Enki, and I did not wait until I was finished with that before I started moving on to the next stone,

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taking my next step, which was grammar.

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And for grammar, I used multiple resources.

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In my case, I used a book called Easy Spanish Step-by-Step.

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I used the free audio course Language Transfer, which is available at languagetransfer.org.

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I also used SpanishDict.com, which has changed its name to SpanishDictionary.com, and StudySpanish.com.

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The thing is, the specific source is not relevant or important

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because this video should be useful for you regardless of what language you're learning.

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So it doesn't really matter.

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I'm using these same techniques now that I'm learning Portuguese.

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Obviously, the websites and books and whatever, They're all different.

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But the important thing is that for learning grammar, I found resources that I liked and that worked for me.

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Now I have, you know, a starting point on the vocabulary.

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I've started, I haven't memorized all 2000 words, but I've started.

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I've started to build up my vocabulary with this.

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And now I've learned a little bit of grammar.

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And in my case, I decided to wait until I could at least have very basic conversations before adding in a teacher.

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You might wanna add a teacher from day one and that's absolutely fine.

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In my case, I just, I don't know, I just kinda wanted to at least be able to say something before I had a teacher.

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So that's what I did.

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I found a teacher, a Spanish teacher, a one-on-one Spanish teacher on italki.

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And I started having lessons with him twice a week.

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Nowadays, I would not find a teacher on italki because, um, well, italki is not really a fair place to be a teacher these days.

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I've taught on italki before.

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And nowadays I just would rather the money go directly to the teacher that I am working with.

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So that's why for my Portuguese teacher i found him via his youtube channel

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but anyways going back five years ago

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when i was no six years ago now

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when i first started learning spanish i found my teacher on italki

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and started having classes two times a week with him

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so you can see how the first step was phonetics

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and then these next rapid succession couple of steps were all about vocabulary grammar

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and then finding someone to practice with

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so this is how you start building your resource toolkit as

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i was learning Spanish my resource toolkit included between 10

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and 20 resources at any given time of

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which my teacher was one of those in my particular Spanish

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learning routine what I did was every week I was having

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classes twice a week I'm adding my own personal cards to

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my Anki set every day I'm drilling my Anki set

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and completing it every single day in addition to

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that I was doing constant internal narration

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so at the time I was living in the United States I live in Mexico now but at

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that time i was living in the u.s to be kind

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of immersing myself in spanish constantly i was narrating my life in spanish

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so every little thing i'm kind of thinking about like oh i'm gonna be late let me just grab this

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and uh but before i leave i need to eat i'm like oh how do you say breakfast in

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that moment i would grab my phone and add to enki breakfast

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and then put the word in there so that means

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that i am finding my own gaps in knowledge

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and i was instantly filling the gap

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and putting it in a place where I know I'm going to be reviewing it again, which is my Inky set.

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So I'm making that knowledge stay with me permanently.

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In addition to that, I was listening to the language transfer course, not every single day because it moves very quickly and it's very dense.

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It's an amazing course, but the grammar concepts that they go through are quite heavy.

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I guess you could say it's like not something you can move through very quickly

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because you need time to kind of absorb what you've just learned.

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I listened to it at least twice all the way through

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And I would often go back to different episodes and listen to them again as needed.

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In addition, this I was doing every day, consuming content in Spanish, YouTube videos, podcasts, whatever it was in Spanish every single day.

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And at least a little bit of shadowing, like you don't need to sit down and do 30 minutes of shadowing.

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In fact, I think that would be too much.

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But I would listen for several hours a day, like put in my headphones and listen while I was doing other things.

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But the actual shadowing, I would do at least, you know, maybe 10 minutes a day of shadowing to help me internalize the rhythm and intonation of Spanish.

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The narration in my head, like constantly having my internal monologue going on in Spanish, and the classes, which were conversation practice,

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those are the two things that are helping me find my knowledge gaps.

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And then I fill the knowledge gaps via my resources.

