Shadowing Practice: I practiced speaking English every day to reach C1, so you can just copy me - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hey bro, how you doing?
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Today in this video I'm going to share the exact five
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strategies I used to improve my English speaking from a completely
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beginner to a fluent level without living in an English speaking country
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because like bro I'm just a student in Russia
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and yeah bro I know that speaking is definitely the hardest part of learning any language
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because like sometimes you really want to improve your speaking
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but you just simply are not sure about what to do to get the best results.
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Well after a few years of learning English by myself I figure out several really practical methods
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that I could say saved my speaking
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and today I'm going to share all of them with you
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so by the end of this video hopefully bro hopefully you're
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going to know how to practice speaking in a really simple fun
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and enjoyable way that's important enjoyable way
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but at the same time improving your fluency every day step by step
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and by the way if you want to find a speaking partner or just make more international friends, you can join my group chat for English learners on Telegram.
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So link is going to be below in the description.
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Okay, so the first method I used to improve my speaking was shadowing.
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Shadowing is a learning technique where you literally put on a video of someone speaking English and you repeat everything they say.
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And to be honest, I prefer videos that are easy to understand.
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I could say I want to understand at least 80% of all vocabulary I hear.
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So this way, I can also learn new words.
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But at the same time, I will not pause too much because pausing too much while watching content is frustrating and not really helpful.
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And bro, I started doing shadowing since being a very beginner.
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Like that was my first exercise I did in terms of practicing my speaking
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because like yo i remember two years ago i was kind
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of afraid of speaking i wasn't ready to speak english with other people you know this feeling
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when you feel kind of i'm not ready now to speak
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and that's totally understandable if you have it right now that's all right it happens
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because like realistically speaking a new language with other people right away is pretty stressful But bro,
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I still wanted to improve my speaking though.
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So like shadowing was a good solution, because it wasn't a scary thing at all.
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And imitating native speakers helped my brain and my mouth to get used to English and feel more confident.
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And here's a few of my personal tips on how to do shadowing.
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You can use English subtitles if you need it.
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But remember that you never use your native language subtitles.
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It's better to use only English subtitles or double subtitles like English and your native language at the same time, but never your native language.
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Second, you don't have to understand everything you repeat.
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Just copy the sounds you hear, even if you don't understand the word you just said.
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Because right now, the main goal from doing this exercise is improving your flow of speaking.
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And for learning vocabulary, there are some other different exercises, but shadowing improves your speaking flow better when you don't pause much.
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And the third one, choose content you genuinely enjoy watching, because shadowing becomes way easier when you're actually interested in the topic.
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Okay, bro, so I hope shadowing will help you
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and the next tip i really like is talking about your surroundings in english it means you literally describe
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everything you see around you interacting with the real world right
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now it's like a side quest during my day do you
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know what a side quest it's like whenever i'm walking somewhere whatever i'm doing sitting in a cafe at college
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or just chilling here in my room, I try to describe things I see around in English.
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For example, I might just say the weather looks really nice today, or there are so many people in the park,
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there are literally tens of thousands English words around you right now
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and you don't even know this because each object is connected to verbs and adjectives.
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So like you can pick one, pick any random object and try to describe it, create the whole stories around it.
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Like you can describe its color, how you can use it.
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So we basically have unlimited opportunities to practice speaking.
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But obviously I'm not doing this exercise like all day.
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No, like 10-20 minutes a day, that's gonna be enough.
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And I really love this practice because it trains my brain, how to create sentences in English in real time,
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and I don't translate everything from my native language anymore.
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For example, I have a tree in my room, look, and right now the English word tree is not connected to the Russian word deriva for me,
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because right now the word tree is connected to this, just this object.
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It is true.
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And I don't even think about my native language.
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So you're slowly getting used to thinking directly in English, which naturally improves your speaking skills.
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And also, bro, it helps you become more comfortable with expressing your thoughts.
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For example, like when people say, I understand English, but I can't speak.
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Usually, the real problem is that they just don't have enough active practice.
