Shadowing Practice: Pronunciation Training Techniques - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Welcome to the Effortless English Show with the world's number one English teacher, AJ Hoag.

Where AJ's more than 40 million students worldwide finally learn English once and for all, without the boring textbooks, classrooms, and grammar drills.

Here's AJ with a quick piece to help you learn to speak fluent English effortlessly.

Hi, I'm AJ Hoag, the author of Effortless English.

Learn to speak English like a native.

Now, maybe you have bad pronunciation.

And when you have bad pronunciation, you often feel embarrassed when you speak English.

You often feel foolish because people don't understand you.

Right?

When people give you this face, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, right?

They look annoyed.

They look frustrated.

They look confused when you speak English.

Because your pronunciation is not good.

And this will affect your life.

It makes travel more difficult.

It makes your job more difficult.

IELTS, TOEFL more difficult.

Everything is more difficult when your pronunciation is bad.

On the other hand, when your pronunciation is good, everything is much easier.

People understand you instantly.

I think more important than that, they respect you instantly.

They will not see you as an English learner.

They will not see you as someone who's annoying them, who's bothering them.

They'll just treat you normally like they would any other native speaker.

And that's great.

Now in a work situation, it's even better because you get that respect immediately when you have great pronunciation

From your co -workers from clients from bosses from everybody

It's it's powerful and of course on IELTS on TOEFL and anything else like that

Man when your pronunciation is great you get a high score

It's just it's simple as

that they're going to give you a very high score on the speaking part when your pronunciation is great.

And that's what I made my new Effortless English Pronunciation Course for.

Train you.

Not just teach you, not just tell you.

Train you day by day to speak with a perfect American accent.

Now in the last video, I told you the importance of ear training.

That we need to think like musicians,

especially jazz musicians, and learn to hear the music of English and hear it very,

very clearly, including all those little small sounds that make your accent perfect.

You've got to hear them first.

If you can't hear them, you can't do them.

Well, that's just step one, though, of the training process.

Next, a really good technique.

This is a training technique.

Again, a lot of pronunciation courses, all the ones I found, they kind of teach you.

They'll show you the mouth movements, you know, put your tongue here and move your mouth like this.

That's okay.

I teach you that also.

I have videos in my pronunciation course.

Every unit has a video.

I teach you how to make the sounds.

But that's not enough.

You have to do more than that.

You have to train it.

You have to practice it day after day and you have to do it in an effective way.

And that's what makes this course powerful.

So let me give you one technique.

It's simple.

It's obvious.

It's simply pause and imitate.

Pause and imitate.

This is obvious but you have to do it in a very specific way.

A lot of people do this but they do it wrong.

They do it incorrectly.

Now what do you do?

You take a short audio, short audio from a native speaker, very important, choose a native speaker.

Anything from me is fine.

You can use one of my free YouTube videos.

The good thing is I have a very, very clear standard American accent.

A lot of people say, AJ, you're so easy to understand.

Well, one reason is I have a very, very clear, common, standard American accent.

It's the accent you hear in movies and TV all the time.

You're used to it.

It's the most easy to understand accent in the world.

That's good for you.

So you find an audio with a good clear accent.

And then you simply play a sentence.

Listen carefully.

Pause.

Then you say the sentence.

Try to say it the same as the speaker.

That seems obvious, but here's the important part.

You have to exaggerate your pronunciation.

What do I mean by that?

What I mean is this.

You'll hear the speaker say something.

For example, my name is AJ.

You listen to that.

My name is AJ.

And then you pause.

Now it's your turn.

Most people do this.

They just say, my name is AJ.

They think they're imitating.

They think they're doing the same as the audio.

But really they're not.

The energy is different.

The feeling is different.

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And of course, the actual accent is different.

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What you need to do is you have to try to do everything too much.

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You have to try to copy the speaker, but then do even more.

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Do the accent, the American accent you hear.

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Do it super strongly.

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Pretend you're a comedian and you're trying to make fun of the accent.

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You're doing it to sound funny, so you're doing it super, super, super strongly, extra strongly.

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See, the problem is you think you're doing the accent, but you're really not.

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It's too soft.

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It's not enough.

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When you exaggerate, you will feel you're doing it too much.

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You'll feel like, oh, this is ridiculous.

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This is crazy.

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I'm doing it too strongly.

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But the truth is you'll sound just normal your accent will just sound good.

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It's strange, it's some kind of weird psychology, maybe because you feel embarrassed, but you have to do it much much more than you think.

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You have to really exaggerate.

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So you hear the audio, you hear, hi my name is AJ.

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Pause.

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Then you do it, you imitate.

