Shadowing Practice: Oxford Read and Discover Level 3 – Festivals Around the World - Read along with highlighted text - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Oxford Read and Discover Level 3 Festivals Around the World by Richard Northcott
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Oxford Read and Discover Level 3 Festivals Around the World by Richard Northcott
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Read by Wayne Forrester Published and Copyright Oxford University Press 2011 Introduction
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This is New Year in China.
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New Year is a big festival for Chinese people in China and all around the world.
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People walk in the streets,
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watch dances and have fun.
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What festivals are there in your country? When are these festivals?
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What do people do on these days?
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Discover!
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Now read and discover more about festivals around the world.
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Chapter 1.
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In the streets.
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Come to the carnival.
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The Carnival in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil is one of the biggest festivals in the world.
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It's always in February or March.
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There's a parade with big floats.
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There's music in the streets.
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People wear colourful costumes.
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They dance and have fun.
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Discover!
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The carnival in Rio de Janeiro is all day and all night.
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Many people don't go to bed that night.
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On the same day, there's a carnival in Venice in Italy.
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At this time of year it's summer in Brazil,
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but it's winter in Italy.
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The weather in Italy is colder than in Brazil.
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At the Venice Carnival, some people wear long dresses or cloaks.
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They want to have fun,
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but they don't want to be cold.
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The day after the carnival,
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Christians start the time of Lent.
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Number 2.
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Lights.
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For many festivals, people decorate their homes.
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In India, people put lots of pretty lamps in their homes for the festival of Diwali.
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They look at the lamps and think about their family and other people in the world.
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Diwali is usually in October or November.
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It's a very big festival for Hindu people in India and for Hindus all around the world.
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At the Jewish festival of Hanukkah,
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people light candles on eight nights.
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One night they light one candle.
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The next night they light two candles.
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On the last night of Hanukkah,
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they light all the candles.
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Hanukkah is usually in December.
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Children have presents.
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Many families eat pancakes made with potatoes.
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They sometimes eat doughnuts too.
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Chapter 3.
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Families and Friends Eid is the Arabic word for festival.
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Eid is a big Muslim festival.
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At Eid, people give presents to children and friends.
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Eid presents are usually money or things like toys, candy and new clothes.
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At Eid, Muslims think about other people in the world.
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They give food and money to hungry people and sick people.
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People wear new clothes at Eid.
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In the morning, they get up,
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wash and put on their new clothes.
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They eat dates and cookies for breakfast.
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Then they go to pray at the mosque.
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Lots of people hug their friends.
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Later, they eat with their family.
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They also visit their grandparents and say, Happy Eid.
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Chapter 4 Three Kings In the story of Jesus Christ,
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three good people visited Jesus when he was a baby.
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They gave him presents.
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Later, Christians called these people the Three Kings.
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In January, Christians have a festival called Twelfth Night.
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It's called Twelfth Night because it's twelve nights after Christmas.
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At this time, Christians think about the Three Kings who visited Jesus with their presents.
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In some countries, people eat a big cake.
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Twelfth Night is a big festival in Spain.
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There are lots of parades with people in costumes.
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People throw candy to children in the streets.
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Discover!
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On Twelfth Night, Spanish children put their shoes under the Christmas tree.
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In the morning, they find presents in their shoes.
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Chapter 5.
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Spring Spring is a very pretty season.
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Maybe it's the prettiest season of all.
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It's usually sunny and there are lots of flowers.
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In Japan, people love cherry blossom.
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These pink flowers open in spring, between January and April.
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People have picnics under the cherry trees.
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They sit and eat, and they look at the cherry blossom.
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In Ghana, the rainy season starts in May.
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This is a good time for farmers,
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so they have a big festival called Hamouou.
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There are parades in the streets with music and dancing.
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Vila Franca do Lima is in Portugal.
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In May, there's a festival here with lots of flowers.
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Girls carry flowers on their head.
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The flowers are heavy.
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Chapter 6 Thank you Fall is a season of festivals all around the world.
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It's the season of the harvest.
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Farmers cut the crops and pick the fruit.
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After the harvest, people want to say thank you for the good things in the world.
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In South Korea, there's a big festival called Chuseok in September or October.
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Families eat traditional food like rice cakes.
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Sometimes people also dance.
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In the USA, the festival of Thanksgiving is in November.
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In Canada, it's in October.
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People have dinner with their family.
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They eat turkey and pumpkin pie.
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In Europe, there are lots of festivals after the harvest.
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In Poland, girls wear crowns made of flowers.
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They dance and sing songs.
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In Italy, people wear traditional costumes and they dance with wreaths.
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The wreaths are made of wheat.
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Chapter 7 Birthdays Christmas is the birthday of Jesus Christ,
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and it's a big festival for Christians.
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Many people have a Christmas tree in their homes,
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and there are pretty decorations in the streets.
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All around the world, Sikhs have a festival for Guru Nanak's birthday in November.
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Guru Nanak was a great teacher.
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Some Sikhs go to the Golden Temple in India.
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On Guru Nanak's birthday, there are thousands of lamps at this temple.
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Visak Day is sometimes called Buddha's birthday.
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On this day, Buddhists think about Gautama Buddha.
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He was a great teacher in India.
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They decorate statues of Gautama Buddha.
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Visak Day is usually in May.
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On Visak Day in Indonesia,
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thousands of birds fly into the sky.
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Chapter 8 Midsummer In June, it's summer in Europe.
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It's usually warm.
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The nights are short and the days are long.
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The longest day in the year is June the 21st. It's called Midsummer.
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At this time there are many festivals in Europe.
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People make big bonfires.
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Discover!
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In Finland and other countries near the Arctic,
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it doesn't get dark at Midsummer.
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There's no night.
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In Russia at Midsummer, people sing and dance all night.
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Girls pick flowers and make pretty crowns.
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They throw the crowns into a lake or a river.
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Midsummer is one of the biggest festivals in Sweden.
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People decorate their homes with leaves.
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They make a big pole with flowers and leaves.
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They dance around the pole and sing songs.
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They wear traditional Swedish costumes.
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Girls make pretty crowns with flowers.
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Chapter 9.
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Halloween October the 31st is Halloween.
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Children wear costumes.
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In the evening, they knock on doors and people give them candy.
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At Halloween, some people buy a pumpkin.
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They cut holes in the pumpkin to make eyes,
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a nose and a mouth.
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They put a candle in the pumpkin to make a lantern.
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A lantern and a scary face.
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Stores sell Halloween toys, like skeletons and spiders.
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People aren't really scared at Halloween.
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It's fun.
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The day after Halloween is a Christian festival called All Saints Day.
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This is a very big festival in Mexico.
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People think about their families and visit the cemetery.
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It's not a sad festival.
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People have fun.
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Children have candy and they play with their brothers and sisters.
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Discover!
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Discover!
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In Guatemala on All Saints Day,
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people fly really big kites.
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Chapter 10 New Year All around the world there are big festivals for New Year.
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People in different countries do different things.
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In Spain and Portugal, people eat 12 grapes at midnight on December 31st. In Japan,
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people like laughing at midnight.
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They say, start the year with a laugh,
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then all the year is happy.
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In Thailand, people throw water in the streets.
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They have water all over them,
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but it's not a problem.
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The weather in Thailand is always hot at New Year.
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At New Year, many people watch fireworks.
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Little children sit on their mother's or father's shoulders so that they can see the fireworks.
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The fireworks go up and all the people say, Happy New Year!
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Discover!
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In Sydney, in Australia, there are usually more than 80,000 fireworks at New Year.
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Context & Background

