Shadowing Practice: IELTS Speaking Tips + Tricks: The Ultimate Guide - Learn English Speaking with Video

Over the last 20 years of teaching IELTS speaking and working with thousands of students at a band seven, eight, or nine level,

what I tried to do with this lesson is kind of boil it down to the key things

that are the difference between someone struggling with speaking and someone getting like a band eight or a band nine.

So there's a few different principles.

Principle number one is the students that really do well, they will have a different strategy for part one

and then a different one for part two and then a different one for part three.

So let's talk about each of those strategies, and then you can learn them and use them yourself in the test.

Okay, so we talked about the different types of questions that we might get in part one.

Let's think about why they are asking you questions about yourself.

Well, this is really to put you at ease.

It wouldn't be fair if you walk into the room and they said immediately something like,

let's discuss how AI will change education in the next 30 years.

You're like, that was quite abrupt.

So they'll ask you things like, where are you from?

What's your job?

To let you ease into the test and let you get comfortable.

You shouldn't feel as if you need to impress the examiner

and you shouldn't feel as if you need to overthink this at all.

Just be yourself.

So how you should approach this is they ask you a question.

Think about first, how do I directly answer this question in the first sentence?

You would then give some kind of extra information.

That could be an explanation, an example, or a personal story.

Imagine you are speaking to a friend or a colleague in a coffee shop.

That is the kind of tone and the kind of answer that you want to give.

What you shouldn't do, and this is a big mistake that I see students making, is they try and count the number of sentences or even worse, count the number of words.

You do not want to be thinking of other things other

than just talking to the examiner our brains are not very good at multitasking.

It doesn't really matter if you use two sentences, three sentences, four sentences, five sentences, four, part one, as long as you do those two things,

which is answer the question directly and then add a little bit more detail.

If you wanna see what this looks like in real life, what I've done is I have conducted lots of mock speaking tests with many, many, many students.

I've put them into one playlist for you on YouTube.

If you wanna do that, just go to the description

click on the speaking mock test playlist and you can bookmark that and go and look at that later.

Next they will give you a cue card.

Let me show you what a cue card actually looks like.

Part two is this inside the box.

So this represents the card here.

So here we have the topic and then here we have bullet points

or just the different points that they ask you to talk about.

The big mistake that I see students making is they talk about bullet point number one, then they talk about bullet point number two, then they talk about bullet point number three, and then they talk about bullet point number four.

You do not have to do that.

You can do that if you want, but what it says is you should say, not you must say.

What you must do is you must always talk about the main topic.

The reason why I don't like this just follow the bullet

point strategy is you will get to one bullet point

that you don't feel comfortable talking about and that will affect your fluency.

Or you will go through each bullet point in about 30 seconds and then after 30 seconds or 60 seconds,

you will have nothing else to talk about and you must talk for up to two minutes.

That is a really key part of part two.

So our strategy is to help the student focus on the main topic and then create your own bullet points.

So look at the four bullet points and think, okay, I want to talk about this.

I don't want to talk about that one.

I want to talk about that one, but I don't want to talk about that one.

But what I would also like to talk about is, and you create your own points to talk about.

Now you could talk about the past, the present, the future, something you disagree about, something you agree about, an interesting story.

Some people will just take the topic

and then tell a story for two minutes involving their own life related to the story or something else.

You could use examples from other people or examples in the world that do not involve you directly.

And just talk about that as well.

Let's move on to part three.

The thing to remember about part three is you need to extend your answers a lot more than normal.

So this strategy that I'm about to give you kind of forces you to do that.

What you do first is you directly answer the question.

What happens with a lot of students in part three is

sometimes the questions can be a little bit more complicated than they're used to

or about a topic they don't know much about, and they will kind of ramble on and talk about many, many things, but never really answer the question.

Best thing to do to avoid that is give an answer right away.

Then give an explanation.

Why do you think that?

Or why do other people think that?

Remember that this is a discussion of ideas.

It is not just about you.

So you can answer the question and say, I think this because, or you could say, I suppose other people think this because, and then give an example.

This can be an example from your own life.

It is fine to talk about personal examples, things that you've actually experienced.

And then if you want to extend it even more, what you can do is show the other side.

A great way to give a very extensive answer is to directly answer the question and say, well, some people think this.

Here's why they think this.

Here's an example of that thing.

But there are other people in the world who think this they think the opposite

and here's why they think that and here's an example of that and then at the end give your own opinion.

The next principle that I have found

that separates the successful students with the less successful students is

they focus on being as natural as possible not trying to be perfect or sound like a robot.

What do I mean by that?

