Shadowing Practice: No Speaking Partner? Do This to Improve Your English - Learn English Speaking with Video
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196 sentences
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Your speaking is not good and you want to speak fluently.
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That's clear.
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And that is the ultimate goal.
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We learn English so we can communicate in English.
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And students keep asking me the same question.
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How can I improve my fluency?
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And the answer is always the same thing.
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Practice speaking.
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But then there is a big problem, a big excuse, something big that stops you from practicing English speaking.
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And that is, I don't have anyone to talk to.
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When you want to speak, you need another human being on the other side so you can talk to and they can talk back.
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And it's not just talking, but it's also showing reactions, reading facial expressions, reading between the lines.
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And yes, I understand if you don't have a speaking partner, you might use it as an excuse not to practice speaking.
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Let's get real.
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You can practice speaking alone. And how?
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I'm going to show it to you.
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It's very simple.
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This is exactly the way I learned English when I was growing up.
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I'm a shy person.
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I'm an introvert.
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I'm not the kind of person who would start a conversation with strangers in my mother tongue, let alone English.
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The same thing happened to me when I was learning Italian.
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I was living in Italy and I could speak Italian with other people.
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I used to go to this cafe and they all spoke Italian.
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I could have started the conversation with them, but instead, oh, the shy person I am,
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I decided not to go home and speak Italian to myself alone with no speaking partners.
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And that's what I'm going to teach you today.
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How to practice speaking English alone at home so that you can speak fluently.
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And look, after this video you have no other excuses left you have to start practicing your fluency at home
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so stop learning words stop learning grammar
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and for a period of time focus on your fluency with these three exercises
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that i'm about to teach you my name is maddie
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and welcome to my english podcast it's no longer slow yes
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because i've realized you guys can't understand me right if you can't let me know in the comments.
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And before we start, if you want to experience learning English with me and with my system for free, go ahead and scan the QR code.
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This will take you to my free English mini course.
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There is no payment required, nothing.
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Just your email address and your name and your level.
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These are the three important things I want from you so
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that I can send you five lessons
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that will guide you in the right direction
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and you will experience learning with me
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it's for free give it a try okay let's just start with the activities
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and the first one is a game wait a second
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if you want to play a game
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we need another person on the other side no
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you can use ai you don't need another person really yes
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this is what you're going to do say it without saying it that's the name of the game.
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So you think about a word, you choose the word.
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Now you have to explain the word without using the word itself.
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And then AI has to guess your word.
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And yes, I said AI because you don't need a partner.
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You can use AI and you can use any free AI tool, chat, GPT, Claude, Gemini, whatever you're using.
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And the game is like this.
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Let's say I have chosen the word.
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Let's play it together.
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Let's see if you can guess the word.
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The word is, I'm not supposed to say the word, remember?
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I have to explain it.
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Okay, that's the word.
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It's a big bag with wheels.
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You put clothes in it when you travel.
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What is it?
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You tell this to AI, and AI will have to guess your word.
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Probably AI will guess it correctly.
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If not, you continue explaining.
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So in this case, it's easy, right?
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A bag, you put your clothes in it, and it has wheels.
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It's a suitcase.
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Now, this is a physical object it's simple let's make it abstract not physical oh okay this is interesting
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so it's a date or a time by
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when you have to finish a project you explain this to ai
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and you wait if ai can guess your word good
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if not you continue
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if you miss it you were going to get into trouble it's a deadline very good
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or let's make it even more difficult let's talk about more abstract words.
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It's how you feel when somebody has something that you really want it and you see if AI has guessed correctly.
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No, continue.
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For example, I always wanted a car, I could never have it, but my friend just bought a car with his father's money.
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And now I feel jealous.
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So you see, I'm not using the word itself.
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I'm explaining the meaning of the word.
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What it does is it helps you find your way around a word.
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Why is it helpful for fluency?
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Let's say you are speaking.
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And then suddenly you want to say something.
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You want to say a word, but you don't find the word.