The Oxford Read and Discover Level 3 series provides a unique opportunity for English learners to immerse themselves in captivating subjects while enhancing their language skills. In the featured video, "Festivals Around the World" by Richard Northcott, learners are introduced to various cultural celebrations worldwide, such as New Year in China, Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, and Diwali in India. This engaging context not only enriches vocabulary but also offers insight into global customs, making it an ideal resource for those looking to learn English with YouTube.

Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication

  • What festivals are there in your country? - A great way to initiate discussions about cultural celebrations.
  • People wear colourful costumes. - Useful for describing appearances in various settings.
  • They want to have fun, but they don’t want to be cold. - A phrase that conveys the balance of enjoyment and practicality.
  • Many families eat pancakes made with potatoes. - This can help describe food traditions during celebrations.
  • Eid is the Arabic word for festival. - A useful linguistic fact that adds depth to conversations about cultural terms.

Step-by-step Shadowing Guide

To effectively utilize the shadowing site method for improving your English speaking skills through this video, follow these steps:

  1. Watch Actively: Begin by watching the video without sound. Familiarize yourself with the visuals to understand the context better.
  2. Listen Completely: Play the video with the audio. Focus on pronunciation, intonation, and rhythm as you listen to the narrator.
  3. First Shadow: Pause periodically and repeat what you hear, imitating the speaker's tone and pace. Use the highlighted text as a cue to enhance your reading comprehension.
  4. Practice Regularly: Repeat this process multiple times throughout the week. This exposure helps you internalize common phrases and improve fluency.
  5. Engage in English Speaking Practice: After shadowing, engage in conversations about festivals with other learners. Use the phrases you practiced to enhance real-life discussions.

By dedicating time to shadowing, you can improve your spoken English effectively. Incorporate both the visual and auditory aspects of your learning using the shadowspeak technique to make the most of the learn English with YouTube resources available to you.

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.

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