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So that's all these different websites, podcasts, whatever, and also my teacher.

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That's how I fill the knowledge gap.

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So I discovered the vocabulary word I didn't know.

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I learned the grammar concept I didn't know how to use.

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And then I would drill them.

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So if it was a vocabulary word, I would add it instantly to my Anki's.

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That means every day I would start drilling that word until I learned it completely and didn't need to see it anymore.

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And if it was a grammar concept, I would read an article online on one of these websites that I mentioned, and then I would go find like a quiz and make sure that I understood it correctly.

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So in this way, that's how I always continued advancing

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and finding the next stone I needed to step on in

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order to keep making my path across the river of language learning.

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So for Portuguese, just like any language I have learned or will learn in the future, I always start with the same first step, which is of course phonetics.

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How long you spend learning the phonetics should be relatively short, but it could be longer or shorter, just depending on the phonetic complexity of the language that you're learning.

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So for example, Spanish has a very low phonetic complexity.

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There's only 22 phonemes, depending on the variety of Spanish that you're learning.

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And for the most part, one letter equals one sound, with some exceptions, and that's it.

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So for Spanish, it didn't have to take a very long time to master

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the phonetics before I was ready to move on to the next thing.

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With Portuguese, on the other hand, it did take me more time.

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So it took me a little while to master nasal vowels.

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So I had to spend time using a mirror

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and a flashlight looking into my mouth and learning how to control the vellum

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which is the thing that makes the difference between an oral

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and a nasal vowel so this took me a little

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while to master and then also i was reading articles about the letters

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because in portuguese one letter might make one sound in one position

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and it might make another sound in another position

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so i spent uh you know several weeks learning portuguese phonetics before i moved on to the next step

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if you don't spend enough time here on the phonetic step you will advance forward in understanding without proper pronunciation

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which will cause problems down the line

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when it comes to actually communicating in your language

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and then i started listening to portuguese even though i didn't understand it i understood things

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that were you know similar to spanish incognite

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so i could pick up a little bit but true understanding very low

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but i was listening to portuguese in order for my ear to start picking up on the sounds

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that i just learned in this first initial stage with wikipedia

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and so on I would also start doing some shadowing

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and kind of seeing okay can I make my sound make sorry can I make my mouth make the sounds

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that I'm hearing here and Once I felt very confident about that.

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That's when I moved on to the next step, which was of course

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Vocabulary via Anki I found a common word list

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that someone else made and I set it up in Anki

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So that there's a voice that will automatically read these words out loud

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Because I want to make sure that I'm learning them with correct pronunciation pronunciation

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because the pronunciation or the phonetics is a little bit more complex than in Spanish.

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For example, acontecer.

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So I hear it.

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So that way I'm studying it with correct pronunciation.

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So building up my vocabulary, I need to build a lot of vocabulary because grammar doesn't matter that much when it comes to very rudimentary communication.

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I just need to have a lot of words at my disposal.

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And then also, of course, starting with vocabulary or starting with grammar rather.

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And in this case, I started with Pimsleur

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because sadly there is not a language transfer course for portuguese um

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but anyway i started with pimsleur

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and then i found a teacher once again my teacher is

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not my number one resource for all of my learning he helps me find the gaps

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that i have in my knowledge he helps me fill them

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and helps me identify them so that i can fill them on my own

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so for example in my last class i realized

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that i had to say to him like 10 different times

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so i had to say to him many times like how do you say this verb in the past

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so i was like I was like, obviously I need help with the past tense.

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So he gave me some homework and some resources, which are great, but then on my own, I went on Google and was like, you know, app for studying Portuguese verbs conjugations or whatever.

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I found a website called Linguno, but the specific website doesn't matter.

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It's more about me being able to go on my own

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and find a resource that helps me fill the gap that I have identified.

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And so I found this app and read the articles like, okay, when it's like this in the past, then this is the, whatever and then started studying through the drills.