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You have the word in your mother tongue, but you don't have it in English.
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So you hit the wall.
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You're frozen.
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And that's why you can't speak fluently.
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But if you train your brain to find a way around that word, instead of using the word, explain the word, then you're out of trouble.
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For example, let's say the word is deadline and I don't remember the deadline, right?
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I don't remember the word deadline.
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This is what I'm going to do.
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I'm going to say, yeah, remember to finish it before the date by which the project has to be finished.
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See, I finished my sentence and the other person will understand what I meant.
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I just didn't use the word deadline.
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I explained what the idea is.
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And that's what you should do.
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You should try to paraphrase.
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You should try to find your way around every blocker you may find.
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Don't let anything stop you when you are focusing on your fluency.
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Find your way around it.
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Find another way of saying the same thing.
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Let's say I want to take a cab
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and I don't remember the word taxi um where can i find one of those yellow vehicles
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that you pay
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and they take you somewhere that's a taxi see i'm finding my way around
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it the second activity oh it's fantastic it's fantastic you take a picture it can be any picture
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and describe that picture for 60 seconds one minute
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so you have your your phone you put it on the timer 60 seconds go
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and then you start describing
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that picture for 60 seconds you don't stop do not stop make things up
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if you have to let me find a random picture
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so we can do it together right
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now okay let me search google for a random picture random picture
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i'm gonna search random picture let's see okay guys this is
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so funny i mean this is
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so random what am i supposed to do with it okay
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i'm gonna describe it 60 seconds go it's a picture of a guy
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and he is either surprised or shocked it's a funny picture
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because when you look at it you kind of want to laugh
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but you don't know why this picture reminds me of a
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friend of mine who looks exactly like him he's a goofy person who is never serious
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and never takes anything seriously I remember
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when I was talking to him last week about a serious problem
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I had he started making weird facial expressions just like this guy.
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You see, I'm just trying to talk about this picture and then when I'm done with the picture, I start talking about similar experiences I've had.
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For 60 seconds, talk about that random picture that you found and potentially find a picture
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that gives you more to talk about than just a facial expression.
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The third activity is this.
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You ask AI for three random words.
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This is the prompt.
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Give me three random English words.
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That's it.
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You get the three words, and this is the part that gets interesting.
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You have to make a story and finish the story with those three words in it.
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It's a challenge, right?
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So let's try it.
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I'm going to go to chat GPT and say, give me three random words.
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Apple, river, chair.
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Okay, this is funny.
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So the words are apple, river, and chair.
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Here's the funny part.
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You have to tell a story, including the three words.
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So the other day, I wanted to go to the supermarket to buy some apples.
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What I had to do was to get out of my chair, get dressed, and go out.
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There is a supermarket near my house, but the problem is between my apartment and the supermarket,
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there is a long river that you have to cross in order to get to the supermarket.
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See, that was a very silly story it wasn't true
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it does not have to be true the only thing
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i did was i tried to connect three words together with a story
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that that is coherent
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and how it helps you is it forces your brain to be creative right
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you have you have three words
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you need to make something out of it these three exercises are fantastic to get started once
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you're done with these three i have a bonus activity for you this is fantastic
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it's called 30 second opinion what is it i ask you a question
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or you can ask ai to give you a question
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and you have to give your opinion and explain
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or defend it for 30 seconds what do i mean let me show you tea
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or coffee this is the question tea or coffee what's my opinion coffee
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but i have to talk about it for 30 seconds 30 second opinion I have to say why coffee for 30 seconds.
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So here's the answer.
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I prefer coffee because I think, first of all, tea does not have enough caffeine for me to wake up.
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In the morning, I need something stronger.
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And I have two options, either to drink an energy drink or have a cup of coffee.
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And the energy drink is not the healthiest option.
