Shadowing Practice: Miley Cyrus - Miley Answers Your Questions - Learn English Speaking with Video

Vivo is one of the kind of coolest parts about being able to put on my video just

because I love being able to see kind of all the commentary from the fans

and see how quickly people are catching on to we can't stop

and so when it hit 10 .7 million

and it broke the record I was just so excited

because this was the first time

that I really I got to come up with the concept of a video

and it was really up to me about finding the director

and I was really specific I didn't even meet with anyone else I just wanted Diane Martell to shoot it

because I knew she would be able to kind of understand the concept of the video

because I feel like it's something really only a certain group

of kind of like my my like generation kind of understands of where music is going

and so to find a director that could capture that is hard

because I feel like it's something that's

so specific that's kind of just to LA and the people

that live in LA life so I knew Diane would be kind of the person

that would know how to capture that right

and she's worked with Pharrell for so long and

so I really trusted her and and so it was really crazy when it broke the record.

Her and I were both obviously so excited.

I was looking forward to riding on the bike because the bike was actually the lady that lived in that house.

That was her bike that was in her room.

She was like this cute little grandma and we walked in

and we're like what is this workout equipment or what is this exactly

and she said we could use it and

so of course i wanted to

so i was like give me my heels let's go and

that was probably my favorite part to shoot and also just

because i thought it was so so weird to use the lady that really lived there her her little bike

so when i was kind of creating the video i called diane

and um i just basically started telling her all these crazy stories of different parties i've been to

and me and my friends like we're kind of crazy like with the pinata with the hot dogs

and how we had all that taxidermy like

that was all based off real parties we had been to

and so when she was hearing it

and kind of hearing all these concepts it was really just trying to figure out how we could take

that and make it almost kind of so real that

that people wanted to watch it over and over again

because there was like this grittiness to it

but also kind of glamorized like that gritty LA life and

so we wanted people to want to watch it also just

because it was almost like watching a photo shoot kind of in movement

and so that's what I wanted her to really think about is almost think about

if you know a nylon shoot came to life and what

that would be but turned up into a like a house party kind of vibe.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Miley Cyrus - Miley Answers Your Questions”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: bike, shoot, diane, concept, crazy. This video has 45 sentences and 549 words to shadow. The speech runs for 2:21. The speaker talks fast, about 234 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 90% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.

Key vocabulary in this video

12 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
capture verb	/ˈkæp.(t)ʃɚ/	To take control of; to seize by force or stratagem.
commentary noun	/ˈkɑ.mənˌtɛ.ɹi/	A series of comments or annotations; especially, a book of explanations or expositions on the whole or a part of some other work.
grandma noun	/ˈɡɹænmɑː/	Grandmother.
workout noun	/ˈwɝk.aʊ̯t/	An exercise session; a period of physical exercise.
vibe noun	/vaɪb/	An atmosphere or aura felt to belong to a person, place or thing.
heel noun	/hil/	The rear part of the foot, where it joins the leg.
glamorize verb		To make or give the appearance of being glamorous.
grittiness noun		The characteristic or quality of being gritty.
gritty adjective	/ˈɡɹɪti/	Containing sand or grit; consisting of grit; caused by grit; full of hard particles.
nylon noun	/ˈnaɪlɑn/	Originally, the DuPont company trade name for polyamide, a copolymer whose molecules consist of alternating diamine and dicarboxylic acid monomers bonded…
piñata noun	/pɪnˈjɑː.tə/	A doll or other decorated container that is filled with candy and hit with a hammer or a stick by blindfolded children during birthday parties or other…
taxidermy noun	/ˈtæksɪdɚmi/	The art of stuffing and mounting the skins of dead animals for exhibition in a lifelike state.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
come up with verb	To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it.
figure out verb	To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
look forward to verb	To anticipate, expect, or wait for, especially with a feeling of approval or pleasure; to be excited or eager to.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 5 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, can't, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

Long words — get the stress right: commentary /ˈkɑ.mənˌtɛ.ɹi/, taxidermy /ˈtæksɪdɚmi/

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 capture, commentary, grandma.

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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