Shadowing Practice: Just Shadow Me! Speak English Like an American 🇺🇸 - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Raise your hand if you would like to improve your speaking fluency.
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I assume that you're raising your hand right now because that is what we're going to do, and we're going to do this practicing shadowing.
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And this is a technique in which you're trying to say something in the exact same way, using the same pronunciation, the same intonation, the same speed.
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And if you would like to develop and enhance your speaking fluency, please subscribe turn on notifications
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that way i can become your teacher my name is wes
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the channel is interactive english it is all about helping you
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reach your fluency goals now in this lesson i i really want to focus on three main things first rhythm
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and flow and in
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that case i'm really talking about english as a stress time language second we're going to practice intonation rising and falling intonation.
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And then third, connected speech.
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There are different parts to connected speech, and we're really going to break it down.
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Do a deep dive.
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I will talk more about those three things in just a moment, but I would like to make this a fun lesson.
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Really try to keep it simple.
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And the way that we're going to do that is with a poem.
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A poem by Dr. Seuss, Oh, the places you'll go.
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This was one of my favorite poems when I was younger, and to be perfectly honest, it still is one of my favorite poems,
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but I think it is a crystal clear example of using and developing a nice rhythm and flow, practicing rising and falling intonation,
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as well as different parts of connected speech.
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So that is why I want to use this poem.
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And as we go through it, I want you to speak.
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This is just, this is not, this is not an activity in which I want you to listen.
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I actually want you to speak shadow and say it with me
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and practice and practice and practice some more
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So let's first circle back to shadowing So essentially
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when you're shadowing you're basically saying something almost at the same time
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or immediately after And in
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that case it can kind of be like an echo Now
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as we go through this you can just try to say
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it with me at the exact same time think about it like we are singing a song together.
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And I am going to say it in a way that is going to create a melody.
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Because of that, I think this is an easy way to practice those three things.
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Or at least you can tell me if you think it's easy once we get into it.
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So let's just take a look at the beginning of the poem.
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The first four lines.
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Congratulations, today is your day.
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You're off to great places.
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You're off and away.
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Now, going back to the three things that I want to focus on, rhythm and flow, intonation, and connected speech,
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let's break this down one at a time.
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So the first thing that you need to be aware of, or that I think you should be aware of, is that English is a stress time language.
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What does that mean?
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Basically, when you have a statement,
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a question, the stressed words or syllables occur at approximately regular intervals.
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And everything else in between may get reduced in order to fit that pattern.
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The pattern that we're going to use is basically two beats.
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Congratulations, today is your day.
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You're off to great places.
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You're off and away.
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And that is the beat, the pattern that we're going to follow throughout the poem.
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So every time I clap, that is a stressed word or syllable, right?
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I can do it even as I'm just saying any sentence.
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So I really want you to think about that.
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The next thing that we're going to focus on is intonation.
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Now, when it comes to intonation, we're mainly going to practice rising and falling.
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Those are really the two main types.
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And in short, rising intonation is when your voice glides to a higher pitch.
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Today is your day.
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And falling intonation is when your voice will glide to a lower pitch.
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You're off to great places.
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You're off and away.
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Throughout the poem, we're mostly going to alternate between rising and falling intonation.
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But let me quickly tell you, how did I determine whether to use rising or falling intonation?
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I'm going to use rising intonation to create a level of suspense that the thought is not yet finished.
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Today is your day.
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Well, why?
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Why is today my day?
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What's going to happen?
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I'm going to use falling intonation to, well, really have a sense of completion.
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You're off to great places.
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You're off and away.
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Now, this is not a fixed rule because when it comes to poetry, there are many different ways to read and say poetry,
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which is why I think it's beautiful.
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But as we go through this, I just want to make it very clear what I am going to do and how I'm going to say it.
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I want to tell this more like a story.
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This is how I would read it to my children.
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So let's just go ahead and talk very quickly about connected speech, because that is the final thing that I really want to hone in on.
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Connected speech can be many things, linking, assimilation, reductions.
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We will talk about each of those, and I'm really just going to talk about it as it comes up, and we will practice some of these different things.
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So let's just look at those first four lines that you've already heard me say.
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Congratulations.
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Today is your day.
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You're off to great places.
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You're off and away.
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Look at that second line.
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There's rising intonation.
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Today is your day.
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Now is your, that S and Y, they're going to run up against each other and it's going to sound a little bit like J.
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It's like we're going to place a J sound between these two words.
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Is your, is your.
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You do not have to force it as you transition from one sound to the next.
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It's just going to occur naturally, but that is how we end up connecting these two words.