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However, coffee doesn't have many calories it's healthier
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and it has plenty of caffeine
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that's why i prefer coffee another thing is you can add milk to your coffee
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and add sugar to your coffee
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and personalize your coffee
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you see i'm just trying to explain my opinion to defend my opinion for 30 seconds here's another one cats
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or dogs say what your opinion is uh dog explain why
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because in my opinion cats are relatively independent animals compared to dogs
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and the whole point of having a pet is
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that you feel like your pet needs you
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and you are taking care of your pet with cats it's the other way around
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because cats think they own you
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and you are their pet you know what i mean
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you i'm just trying to defend my opinion 30 second opinion
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and where do you get these questions ask ai to give you a bunch of questions like cats or dogs,
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tea or coffee, big city or small city, text or call, which one do you prefer?
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And trust me, by doing these exercises at home, you are doing yourself a great favor.
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Enough with studying, enough with focusing on receptive skills, enough with vocabulary, grammar, or watching videos,
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or just listening to podcasts.
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It is your turn to use your mouth to produce something
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now don't get me wrong i'm not saying grammar vocabulary listening
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and reading they're not important they are important
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but i'm pretty sure you have done a lot of those activities
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and you haven't done enough speaking so go
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and have these three plus one activities i told you start practicing today
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and i promise in 10 days you are going to feel the difference give it a shot go ahead
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and try it i hope you've enjoyed this lesson see you soon Bye.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “No Speaking Partner? Do This to Improve Your English”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: word, picture, coffee, english, speaking. This video has 196 sentences and 2071 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:15. The speaker talks at a natural 169 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
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| deadline noun | /ˈdɛdˌlaɪn/ | A time limit in the form of a date on or before which something must be completed. |
| supermarket noun | /ˌsupɚˈmɑɹkət/ | A large self-service store that sells groceries and, usually, medications, household goods, and/or clothing. |
| defend verb | /dɪˈfɪnd/ | To ward off attacks against (something or someone). |
| grammar noun | /ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/ | A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general. |
| facial adjective | /ˈfeɪ.ʃəl/ | Of or affecting the face. |
| lesson noun | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided. |
| correctly adverb | /kəˈɹɛk(t).li/ | In a correct manner. |
| taxi noun | /ˈtæksi/ | A vehicle that may be hired for single journeys by members of the public, particularly one with an automated meter to calculate the fare. |
| podcast noun | /ˈpɑdˌkæst/ | A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on… |
| abstract noun | /ˈæbˌstɹækt/ | An abridgement or summary of a longer publication. |
| cloth noun | /klɒθ/ | A fabric, usually made of woven, knitted, or felted fibres or filaments, such as used in dressing, decorating, cleaning or other practical use. Sometimes… |
| 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. |
| caffeine noun | /ˈkæfiːn/ | An alkaloid, C₈H₁₀N₄O₂, found naturally in tea and coffee plants, which acts as a mild stimulant on the central nervous system. |
| shock noun | /ʃɔk/ | A sudden, heavy impact. |
| bonus noun | /ˈbəʊ.nəs/ | Something extra that is good; an added benefit. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| go ahead verb | /ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/ | To proceed with; to begin. |
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. | |
| go out verb | To leave, especially a building. | |
| grow up verb | To mature and become an adult. | |
| talk back verb | To reply impertinently or rudely; to answer in a cheeky or rude manner. | |
| wake up verb | /ˌweɪk ˈʌp/ | To stop sleeping; to awake. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- How can I improve my fluency?
- I'm going to show it to you.
- Let's say I have chosen the word.
- Let's see if you can guess the word.
- The word is, I'm not supposed to say the word, remember?
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 realized · have chosen · has guessed |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | person who would · person who is |
| Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form | keep asking · Practice speaking · start practicing |
| Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past | was growing · was learning · was living |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 52 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: facial /ˈfeɪ.ʃəl/, shock /ʃɔk/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/
- Long words — get the stress right: supermarket /ˌsupɚˈmɑɹkət/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, potentially /pəˈtɛnʃ(ə)li/, communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/, personalize /ˈpɜː.sə.nə.laɪz/
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 deadline, supermarket, defend.
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.