If you look at the difference between someone who's at a 6 or 6.5 and somebody who is at a band 9,

band 9 answers actually sound more like a normal conversation.

And this is intentional.

What you will see in the marking criteria is they talk about effort a lot.

Band nine sounds effortless.

They are able to just answer any topic effortlessly because their English is at such a high level.

Now this is really, really important because what a lot of students believe is the more perfect your answer,

the more advanced vocabulary and grammar and perfect fluency, the higher your score.

It actually leads more time than not to lower scores because you sound very robotic.

You sound like you're preparing an answer.

Whereas band nine students, it's like talking to someone in a coffee shop.

And the big, big mistake that we see are rehearsed answers.

So it's like if I gave you a speech and I put you on stage in front of hundreds of people, would you sound natural?

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Would you sound fluent?

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I know the temptation that you have where you just memorize stuff, it actually creates more problems.

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The examiners are trained to spot memorization.

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It is immediately obvious that you have memorized an answer, so don't do it.

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You will get a much lower score than if you just answered them naturally.

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And that brings us on to principle number three, fluency beats perfection.

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What a lot of you are trying to do

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when you're memorizing answers or preparing in such a way is to try and become No speech, no conversation is perfect.

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But there are a lot of speeches, band nine speeches, which are very, very fluent.

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And it's really important that you understand this principle of fluency is more important than accuracy.

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Many of you come from education systems and I'm not saying one education system or one country is better than the other.

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I'm just dealing with the reality that some education systems will emphasize perfect grammar, perfect vocabulary.

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Accuracy is the most important thing.

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Whereas there are other education systems in the world that

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when they're teaching languages they accept that there will be be errors

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and it is far more important than for students to produce the language and make mistakes and get more fluent.

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For the IELTS test it is about a balance between the two.

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You cannot just go in and be a hundred percent fluent

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and you know every grammatical structure

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and word you say is inaccurate that's that's not going to happen

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but what is more a problem is that students are so focused on getting everything perfect that their fluency really really suffers.

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If I was to give you advice I would say focus more on fluency than getting everything perfect.

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Because even if you look at the marking criteria it does accept

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that even in band 9 people will make a little slips with grammar with vocabulary

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because it understands that's how even native speakers speak.

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I might have even made a few grammatical slip-ups during this video.

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That is fine.

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That is how everyone speaks.

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And if you don't believe me, here's a little exercise that you can do.

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Get some practice questions, get your phone, and record yourself answering the same questions twice.

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So what you can do is the first time you answer the questions, focus on grammar and vocabulary, and focus on being as accurate as possible.

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Try to make no mistakes at all.

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Then the second time, answer the same questions, and forget about grammar, forget about vocabulary try

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and be as fluent as possible and then analyze your responses

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and pick out how many grammar and vocabulary mistakes

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that you actually made what you will see

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because i've done this thousands of times is

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when you don't focus on grammar don't focus on vocabulary you actually make fewer grammar

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and vocabulary errors and you're way more fluent

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and then principle number four is all about vocabulary in general the students

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that get the highest marks the band eights the band nines

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they use natural vocabulary they never learn lists of vocabulary

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so in 20 years of teaching IELTS I have never met a student at a band five

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or a band six level that has jumped to a band seven eight

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or even nine level by learning band nine vocabulary lists it just doesn't work

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or trying to insert an idiom into every sentence

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or never repeating words band 9 students repeat words all the time

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or trying to use as much academic vocabulary as possible remember

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at the start of the video we talked about the academic test

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and the general training test are exactly the same for speaking

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it is not testing how many academic words you know because it is not an academic test It is a normal,

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everyday English speaking, how good is your communication test?

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So what actually does work?

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The best students, the students that have improved to a band nine, they improve their vocabulary naturally.

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And they do that through reading and listening, not learning lists and following our vocabulary improvement plan.

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Our vocabulary improvement plan, plus lots more detailed stuff is included in our full free speaking course.

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If you want that, all you have to do is just go to the description, find the link that says free speaking course, click on that, give us your email,

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and we'll send you instant access, and it will give you our full vocabulary improvement plan.

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And when those students learn new vocabulary, they don't just memorize the word and never know how to use it.

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They master the pronunciation, the collocations, they master the usage.

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How do you actually use that word appropriately within a sentence?

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Because remember, it is a speaking test.

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It is not a vocabulary test or memorization test.

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Memorization and communication are two very different things.

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In many ways, they are the opposite of one another.

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And this is a very, very important point here.

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They only use words they 100% understand.

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We call it the 100% rule on our VIP course.