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Today is your day.
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Repeat after me.
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Today is your day.
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The next line, you're off to great places.
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You're off.
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You can hear me link that consonant and vowel.
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So linking is when you link the final consonant sound of one word with the beginning vowel sound of the next word.
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So that final R, that R sound, I am going to link it with the vowel sound in off.
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You're off.
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You're off to great places.
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Two is a function word.
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It's not really stressed.
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So often, instead of sounding like the number two, it's going to get reduced.
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So instead of two, it may sound like a much softer T.
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You're off to great places.
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Can you hear that T?
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It's a much softer sound.
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But let's just repeat this line after me.
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You're off to great places.
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And I'm going to keep using this stress timing as we go through this.
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You're off to great places.
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Good.
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And then the last line, you're off and away.
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Now, of course, we can link those first two words that you're off.
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But one thing I want to point out, and is another word that's often reduced, and it may sound like And in that case,
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we can really link that entire statement.
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You're off and away.
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And I'm trying to emphasize that linking.
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You're off and away.
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And just move right through the entire statement.
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This is going to help your speech sound much smoother.
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So just say that final line with me.
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You're off and away.
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You're off and away.
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So let's say just this first part together.
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We're going to end up saying this multiple times.
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All right.
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Keep in mind that stress timing.
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Are you ready?
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Congratulations.
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Today is your day.
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You're off to great places.
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You're off and away.
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All right.
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Let's continue with the next part.
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And now we get into alternating that rising intonation and falling intonation.
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You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself any direction you choose.
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So what's going on in terms of connected speech?
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In that first line, brains in, of course we can link those two words together.
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Brains in your head.
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The next line, you have feet in your shoes.
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There are two things that I want to mention.
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The first is that linking will occur with the phrase feed in, But that final T in feet, I am going to pronounce that as a flap T.
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This is a distinct part of the American accent.
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When the T comes between two vowel sounds, often people in the U.S like me are going to pronounce it as a flap T.
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It's going to sound like a soft D.
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Your tongue is just going to come up and flap against the top part of your mouth.
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Feed in, feed in.
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You have feed in your shoes.
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You have feed in your shoes.
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And then the last two lines, there's not much going on in terms of connected speech.
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So let's go ahead and say this one together.
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Are you ready?
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Keep in mind.
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Let's keep working on that stress timing.
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You have brains in your head.
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You have feet in your shoes.
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You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
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Excellent.
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Let's move right along.
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You're on your own and you know what you know, and you are the guy who will decide where to go.
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So you're on your own.
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We can actually link two of those phrases in there.
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You're on your own.
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You're on your own.
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And we can link those together.
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The next line, and you know what you know.
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And I've already mentioned, make it reduced to N.
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And then what you, once again, assimilation may occur, that T and Y running up onto each other.
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And it's like we're getting a slight ch sound in between these two words.
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What you, what you, and you know what you know.
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And you are the guy, once again, we'll reduce and to N, who will decide where to go.
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The T in two, I am going to pronounce this as a flat T,
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but I've also mentioned that two is often reduced and may sound like T.
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Now, if I pronounce that T as a flat T, instead of T, it may sound a little more like D.
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just listen for it.
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Who will decide where to go.
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Who will decide where to go.
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Again, this is more about the American accent when I'm talking about that, that flat T, but let's say that last line together.
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Who will decide where to go.
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Okay.
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Let's say all of these lines together.
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Keep in mind intonation, the stress timing.
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I'm going to keep clapping.
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You're on your own and you know what you and you are the guy who will decide where to go.
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Let's continue.
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You'll look up and down streets, look them over with care.
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About some you will say, I don't choose to go there.
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So that first line, you'll look up and down streets.
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Of course, look up, and then we'll reduce and to n.
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We can link those three words together.
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Look up and, look up and down streets.
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You'll look up and down streets.
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Look them over with care.
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So even in the poem, the th is removed.
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This is really elision.
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And elision is when certain sounds or syllables get removed.
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And this often occurs in just casual conversation.
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And in the poem, they go ahead and do this.
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So instead of look them, that TH elides and you have look them, look them.
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And then we can link it with the vowel sound and over look them over with care.
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Look them over with care about some.
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You will say nothing to report on here as far as connected speech goes.
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And then the last line, I don't choose to go there to.
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You hear me say that to choose to go there, choose to go there.
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Let's say all of these lines together right now, shadow, say it with me.
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You look up and down streets, look them over with care.
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About some you will say, I don't choose to go there.
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All right, you're doing great.
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Hopefully you're able to follow all of these different things that I'm throwing at you right now.
