Shadowing Practice: My Top 7 Tips For Improving Your Listening Skills - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hi there, Steve here and I'm going to do two things today.
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First of all, thank you for the responses to the polls
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that we did and you'll see here that you can look in the description box to see the results.
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It seems to indicate that most people absorb their vocabulary through lots of reading and listening,
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but they mix in a certain amount of deliberate vocabulary study.
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And that a lot of people, at least those that responded, are able to get in a lot of listening.
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Now, there were some questions in response to the video about listening.
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There were some questions like, how do you, I have trouble listening.
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What is the strategy?
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How do we get better at listening?
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So I want to talk a little bit about that.
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But I also, before doing that, I want to announce, for those of you who are interested, that I am moving on from Greek on to Arabic starting today.
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Now, I'm going to follow this up with a little video in Greek just to explain why I'm moving on from Greek.
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And basically what I'm going to say is the following.
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And that is that, you know, in learning a language, motivation is extremely important.
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So my initial motivation for learning Greek was that my wife and I had decided to visit Crete.
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And subsequently we also went to Athens.
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And, you know, originally we were only going to go to Crete.
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And because one of my listening materials and reading materials was about the building of the Acropolis, we extended our visit to go to Athens.
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So here again, that relationship between motivation and language, travel and so forth, motivation is extremely important.
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I am by no means proficient in Greek.
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I can have simple conversations.
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I can read newspapers or even history books with the help of LingQ.
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On my own, it's a struggle.
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There are so many words that I yet have to learn.
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And I know from experience that it's a long road, and I've said this before.
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However, I have discovered a new world, the world of Greek history, the world of the Greek language.
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I can read the alphabet and I can always go back to it and I won't have lost much.
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And this is the case with my Czech, with my Polish, with my Romanian.
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I've started sort of on the path of discovering these languages.
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I can always go back to it and in fact to any of my languages I can always go back and improve.
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But right now I'm more motivated to see if I can discover a little bit of Arabic and the Arabic world.
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Now, let's get back to listening.
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What are some of the sort of suggestions
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that I might have for people who have trouble focusing or who have trouble listening?
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I would like to touch on seven points.
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Seven.
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Let's get seven up there.
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Seven.
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So first of all, you have to listen to things that you have a chance of understanding, in my view.
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I think there's limited benefit to listening to things that you don't understand.
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So typically that means access to a transcript at the beginning, okay?
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Later on, when you're good enough at the language that you can understand 70, 80, 90%, Then there's benefit in listening even without a transcript
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because you're sort of refreshing all the things that you know
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and you're taking a stab at inferring or understanding those things that you don't yet immediately understand.
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So number one is make sure, especially when you're starting out, that you have access to the transcript.
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That's point number one.
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Point number two is listen a lot in the initial stages to repetitious material.
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In other words, that's why I like our mini stories because the vocabulary repeats, grammatical structures repeat, and then I listen to them repetitively.
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As I have said, 50, 100 times I've listened to them in the case of Greek.
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So listen a lot to things where it repeats
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because a lot of it or some of it you understand
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and some of it you don't yet understand even if you've read it.
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Remember we're listening and reading to the same material even after reading it.
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You still don't pick it up when you listen to it.
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So you have to keep doing that.
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So that's number two.
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Listen a lot and repeatedly to material, easy material, hopefully where there's a lot of repetition of vocabulary.
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Point number three, as soon as possible, listen a lot again to interesting material.
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And remember, always try to have the transcript available.
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And the reason you want to listen to interesting material is
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that after a while our ability to absorb things when we
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when we listen to things that we've listened to before starts to diminish
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so you have to mix in interesting things where you're actually
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interested in what the subject matter is it might be a
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novel it might be a story it might be history you know sports whatever it is
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that you're interested in
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so make sure you have the transcript that's number one to
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listen a lot repeatedly to repetitive somewhat less interesting material
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but eventually and as much as possible
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and as soon as possible move on to interesting things
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that are going to capture your curiosity so
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that you're more focused on the interest this is you know
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what it is are talking about then trying to focus in on words and phrases And I find that,
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you know, it doesn't matter what I'm listening to, there is a tendency to tune out.
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Sitting in the car, working out.
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So don't expect that you're going to always be 100% focused.
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It doesn't matter.
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You are bathing your brain with the language.
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Okay?
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Fourth point is read.
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Read a lot.
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Okay?
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Not only things that you're listening to,
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but all reading is tremendously valuable valuable in terms of giving you familiarity with the language, introducing vocabulary.
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Of course, until we have a large vocabulary, we have to read, in my view, in an environment where it's like assisted reading.
