Shadowing Practice: More than half of Aussies back a fall in house prices | 9 News Australia - Learn English Speaking with Video

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More than half of Australians are backing a fall in house
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prices as the government attempts to make housing more affordable for young Australians.
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Live to Connor McGovern in Canberra, Connor, even homeowners are supporting the drop in prices.
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And even more surprising, Jane, is that 62% of investors want to fall too.
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That's according to polling out from Resolve Political Monitor, exclusively published by our friends at the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
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54% of respondents back a drop in house prices, just 11% oppose, and a fair chunk, 35% are unsure.
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The government and the Prime Minister, Jane, they won't be displeased to hear this support from the public.
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It's been using a, quote, cooked housing market as the justification to ram through investor tax changes in its budget.
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Those negative gearing and capital gains tax discount windbacks, they're coming before the Senate as Parliament returns this week.
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And with the support of the Greens, Jane, they're likely to pass.
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Connor, thank you.
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Australia's auction clearance rates have fallen to their lowest levels since the pandemic, with only about 40% of homes selling at auctions over the weekend.
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For more, we'll bring in John Keogh, the economics editor of the Australian Financial Review in Canberra.
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Hey, Johnny.
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Hey, good morning.
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Look, what's causing this softening?
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Good morning, Thomas, Sarah.
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Look, it is getting harder to sell a home out there, but it's easier to buy a home.
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So bad or good news, depending on what side of the trade you're on there.
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So the preliminary clearance rate was only 47% according to totality.
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And that'll be revised lower as we get more pass-ins coming through in the next couple of days.
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So the two causes of this really are those three interest rate rises we've seen so far this year,
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combined with the uncertainty caused from the government's housing tax changes to capital gains and negative gearing.
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What you're seeing is investors are really pulling back from auctions, but also just other buyers too,
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because they're seeing prices fall in Sydney and Melbourne and just hanging back a bit more now.
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Well, interestingly as well, Johnny, despite all the vitriol we've seen the past few weeks, a new poll has actually shown that voters support these lower home prices.
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Yeah, this is an interesting one in the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne's The Age Today, the Resolve poll, showing 54% of voters actually support lower house prices.
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Only 11% are against that.
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About one in three voters are undecided or neutral.
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So I think the government will take some solace from that, given
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that they say these tax changes are designed to make it
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more affordable for first buyers to get into the market and compete against investors.
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And elsewhere, the government, it looks like it's set to pass those contentious tax changes through Parliament, thanks to a deal they've done with the Greens.
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It does look that way.
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We've got two final sitting weeks of Parliament before it breaks for winter,
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and they've done basically a deal with the Greens here to extend an inquiry into the National Disability Insurance Scheme,
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and the Greens look like they'll support the changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing.
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Look, there might be a bit of argy-bargy over the next week or two with some minor changes to those taxes.
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But I think they'll go through more or less as the government intends.
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All right, Johnny, thank you.

Why practice speaking with this video?

Practicing your speaking skills with the video titled "More than half of Aussies back a fall in house prices" gives you a unique opportunity to engage with contemporary discussions affecting many Australians. By learning English with YouTube, you can immerse yourself in real-life contexts, improving not only your vocabulary but also your comprehension of different social issues. This video presents the contrasting perspectives on housing—specifically the support for declining house prices—which can lead to rich discussions. Engaging with such relevant topics helps you form sentences more naturally and speak about current events confidently.

Grammar & Expressions in Context

The speaker employs various grammatical structures and expressions that are perfect for aspiring English speakers:

  • Conditional sentences: Phrases such as "if prices fall" allow learners to practice expressing outcomes and hypotheses.
  • Passive voice: Expressions like "are backed" highlight how the passive voice can be used to place focus on the action rather than who is performing it.
  • Reported speech: The speaker mentions findings from a poll, saying, “54% of respondents back a drop...” This introduces learners to how to report others' opinions.
  • Comparative structures: The phrase “easier to buy a home” provides practice in making comparisons—a key aspect of descriptive language.

By using the shadow speak method with these structures, you can learn how to incorporate them into your dialogue with ease.

Common Pronunciation Traps

In the transcript, certain words and phrases may present challenges to non-native speakers, which is crucial for improving English pronunciation:

  • “Australia”: Pay attention to the rounded vowel sounds—practicing this can help clarify your speech.
  • “Clearance rates”: The 'r' sounds in "clearance" and "rates" can be tricky; focusing on them can significantly enhance your clarity.
  • “Investors”: The emphasis on different syllables can change how this word sounds significantly; practicing with shadowing technique will help capture the correct pronunciation.
  • “Affordable”: Often mispronounced due to its multiple syllables. Breaking it down into manageable parts can aid in mastering its pronunciation.

Utilizing the shadowing technique with these words will help you improve English pronunciation, making your spoken English more fluid and comprehensible.

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.