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See, it's not so easy, is it?
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All right, but let's keep going.
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With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you're too smart to go down any not so good street.
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So in this case, I'm using rising, rising, rising, and then falling intonation.
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Again, I'm using that rising intonation just to keep it more open.
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The thought is not finished.
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But once again, there's more than one way to do this.
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Let's talk about connected speech.
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With your head full of brains, full of, we can link those two words together.
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And your shoes full of feet, and we'll reduce to N and once again, full of, we'll link that together.
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You're too smart to go down.
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Two, I'll reduce it to ta and really smart.
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We end with that, that stop T and we are going to stop the flow of air, but then you can release into that softer ta.
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Smart ta, smart ta.
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You're too smart to go down any not so good street.
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I didn't come up with anything as far as connected speech goes.
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So let's practice these four together.
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Keep in mind, I'm going to use that rising, rising, rising, and then falling intonation at the end.
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Are you ready?
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With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you're too smart to go down any not so good street.
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Then we have, and you may not find any, you'll want to go down.
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In that case, of course, you'll head straight out of town.
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So what's happening?
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And you may not find any.
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I think now you can just hear it every time instead of
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and you hear me say n and you may not find any.
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We can link those two words find any and you may not find any.
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You'll want to go down.
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You hear that to that weaker to in that case of course, nothing to report on.
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I guess you could link in that case of course, but there is a comma there and I'm trying to, I want to adhere to that comma,
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that short pause, which in that case, you may not hear linking in that case, of course, but if you were to link it, not a big deal.
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You'll head straight out of town.
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So straight out of, we can link those three words together the final T in straight.
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You'll hear me pronounce that flap T, the final T in out.
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You're going to hear me pronounce the flap T straight out of, straight out of.
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Again, that's the American accent.
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Just say this line after me.
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You'll head straight out of town.
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Good.
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Now let's say all four lines together.
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Ready?
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And you may not find any.
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You will want to go down.
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In that case, of course, you'll head straight out of town.
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All right, let's keep going.
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The next part, it's opener there in the wide open air.
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It's opener there, nothing really as far as connected speech is concerned, in the wide open air.
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You can hear me link that wide open and I'm moving that consonant sound over in the wide open air.
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I will say we're moving away from the four lines with just these two.
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This is not me making any sort of distinction here.
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This is just in the book.
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Let's move on.
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Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsie as you.
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So once again, I'm going back to that rising, rising, rising, falling intonation.
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Let's talk about connected speech.
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Out there things can happen.
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Nothing going on here.
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And frequently do.
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And of course, we've reduced that to N.
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to people as brainy, people as, we can link that together, and footsie as you.
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So and is reduced to N.
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Let's practice these four.
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Say it with me.
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Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsie as you.
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And then there's, and then things start to happen.
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Don't worry, don't stew.
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Just go right along.
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You'll start happening too.
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Back to our rising intonation, falling, rising, falling.
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But when it comes to connected speech, that first part, and then things start to happen, of course, and is reduced to N, as well as to, that softer T.
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Just listen, and then things start to happen.
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Repeat after me, and then things start to happen.
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Good.
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Don't worry, don't stew.
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Not much with connected speech.
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Just go right along, right along once again you're gonna hear me pronounce
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that final T and write as a flat T
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and then I can link it with the vowel sound in
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along right along say it with me just go right along you'll start happening to nothing to report on
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but let's go ahead ahead, say these four lines with me.
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Are you ready?
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And then things start to happen.
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Don't worry.
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Don't stew.
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Just go right along.
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You'll start happening too.
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And finally, oh, the places you'll go.
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So nothing when it comes to connected speech, but this is where we're going to end it.
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And I want to circle back to the beginning and we're going to do the entire poem together.
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This is actually not the entire poem.
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The story continues.
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I just want to look at this first part
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and practice it together because I still think this is a longer shadowing practice, and I think it's good.
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Remember, we're focusing on those three things, rhythm and flow, intonation, and connected speech.
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You've practiced this already.
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We're developing that rhythm and flow with the stress timing.
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I told you whether or not we're going to use rising or falling intonation, and we looked at some of the different parts of connected speech.
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So let's put it all together.
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I want you to shadow.
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Say this with me.
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Try to say it at the exact same time.
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And in that case, think of it like we're singing a song together.
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Okay, so we'll say this twice.
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The first time I will clap for the stress timing as we go through it, and I'll include those stressed words or syllables, trying to make it easier.
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The second time that we do this, I'm just, I'm not going to clap.
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I'm just going to say it and just put the words up there as you would see them in the book.
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So let's do this twice.
