Shadowing Practice: IELTS English Podcast - Speaking Topic: Education - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hi, how are you?

It's Wednesday, so that must mean it's time for another IELTS plus English podcast.

Today's topic is education.

Now, this is a really, really common topic, so it's something that you should be prioritizing if you're preparing for the IELTS test.

If not, if this is just for your general English then for everyone it's good to be able to talk about education.

Now before we start if you enjoy this podcast whether you're listening or watching on YouTube I would really appreciate your like,

your subscription and perhaps a comment to tell me what you think

if you enjoy it or if you'd like to say anything about today's topic.

So education I think we'll just go straight into our first

question part one of course did you enjoy studying in school

yes i quite enjoyed studying in school i think that's quite an honest answer i particularly enjoyed studying

when i was younger in elementary school and middle school

or junior school as it's called in england as i got older i struggled

but once I found my motivation in university that's

when I was able to study very hard

and enjoy it another question do you prefer studying alone

or with friends now this is easy for me to answer

I enjoy studying alone the reason I enjoy studying alone is it allows me to concentrate.

I don't get distracted by other people.

I enjoy, actually I don't even care about whether it's quiet or not.

You know I can study alone in a coffee shop that's very noisy

but the important thing is I don't have anyone talking directly to me and I can focus on my work.

And that's it.

I'm warmed up.

I'm ready to go and now we get into the real stuff.

so as you know this is an IELTS podcast

so we're going to do a part two question

and I just want to remind you of my structure before I start

because I think

if I remind you of the structure I'm going to use

then you will be able to listen for it carefully

and realize how I structure this two-minute answer

if you're taking IELTS it will be very useful for you

if you're not hopefully it helps you talk at length about any topic

so here's what I want you to listen for

I'm going to introduce what I'm going to talk about by saying I'd like to tell you about blank

and then I'm gonna move to the past in the past or when I was young.

Then I'm going to move to the present.

Let me tell you a little more about blank.

Then my opinion for me personally and then the future.

In the future I hope.

So these are the kind of sentences you've got to listen out for.

Obviously I haven't prepared today's answer but I always have that structure in my head.

So let's see what part two has in store.

Describe a subject you enjoyed studying at school.

Okay, right, let's do it.

So I need my two minutes on the clock.

Let's start.

I'd like to tell you about my favorite subject, drama.

When I was young, I always liked drama.

I liked acting, I liked performing in front of people.

I wasn't the most confident person but for some reason

when I was on stage or

when I was in front of my class I felt very confident and very comfortable to act or perform in some way.

Not sing, I'm an awful singer but

yes I really enjoyed the performance aspect let me tell you a little more about

that class this class had 30 students it the teacher was young

and very kind and it was I think twice a week we had drama class

and I just I really enjoyed it every class it was a different thing

you know we had to do little plays or little scenes

that I had to come up with characters it was really enjoyable

and on top of

that I actually got an A star that's the the top

grade you could get in England I got an A star every semester

or every term so yeah that was the class For me personally, it was my favourite class

and it was kind of a way of relieving stress between the harder classes such as maths or science,

the classes that required a lot harder study.

It also allowed me to get closer to my classmates.

Sport was also a way that I could get close but particularly mixing with the other gender.

it was a really important class for me.

In the future I hope to do a little more drama and acting.

There we go.

Two minutes up.

So one thing I want to mention about

that as you could probably hear my structure

but i had to adjust something

and this is something you can always do in the present section

if the topic is past just talk about the past so

when i said let me tell you a little more about

i chose about the class the drama class of course that's past tense

so you've got to keep talking in the past tense Very important.

Good.

Well, we move on to the last part of today's podcast, which is part three.

We have three questions today.

Let's see if we can do all of them.

Has education in your country changed in the past 10 years?

I'm going to talk about career because I'm more familiar with career.

I think it's changed a lot.

The one thing I've noticed particularly is before, when I looked at the private academies, I saw a lot of English academies,

maths academies, even some kind of some art academies, that kind of thing.

But nowadays, there's a big shift towards computer science, programming, things like that, particularly programming.

I think nowadays parents feel that programming could be the language of the future

and they are keen to put their kids through that and to start learning programming language as early as possible.

So I would say that's one of the biggest changes in the past 10 years.

Next question, how important is it to have a university degree?

oh this is a really tough one um i i would say based on my experience

and depending on your country it's not

that important to have a university degree the reason i say this is

when i when i meet people and i i deal with people in business and see the skills of people around me.