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That's LingQ.
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So you can look up words, you can review the words immediately after having read a page at LingQ, but you have to read a lot.
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My statistics at LingQ in terms of the number of words that I have read, like even in Greek, it's well in excess, I don't know how many hundred thousand words that I've read just on LingQ.
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You have to read a lot.
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Reading helps you understand when you listen.
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If you don't have words, if you don't have familiarity with the language, just listening, listening, listening is not enough.
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You have to read a lot.
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So that was the fourth, read a lot.
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Now, again, I mentioned this number five, variety.
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Vary the things that you're listening to.
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Remember, again, we always want to have that transcript available until we're fairly advanced.
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But try to vary it.
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Variety is good for the brain.
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I don't mean three different things within half an hour.
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I mean focus on one range of subject matter so you get some familiarity with the context, with the vocabulary.
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But then at some other point, do something else.
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And this can be as simple as when you're starting out, having a variety of beginner material.
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Or later on, perhaps having two or three different kinds of content, history, literature, whatever, that you're listening.
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So variety is important.
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So that's number five.
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Number six, keep listening.
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Don't say, well, I don't understand.
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Keep listening.
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In language learning, progress is slow.
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And number seven, keep reading.
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There you have it.
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I won't remember all the seven, but the gist of it is keep doing it, vary it, mix in the reading and listening,
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and eventually your brain will start to focus.
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And there's no point being frustrated that you can't understand or you have trouble focusing.
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You just have to keep going.
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It's that simple.
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Okay, then.
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That's all I have to say.
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And now I'm going to try to do a brief explanation
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in Greek as to why I'm moving on from Greek to Arabic.
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Bye for now.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “My Top 7 Tips For Improving Your Listening Skills”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: listening, Greek, listen, material, language. This video has 122 sentences and 1376 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:38. The speaker talks at a natural 159 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, 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. |
| transcript noun | /ˈtɹæn.skɹɪpt/ | Something which has been transcribed; a writing or composition consisting of the same words as the original; a written copy. |
| motivation noun | /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/ | Willingness of action especially in behavior. |
| familiarity noun | /fəmɪliˈæɹɪti/ | The state of being extremely friendly; intimacy. |
| vary verb | /ˈvɛəɹi/ | To change with time or a similar parameter. |
| absorb verb | /æbˈsɔɹb/ | To include so that it no longer has separate existence; to overwhelm; to cause to disappear as if by swallowing up; to incorporate; to assimilate; to take in… |
| repeatedly adverb | /ɹɪˈpiːtɪdli/ | Done several times or in repetition. |
| diminish verb | /dɪˈmɪnɪʃ/ | To make smaller. |
| frustrate verb | /ˈfɹʌsˌtɹeɪt/ | To disappoint or defeat; to vex by depriving of something expected or desired. |
| grammatical adjective | /ɡɹəˈmæt.ɪ.kəl/ | Not breaching any constraints of the grammar, or morpho-syntax, of the relevant language. |
| proficient adjective | /pɹoʊˈfɪʃ.ənt/ | Good at something; skilled; fluent; practiced, especially in relation to a task or skill. |
| repetition noun | /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/ | The act or an instance of repeating or being repeated. |
| repetitious adjective | /ɹɛpəˈtɪʃəs/ | Characterized by repetition, especially excessive repetition. |
| repetitively adverb | In a repetitive manner. | |
| tremendously adverb | Greatly; enormously |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. | |
| start out verb | To emerge suddenly; to jump out. | |
| get back to verb | Return to (an activity) | |
| go back verb | To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time. | |
| look up verb | /ˌlʊk ˈʌp/ | To have better prospects. |
| tune out verb | To stop paying attention to; to ignore; to zone out. | |
| work out verb | /ˌwɝk ˈaʊt/ | To calculate. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- How do we get better at listening?
- On my own, it's a struggle.
- Let's get seven up there.
- Vary the things that you're listening to.
- Don't say, well, I don't understand.
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 said · have discovered · have lost |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is read · being frustrated |
| Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain | might have · might be |
| Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form | keep listening · keep reading |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 45 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/, diminish /dɪˈmɪnɪʃ/, proficient /pɹoʊˈfɪʃ.ənt/, repetition /ˌɹɛp.əˈtɪʃ.ən/, repetitious /ɹɛpəˈtɪʃəs/
- Long words — get the stress right: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/, familiarity /fəmɪliˈæɹɪti/, repeatedly /ɹɪˈpiːtɪdli/, grammatical /ɡɹəˈmæt.ɪ.kəl/
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, transcript, motivation.
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.