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So that's how I'm building my grammar knowledge thanks to discovering the gap in my knowledge with my teacher.

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Also sort of relevant, I mentioned earlier

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that nowadays I would not find a teacher on a website like italki

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because I don't wanna give money to italki or Preply or any of those sites.

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I wanna give my money directly to the teacher, the one who's doing the work.

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And I found my Portuguese teacher via his YouTube channel, which is called Teach Yourself Portuguese.

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And it's specifically because of this philosophy says that in one video

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or another that like it's called teach yourself portuguese because

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really it's you who are doing the teaching his youtube channel

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and him as a teacher are like a a tool helping you do

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that i thought that was pretty cool so that's how i view language learning

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and that's how it applied to me learning spanish

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and that's how i'm applying it now to me learning portuguese

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so when i started learning portuguese i was on this bank looking across to the other bank

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which is fluency i find the gaps in my knowledge

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and start crossing the river just one stone at a time

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i learn what i need to learn i'm not a passive student

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and i'm able to cross stone by stone until i reach the other end of the river

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and am now a fluent speaker in another language

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and this is what you should do regardless of whatever language you're learning and even

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if you are already halfway through the river you can still

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start this new approach by taking more of an active role in your learning and guiding your learning process.

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If you want to learn more about what phonetic fluency does, you can download my free pronunciation guide.

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This highlights the five phonetic sounds of English that are most troublesome for native Spanish speakers.

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You can also check out my website to see more about joining a course with me.

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And once again, remember to like, comment, and subscribe so that this video reaches more people

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and I can receive your feedback and know whether or not I'm on the right path.

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Thank you so much for watching and I will see you next time.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 376 sentences and 5341 words to shadow. The speech runs for 25:46. The speaker talks fast, about 207 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
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.
grammar noun	/ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/	A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general.
fluent adjective	/ˈfluənt/	That flows; flowing, liquid.
gap noun	/ɡæp/	An opening in anything, made by breaking or parting.
resource noun	/ɹɪˈzɔːs/	Something that one uses to achieve an objective, e.g. raw materials or personnel.
pronunciation noun	/pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/	The formal or informal way in which a word is made to sound when spoken.
shadow noun	/ˈʃædəʊ̯/	A dark image projected onto a surface where light (or other radiation) is blocked by the shade of an object.
tense noun	/tɛns/	The property of indicating the point in time at which an action or state of being occurs or exists.
mentality noun	/mɛnˈtæləti/	A mindset; a way of thinking; a set of beliefs.
verb noun	/vɝb/	A word that indicates an action, event, or state of being.
homework noun	/ˈhoʊmˌwɝk/	Exercises assigned by a teacher to a student which review concepts studied in class.
drill noun	/dɹɪl/	A tool or machine used to remove material so as to create a hole, typically by plunging a rotating cutting bit into a stationary workpiece.
audio adjective	/ˈɔ.di.oʊ/	Focused on audible sound, as opposed to sight.
pace noun	/peɪs/	A step taken with the foot.
feedback noun	/ˈfiːdˌbæk/	Critical assessment of a process or activity or of their results.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
build up verb		To erect; to construct.
check out verb		To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
come up verb		To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly.
come up to verb		To approach.
end up verb		To bring to a conclusion.
go ahead verb	/ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/	To proceed with; to begin.
go back verb		To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time.
go back to verb		To stem from; to originate in.

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	you've spent · has given · you've advanced
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	video, which is · learning, which is · passive, which is
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is made · is treated · is called

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 133 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: rhythm /ˈɹɪð.əm/, theoretical /ˌθi.əˈɹɛt.ɪ.kəl/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/, exposure /ɪkˈspəʊ.ʒə(ɹ)/, comprehension /ˌkɑmpɹɪˈhɛnʃn̩/, exception /əkˈsɛpʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, mentality /mɛnˈtæləti/, incorrectly /ˌɪnkəˈɹɛk(t).li/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/

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 vocabulary, grammar, fluent.

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 →

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?