100

I'm 34 now.

101

So, you know, dealing with kind of people in their mid-30s, late-30s, I don't feel a difference between those who have gone through university and those who haven't.

102

Of course, it depends on the person, but I feel like nowadays a combination of reading a lot,

103

taking online courses

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and experience can be enough to sort of overcome uh the university degree to catch up

105

and even surpass people that are taking a university degree

106

so i would say no university degree is not

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that important now that's controversial the answer is over

108

but i'm sure some people will agree and disagree

109

so i tell you what if you are watching on youtube

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or you're on some platform where you can comment let me

111

know what you think do you think it's important to have a university degree You can disagree or you may agree.

112

Let's see.

113

Okay, I hope you like my answers today.

114

I tell you what I didn't do very well at all.

115

And I've just realized this, but I'm happy with my answers, but I didn't use my keywords.

116

So, you know, I've used a few of them,

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but let me just quickly to wrap up go through a few of the most important keywords.

118

Number one I would say play truant is important.

119

That's playing truant is to and you need to use the verb play means to skip school, stay away from school or even work in some cases.

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So that's important.

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I'd say another one nowadays is distance learning.

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Now of course

123

when we talk about how education has changed distance learning is

124

a huge change distance learning is where you study online rather than going to the institution a couple more

125

that I'll mention fall behind fall behind is one of today's keywords

126

and that means and it's a it's a phrasal verb fall behind means that you are not staying in line

127

with the ability of your classmates and you are going further back so you need to catch up

128

finally crammer there are academies like i have here my academy

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but a crammer is where you're very quickly and intensively learning something

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so maybe within a couple of months you're preparing for an exam

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so those are the keywords i would focus on from today um

132

but there are 10 for you to enjoy this

133

and i didn't say earlier but this is available on www.jax-english.com

134

and you can find the free materials i'm sure you already know this uh

135

and plenty of other free stuff there

136

if you are in korea please go to naver cafe yonggook yonggoo jack's english

137

and you'll find everything there and a lovely community

138

so thanks for listening to today's topic which was education

139

and i will be back next week with another really important topic environment

140

so i hope you have a fantastic week and i'll see you very soon bye

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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: Education”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: enjoy, studying, topic, answer, degree. This video has 140 sentences and 1606 words to shadow. The speech runs for 11:26. The speaker talks at a steady 140 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 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

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
keyword noun	/ˈkiː.wɜːd/	Any word used as the key to a code.
nowadays adverb	/ˈnaʊ.ə.deɪz/	At the present time; in the current era.
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…
classmate noun	/ˈklæs.meɪt/	A student who is in the same class at school.
crammer noun		One who crams or stuffs.
truant noun	/ˈtɹuənt/	An idle or lazy person; an idler.
verb noun	/vɝb/	A word that indicates an action, event, or state of being.
tense noun	/tɛns/	The property of indicating the point in time at which an action or state of being occurs or exists.
disagree verb	/dɪsəˈɡɹi/	To fail to agree; to have a different opinion or belief.
blank noun	/ˈblæŋk/	The white spot in the centre of a target; hence (figuratively) the object to which anything is directed or aimed, the range of such aim.
mathematics noun	/mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/	An abstract representational system studying numbers, shapes, structures, quantitative change and relationships between them.
depend verb	/dɪˈpɛnd/	To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition
intensively adverb		In an intensive way.
phrasal adjective	/ˈfɹeɪzəl/	Relating to, or used in the manner of, a phrase.
prioritize verb	/pɹaɪˈɒɹ.ə.taɪz/	To value, do, or choose something first, or before other things.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
fall behind verb		To be late (for a regular event)
catch up verb		To pick up suddenly.
go through verb		To travel from one end of something to the other.
come up with verb		To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it.
warm up verb	/ˌwɔː(ɹ)m ˈʌp/	To become warmer.
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:

Hi, how are you?
I don't get distracted by other people.
Then I'm going to move to the present.
Let's see if we can do all of them.
I think it's changed a lot.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if you enjoy it or if you'd like · if you're taking IELTS it will be
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	haven't prepared · I've noticed · have gone
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	podcast, which is · those who have · topic which was

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 46 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

Long words — get the stress right: mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/, prioritize /pɹaɪˈɒɹ.ə.taɪz/

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 keyword, nowadays, podcast.

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 →

Shadowing Practice: IELTS English Podcast - Speaking Topic: Education - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?