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And talking about your surroundings becomes kind of a bridge between passive learning and conversations in real life.
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By the way, if you want to watch me doing this practice, you can take a look at English speaking vlogs I have on my channel.
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And in this vlogs, by the way, I interact with the people not really often sometimes
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but i have real english conversations and this is exactly the next method
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which is called getting a friendly speaking partner yeah bro this one is already about talking to real people
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but at the end of the day like the main point from learning
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and your language is the ability to speak to other people
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and if you find a person for you who you feel really comfortable to be speaking with, you're going to improve a lot.
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And sometimes I know that for many English learners, for any language learners, that's really stressful to speak to other people.
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And that's why I put this method only in the third place.
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Because me personally, I started speaking to people only after a year of learning.
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Like for the whole first year, I was just practicing alone, doing shadowing, talking and many other stuff.
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And when I finally decided that, yeah, bro, I want to speak to other people.
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I went to my speaking club at my college.
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I also started searching for speaking partners online and I'm telling you
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that improved my speaking just significantly bro also bro for a
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certain period of my English learning journey I had an online speaking tutor from America
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and I want to tell you
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that it didn't cost much first of all it didn't cost much it was super friendly
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but at first that was really stressful and
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that was not easy to practice speaking with american native speaker
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but that practice helped me become more confident because i was afraid
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and after a few months yeah like several months i was practicing with the tutor after
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that i was no longer afraid of anything bro after speaking with american native speaker i don't care about speaking to
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anybody else.
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Like that was the high point.
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And just in case you're wondering, I found that speaking practice on italki.
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A really good platform.
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I will put my affiliate link below in the description.
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Or if you don't feel comfortable with having a tutor right now,
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you can find an English speaking partner just like you and practice speaking together with him.
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Ideally, we need to find a person who has the same English level, maybe has the same goal from learning English.
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For example, studying abroad, passing a certain exam or working abroad, I don't know, and has the same interests in life.
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So you will actually be having fun talking when you make more friends, when you learn about new cultures, when you just have fun with somebody else in a kind way.
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learning languages finally make sense, you finally understand the real meaning of learning English.
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It's not about some boring textbooks and grammar rules.
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It's about real-life practice.
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It's about people.
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If you want to find this kind of speaking partner, just make more friends, please go to my chat on Telegram.
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I created this specifically for this purpose to bring all English learners together.
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There are still two more ways of practicing your speaking.
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My favorite one is speaking on camera.
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You literally take your phone, turn on the camera and start speaking about some topic.
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One of the main benefits of this method is that it turns your passive knowledge into active speaking ability.
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In other words, you turn English vocabulary you know into something you can actually use in real life.
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I used to speak on camera when I was intermediate and when I wanted to become fluent.
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So there was even a playlist on my channel.
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It's called 100 days speaking on camera.
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So all 100 videos, you can take a look at how I did it.
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And this method is really good for any English level.
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I mean, if you're a beginner, A1, you can just speak about simple stuff like your family,
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your hobbies, your friends, just in order to reduce anxiety and get used to speaking even a little bit.
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But when you're an intermediate learner like A2, B1, you can just be satisfied with those simple topics if you want to reach fluency, obviously.
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And that's the time when you need to step a little bit out of your comfort zone and explore more challenging topics.
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To do with this exercise at an intermediate level, I have a list of 30 speaking practice cards.
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Take a look.
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There are 30 everyday topics you should be able to speak about.
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And each topic has 10 questions.
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So you could answer, for example, five questions every day.
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And it would take around like seven, 10 minutes every day.
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And after you finish recording, you can watch it back and analyze your speech.
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It will help you in a few ways.
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First of all, you start noticing your mistakes like grammar,
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pronunciation, filler words, things you actually don't recognize while speaking in real life.
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Second, you get used to hearing your own English voice and speaking becomes less scary.
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Yeah, I'm going to be honest, for sure that was really uncomfortable in the beginning how it's supposed to be, but we're not gonna stop,
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we never stop and if you do this exercise consistently every day for a few weeks, maybe for a month, several months,
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even better, you will notice that your English become way, way better.
