Shadowing Practice: IELTS English Podcast - Speaking Topic: Animals - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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- Hello everyone, I am your IELTS tutor, Jack and welcome to the IELTS Plus Podcast.
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Remember, I have a wonderful free handout, free materials for every episode of this podcast.
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So please make the most of that.
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You can download the free materials on my website.
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www .jax -english .com.
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That's jax -english .com.
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Or for my Korean students, you can go to my Naver Cafe.
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If you search "Yonggook" Jack's English you'll be able to join me there and get access to all of my free content.
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So with that out of the way let's start today's episode.
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Today's topic is animals which is a good one for me.
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I really like animals so I'm feeling quite confident that I can answer these questions well.
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Remember in this podcast I am going to take some real IELTS questions.
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These are questions that have come up before.
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- Thank you and I'm gonna answer them on the spot.
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No help, I have no script.
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For those watching the video you can see I have nothing.
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I do have the computer in front of me but you'll have to trust me.
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I don't have a script.
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And I also have 10 vocabulary for each episode which I will try to get into my answers.
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And all of this is on the free handout that you can access at my website or Naver Cafe.
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- So I think we'll start and I'm going to answer some part one questions first.
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So The first question is as follows.
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And Have you ever had a pet before?
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- Yeah.
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Yes, I've had many pets before.
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I've had dogs.
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Rabbits.
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hamsters A bird.
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My most memorable pet would probably be my bird.
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My bird was called Sunny.
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and she lived with me for several years in my house in Korea.
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And she'd fly around the house and she kind of spoke, she said a few words and made a lot of noise.
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Unfortunately, one year she actually became very sick and passed away.
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That was a few years ago.
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But I had a lot of fun with her over the four or five years that I raised her.
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Okay.
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Another question from part one.
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What kinds of animals do people in your country have as a pet?
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Well, I'm from England and I think English people are big dog lovers.
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We often raise dogs, one, two, three, I see families with several dogs sometimes,
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and I think because we have so many parks in England, it's a really good opportunity
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to be able to walk the dog and play and let the dog get plenty of exercise so
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That's the most common pet in England.
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Now I'm gonna try a part two question.
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I will actually, I'll get my phone out so I can keep track of this.
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In my academy, I have my part two structure.
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Now I'm not gonna teach that to you on this podcast, but it's something you'll find on my IELTS Plus YouTube channel.
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But I'm gonna roughly follow my structure and answer a part two question.
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So I've just got my two minutes here Let's see how I do.
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As I said, this is totally made up on the spot.
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So the question is as follows.
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Talk about a pet that you or someone you know once had.
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Now Before I answer, it's very wise to use answers that you're very familiar with.
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So I'm going to choose the same one as I did before, which is the bird.
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Thank you.
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Okay.
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two minutes starts now.
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I'd like to tell you about my pet Sonny.
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Sunny was a bird.
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I say was because unfortunately she passed away.
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I bought her about five years ago when I was living in Korea.
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I guess I was quite lonely so I wanted to have a pet to keep me company in my house.
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My house was quite small so it was difficult to raise a dog or a cat.
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I think that would have been unfair to the animal.
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So I decided to get a bird because I could let the bird fly around my room or my house,
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but it was kind of a low maintenance choice.
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And in the end, it was a very good choice.
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She stayed with me for five years and we had a wonderful time.
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Unfortunately, as I said, after five years, she became sick.
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We don't know why.
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It was something that just can happen.
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And unfortunately she passed away.
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So that was perhaps two or three years ago she passed away.
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Let me tell you a little more about Sunny.
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She was a small parakeet.
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She's a type of parrot.
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She was yellow with orange cheeks.
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She was loud and she had quite a unique character.
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She was full of energy, full of life and she really loved flying.
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So whenever I came home, I opened my cage or her cage and she flew around my house and caused a lot of trouble,
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but she was a real pleasure to raise.
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I loved her very much.
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She gave me a lot of joy and also to my friends as well.
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They all really enjoyed seeing her.
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In the future, I really hope to have another parrot actually.
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I'm not sure what species, but I'd like to have another parrot and raise her in the same way.
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There you go.
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Two minutes.
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Bang on.
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So Just in case you're curious in part two.
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I do have a structure.
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It starts with the past tense.