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Every time we're giving one-on-one feedback to students, we're saying like only use words you're 100% sure of the meaning, the pronunciation, the collocations, the usage.

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It is better to use a simpler word that is correct than a more advanced word that is incorrect.

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And then once they have followed our vocabulary improvement plan and they have their notebook, A lot of them just will have a simple notebook like this,

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just full of new words.

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They actually take these new words maybe once a week and they try and use them in their practice answers.

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They try and use them in their essays.

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They try and use them in everyday speech when they're speaking English.

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As we have a saying on our VIP course, you either use it or lose it.

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If you're interested in our VIP course where you get one-on-one feedback on your speaking, we will create a personalized study plan for you.

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We will support you step by step with everything.

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Go to the link in the description and get 10% off today.

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And that brings us on to principle number five.

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The students that see the biggest progress actually get feedback on their speaking.

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Now, I'm not saying this because I want to sell you our courses.

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We have a very limited number of teachers that can give feedback.

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So we only have a very small number of spaces and they always sell out.

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I'm not saying this to you to try and sell you stuff.

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I'm saying this to you because it is a fact.

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If you don't believe me and you don't think that you need feedback, you know, that's like saying, I feel ill, but I don't want to go to the doctor.

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Like, it just doesn't make sense.

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And the reason why feedback, one-on-one feedback on your speaking is so effective is, you don't know what you don't know.

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You are probably making multiple errors

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and no one is going to tell you those errors unless they sit with you

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and they hear you speaking or it's over Zoom or whatever.

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But it's important that the person giving you feedback understands IELTS, that they are an ex-examiner, that they are either a native speaker

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or they speak English to an extremely high level because they need to spot what are your common grammar errors.

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For example, if you're a Russian student or Ukrainian student, you don't have articles in your native language.

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It's highly likely that every time you use articles, which are in every sentence, you are making errors.

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You might also have been taught by other teachers that you should memorize lists of vocabulary

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or try and use advanced vocabulary in your answers, a good ex-examiner will be able to spot that immediately and tell you,

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okay, instead of using this word or this idiom incorrectly, you could have just used a simpler word that you already know and got it correct.

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And many, many students have great vocabulary, great grammar, great pronunciation, but they just never answer the question.

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They don't know how to use the structures and the strategies that we've taught in this lesson.

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If that's the case, You need to be aware of that.

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You're not going to become aware of that magically by doing this yourself in the mirror at home.

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So focus on five things, not 50 things.

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One of the biggest problems that we see is students go into the test

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and they are thinking of 50 different things and hundreds of different idioms

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and strategies and the vocabulary list with 500 band nine answers.

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And they've watched hundreds of different videos all giving them different things.

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If you just focus on those five things and improve those five things, I guarantee your score will dramatically improve.

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Less, but better.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 209 sentences and 2842 words to shadow. The speech runs for 15:49. The speaker talks fast, about 180 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.

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.
bind verb	/ˈbaɪ̯nd/	To tie; to confine by any ligature.
bullet noun	/ˈbʊlɪt/	A projectile, usually of metal, shot from a gun at high speed.
grammar noun	/ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/	A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general.
feedback noun	/ˈfiːdˌbæk/	Critical assessment of a process or activity or of their results.
principle noun	/ˈpɹɪn.sɪ.pəl/	A fundamental assumption, fundamental law or guiding belief.
topic noun	/ˈtɑpɪk/	A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest.
fluent adjective	/ˈfluənt/	That flows; flowing, liquid.
examiner noun	/əɡˈzæmɪnɚ/	A person who investigates someone or something.
pronunciation noun	/pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/	The formal or informal way in which a word is made to sound when spoken.
naturally adverb	/ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/	In a natural manner.
everyday adjective	/ˈɛvɹiˌdeɪ/	Appropriate for ordinary use, rather than for special occasions.
lesson noun	/ˈlɛs.ən/	A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
explanation noun	/ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/	The act or process of explaining.
whereas	/(h)wɛɹˈæz/	In contrast; whilst on the contrary; although.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
get off verb	To move from being on top of (something) to not being on top of it.
go through verb	To travel from one end of something to the other.
pick out verb	To remove by picking.
sell out verb	To sell all of a supply or stock of something.

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	I've done · I've put · you've actually experienced
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	are rehearsed · are trained · is included
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	somebody who is · speeches, which are · articles, which are

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 53 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, perfection /pɚˈfɛk.ʃən/, intentional /ɪnˈtɛnʃənəl/, temptation /ˌtɛmpˈteɪʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, examiner /əɡˈzæmɪnɚ/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/

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, bind, bullet.

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?