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And again, I want you to say it out loud with me.
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Practice your speaking fluency and let's just begin.
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Here we go.
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Congratulations.
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Today is your day.
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You're off to great places.
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You're off and away.
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You have brains in your head.
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You have feet in your shoes.
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You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
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You're on your own, and you know what you know, and you are the guy who will decide where to go.
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You'll look up and down streets, look them over with care.
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About some you will say, I don't choose to go there.
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With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.
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And you may not find any you'll want to go down.
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In that case, of course, you'll head straight out of town.
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It's opener there in the wide open air.
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Out there, things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsie as you.
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And then things start to happen.
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Don't worry.
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Don't stew.
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Just go right along.
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You'll start happening too.
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Oh, the places you'll go.
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Excellent.
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Well done.
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Let's do it again.
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One more time.
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I hope that as I was clapping, it's easier to focus and maintain that speed,
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developing your rhythm and flow that you can kind of pick up on that boom, boom, boom, that beat that we're working on,
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as well as using rising and falling intonation.
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And hopefully you were using the same pronunciation when I was using some of those reductions like N, T, or linking many of those phrases.
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So again, I know I'm throwing a lot at you, but this is something that you can just repeat, repeat, repeat.
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Keep practicing because it's going to help you develop the three main things that we've been working on.
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Let's say it one more time.
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I'm not going to clap.
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I'm just going to say it.
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But once again, I want you to shadow and say it with me.
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Ready?
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Here we go.
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Congratulations.
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Today is your day.
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You're off to great places.
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You're off and away.
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You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself any direction you choose.
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You're on your own and you know what you know and you are the guy who will decide where to go.
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You'll look up and down streets, look them over with care, about some you will say, I don't choose to go there.
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With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you're too smart to go down any not so good street and you may not find any, you'll want to go down.
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In that case, of course, you'll head straight out of town.
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It's opener there in the wide open air.
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Out there, things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsie as you.
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And then things start to happen.
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Don't worry, don't stew, just go right along.
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You'll start happening too.
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Oh, the places you'll go.
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All right, give yourself a round of applause as we went through this,
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again, the main takeaway is that you are using stress timing to develop that rhythm and flow,
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that you are practicing rising and falling intonation, as well as some of those different parts of connected speech.
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And once again, my hope is that this was clear, it was easy to understand, and also you could have a little fun with it,
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because I think poetry is a great way to practice these three things if this is one of your speaking goals,
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and it'll just make your speech a lot more captivating and dynamic.
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If you were actually practicing and saying this out loud with me, let me know by hitting that like button.
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As always, thank you so much for watching, and I will see you next time. So long.
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Master English Speaking with Shadowing: A Fun Guide
Want to boost your english speaking practice and sound more like a native? The video introduces shadowing—a powerful technique where you repeat phrases immediately after a speaker, mimicking their pronunciation, intonation, and speed. It’s like singing a duet, but with language! Using Dr. Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go, the lesson makes learning engaging while focusing on key skills: rhythm, intonation, and connected speech. Let’s dive in.
Top 3 Phrases to Practice (and Why They Matter)
- "Congratulations, today is your day." This phrase highlights English as a stress-timed language—stressed words ("Congratulations," "today," "day") create a natural beat, with other words reduced. Perfect for mastering rhythm.
- "You're off to great places." Notice the connected speech: "You're off" flows smoothly, and "great places" uses rising intonation to build energy. Repeat it to nail fluency.
- "You're off and away." Short but impactful, this line shows how "and" can be reduced to a quick "n" sound, a common feature of connected speech. Shadowing it helps you sound more natural.
Step-by-Step Shadowing Guide for Success
Ready to try shadowing? Follow these steps: 1. Listen first: Play the video segment and focus on the speaker’s melody—where their voice rises or falls. 2. Shadow immediately: Repeat the phrase at the same time, like an echo. Don’t worry about mistakes—focus on matching the rhythm. 3. Break it down: Pause to analyze stressed words and connected sounds (e.g., "off and away" becomes "off ‘n away"). 4. Practice daily: Use a shadowing app or replay the video to build consistency. Tools like shadowspeak can help, but even repeating the poem daily works! 5. Focus on fluency: Over time, you’ll notice your english pronunciation improving, and phrases will flow more naturally.
Shadowing isn’t just about repetition—it’s about training your brain and mouth to move like a native. Start with the poem, and soon you’ll be applying these skills to everyday conversations. Happy shadowing!
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 already heard · I've already mentioned · I've also mentioned |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is often reduced · is removed · is reduced |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | guy who will |
| Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain | may get · may sound · may occur |
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.