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I tell you no matter what the question is I start
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with the past tense then I move on to the present tense.
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I describe that thing more deeply.
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And then in the end I finish with a kind of conclusion talking about the future tense.
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So that's my answer.
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Let's just do one more part three and then we'll wrap up today's episode.
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The question I think I'll answer for part three Okay.
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We'll go with the following one are there endangered animals in your country now.
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I'll answer this in about Korea
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because I live here now there are many animals in the wild in our country herbivores omnivores carnivores all different types
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But there are some endangered animals even critically endangered animals
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so the first one that comes to my mind is is the Korean bear
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I'm not sure the exact name of the species, but this bear lives in the mountains, and there are very few left.
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Of course, as is the case with many animals, they've been hunted to the brink of extinction.
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Apart from that
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we used to have tigers I don't think we haven't have tigers anymore so we can say that they are extinct
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uh other endangered animals i'm not sure but uh i think there are other types of Cats.
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wild cats that are endangered or critically endangered and those can still be found in the mountains of Korea Okay.
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That's my final answer.
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I hope you liked today's podcast.
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It was the first episode and each episode will be a different topic.
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Today was animals and I managed to get through just four questions.
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but I'll always try to get through four or five each episode.
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As I said before, there is a free handout.
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you can find it on jacksenglish .com jacks -english .com
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or my cafe my neighbor cafe in korea
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if you search youngook youngo jack's english thank you for listening and see you very soon bye bye
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you
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “IELTS English Podcast - Speaking Topic: Animals”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: animal, answer, pet, bird, episode. This video has 120 sentences and 1257 words to shadow. The speech runs for 9:10. The speaker talks at a steady 137 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 84% 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
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| endangered adjective | /ɪnˈdeɪn.d͡ʒɚd/ | in danger, at risk, said of something where there is a strong possibility something bad will happen to it (for example, a species in danger of going extinct) |
| podcast noun | /ˈpɑdˌkæst/ | A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on… |
| café noun | /ˌkæˈfeɪ/ | A coffee shop; an establishment selling coffee and sometimes other non-alcoholic beverages, simple meals or snacks, with a facility to consume them on the… |
| tense noun | /tɛns/ | The property of indicating the point in time at which an action or state of being occurs or exists. |
| handout noun | /ˈhændˌaʊt/ | An act of handing out something. |
| parrot noun | /ˈpæɹət/ | A kind of bird, many species of which are colorful and able to mimic human speech, of the order Psittaciformes or (narrowly) of the family Psittacidae. |
| critically adverb | /ˈkɹɪt.ɪ.kə.li/ | In a critical manner; with, or in terms of, criticism. |
| cage noun | /keɪd͡ʒ/ | An enclosure made of spaced bars, normally to hold animals while providing some ventilation. |
| carnivore noun | /ˈkɑː.nɪ.vɔː/ | An organism that feeds chiefly on animals; an animal that feeds on meat as the main part of its diet. |
| hamster noun | /ˈhæm(p)stɚ/ | Any of various Old World rodent species belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae. |
| herbivore noun | /ˈ(h)ɜːɹbɪvɔːɹ/ | An organism that feeds chiefly on plants; an animal that feeds on herbage or vegetation as the main part of its diet. |
| omnivore noun | /ˈɑmnɪvɔɹ/ | An animal which is able to consume both plants (like a herbivore) and meat (like a carnivore). |
| parakeet noun | /ˈpɛɹəkit/ | Any of various species of small parrot primarily of tropical regions. |
| brink noun | /ˈbɹɪŋk/ | The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge. |
| extinct adjective | /ɪkˈstɪŋkt/ | Of feelings, a person's spirit, a state of affairs, etc.: put out, as if like a fire; quenched, suppressed. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| pass away verb | To die. | |
| get through verb | /ɡɛt ˈθɹu/ | To overcome; to endure. |
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. | |
| wrap up verb | To cover or enclose (something) by folding and securing a covering entirely around it. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- I don't have a script.
- Yes, I've had many pets before.
- I hope you liked today's podcast.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was called · they've been hunted · are endangered |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have come · they've been hunted |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | animals which is · before, which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 38 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, gonna, I'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: critically /ˈkɹɪt.ɪ.kə.li/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like endangered, podcast, café.
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.