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And the last tip that improved my speaking is called reading and retelling.
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The concept here is pretty simple.
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Look, you just take an English book that you already almost 100% understand,
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you read one paragraph, and you retell what you've just read.
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And the main reason why this method is so powerful is because it helps you to turn inputs into actual speaking.
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You know, a lot of English learners consume content every day, like videos, podcasts, books, anything, a lot.
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But when it's time to speak, you just don't know what to say.
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And that's happening because understanding and speaking, producing are like two different skills you need to develop.
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So with this method, first, you get information, you get new vocabulary, grammar in the book you just read,
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and then you retell, you practice your speaking, you practice using that vocabulary and grammar you just get a second ago.
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And another cool thing is that you're noticing a gap in your vocabulary.
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Like when you read, maybe you understand everything.
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Okay, you understood.
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But when it's time to speak, you think like, wait, how do I say that word again?
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You just don't remember how to say that word because that's not into your active vocabulary.
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It's in passive.
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And this method helps you to move from passive into your active vocabulary.
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Yo, but remember that you need to pick a book according to your current English level
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so you can understand almost everything and actually focus on speaking.
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So when I was doing it, I had to keep it really simple.
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I would read for 30 seconds, one paragraph, retell for 10 seconds.
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Read for a minute, retell for 20 seconds.
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I was trying to build this flow of reading and speaking non-stop.
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But when I picked a book, that was too hard for me.
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I was stopping like every five seconds And honestly, it's broke the whole flow of speaking.
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So I would focus on translations more than on speaking.
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And the whole exercise just loses its points.
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And with that, I will see you in the next video.
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If you like this one, please click the like button.
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Smash the subscribe button.
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And leave some comments if you find this video helpful.
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I love you so much, guys.
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Thank you so much.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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Have a good day.
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See you, bro.
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Good luck with English you will become fluent.
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I believe in you.
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You will become fluent in English officially.
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Let's go.
About This Lesson
In this lesson, you will discover effective strategies to enhance your English speaking skills, specifically focusing on the technique of shadowing. By practicing shadow speak methods daily, you can improve your fluency and pronunciation without the need for a native English-speaking environment. This approach allows you to develop more confidence in speaking while simultaneously expanding your vocabulary in an enjoyable manner.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Shadowing: A technique where you imitate a speaker by repeating what they say, focusing on their pronunciation and intonation.
- Fluency: The ability to speak a language smoothly and effortlessly.
- Vocabulary: The body of words used in a particular language.
- Subtitles: Written text displayed on a screen that translates or transcribes the spoken dialogue.
- Describe: To explain the details or characteristics of something.
- Imitate: To copy the way someone speaks or behaves.
- Confidence: The feeling of self-assurance that comes from appreciating your abilities or qualities.
- Practice: The repeated exercise of an activity to improve proficiency.
Practice Tips
To make the most out of your shadowing practice, consider these tailored tips focused on enhancing your English pronunciation and fluency:
- Choose Accessible Content: Select videos or audio clips that are not only interesting but also easy to understand. Look for content that offers at least 80% comprehension of vocabulary. This ensures you can mimic effectively while enjoying the process.
- Utilize English Subtitles: When practicing shadow speak, use English subtitles to aid your understanding. Avoid using subtitles in your native language, as this can hinder immersion. Double subtitles might be helpful as a transitional tool.
- Copy Without Anxiety: During shadow speech practice, don’t stress about understanding every word. Focus on imitating the sounds and rhythms, even if some vocabulary is unfamiliar. This helps your brain adapt to the flow of the language.
- Engage with Your Environment: Talk about your surroundings in English as part of your daily life. Describing what you see can trigger spontaneous speaking opportunities and reinforces vocabulary.
- Keep It Enjoyable: Select topics that genuinely interest you. Shadowing becomes more effective when you’re engaged with the material, leading to a more natural and enjoyable learning experience.
By incorporating these techniques into your practice routine, you'll be on your way to mastering English through the art of shadowspeaks!
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.