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You have to do it ten times bigger.

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So you say, hi my name is AJ.

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You'll feel like you're doing that.

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You'll feel like you're doing it way too strong.

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But in fact, you're teaching your brain to use exactly the correct pronunciation.

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You think you're doing it too strong, I promise you, you're not.

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You're not doing it too much.

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So you gotta really over exaggerate, overdo the American accent you hear.

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Make it too, too, too strong.

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And you do it every sentence.

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Play the next sentence.

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Pause.

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Imitate and super exaggerate.

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Play the next sentence.

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Pause.

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Imitate and super exaggerate.

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The super exaggeration, that's the powerful part.

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Okay.

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Another technique. Do that.

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Do that for one day.

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Next day you can do a different technique or you can do

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that every day and then do this next technique also every day.

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Now in my course I give you an exact schedule to follow

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but if you're doing this at home just by yourself you can use any schedule you want.

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Alright the next technique, the next technique for improving your pronunciation.

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Find the text for your audio.

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Right, get a transcript, the text, subtitles, anything just so you can read it.

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Now first you're going to listen to it, then you're going to pause and imitate and exaggerate, pause and imitate and exaggerate do

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that a lot then next what you'll do turn off the audio off

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you're going to read the text out loud with a nice strong loud voice

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you're going to read it you've been listening to it

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so you know the correct sounds so read it with a nice strong loud voice

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and record yourself this might be a little painful I'm sorry to say,

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but it's a powerful technique that will help you improve a lot.

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Record yourself.

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Read the whole thing.

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Maybe one paragraph, you know, one minute.

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It doesn't matter.

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Read it aloud with a strong voice.

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Record it.

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Then stop.

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Play your audio.

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Play your recording.

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Listen to it very carefully.

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Listening especially to the pronunciation, to that music of English.

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Listen very carefully.

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Next, listen to the original audio, the native speaker, listening carefully.

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Compare the two.

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How is your pronunciation different than the original?

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And it probably will be quite different.

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It probably will be very different.

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This is why it might feel a little painful because suddenly you will realize, Oh my God, my accent is horrible.

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Oh my god, my pronunciation is terrible.

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I don't sound like the speaker at all.

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See when you just do it in your head, you're just practicing.

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You maybe you think you sound really good, but when you record it, the truth is hard to avoid.

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When you record it and then you play it and then you compare, play yours.

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Play the original.

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Play yours again.

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Play the original again.

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Do that a few times, listening carefully.

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Try to find the differences.

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There will be a lot of differences in the beginning.

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This is good for you, though.

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This will start training your ears to hear the difference, right?

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You'll hear, oh, wow, my R's sound really bad, and they're not like the speaker's R's.

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Or my rhythm is weird.

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My rhythm is totally different than the speaker's rhythm.

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You'll start to notice your own personal problems with pronunciation.

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And this will help you improve.

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Just by doing this a lot, recording yourself and comparing, you can do it every day, just that will help you improve your pronunciation a lot,

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a lot, a lot.

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It's a very, very powerful technique.

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Especially when you combine it, when you do it with the imitate and exaggerate technique.

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Do both those techniques and you're going to see a lot of improvement in your pronunciation.

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Okay, in my next video, I'm actually going to do a live webinar, a live video, live stream video.

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I'm going to answer your questions.

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Your questions about my new pronunciation course.

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This is your chance to ask me anything you want about the pronunciation course.

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I will be live on video.

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Now, I will record it, so if you miss it, don't worry, because you can watch the recording and see all the questions.

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I'll answer all the questions.

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I'm sending you an invitation,

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an email invitation, to join this live webinar, live video about pronunciation.

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So, check your email today, tomorrow, the next day.

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Check your email, check your spam folder,

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find the invitation, and then click the link in the email and enter your email again to join the webinar.

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You have to register.

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So register for the webinar.

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It's free, totally free, but you do need to register with your email.

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So please watch your email, click that link, and register.

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Then you can ask me directly any question you have about the new pronunciation course.

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Alright, watch your email and I will talk to you soon in the live webinar.

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I look forward to answering your questions.

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Thanks a lot.

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See you soon.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Pronunciation Training Techniques”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: pronunciation, accent, technique, English, hear. This video has 215 sentences and 1825 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:33. The speaker talks at a steady 145 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

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

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
pronunciation noun	/pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/	The formal or informal way in which a word is made to sound when spoken.
accent noun	/ækˈsɛnt/	A higher-pitched or stronger (louder or longer) articulation of a particular syllable of a word or phrase in order to distinguish it from the others or to…
technique noun	/tɛkˈniːk/	The practical aspects of a given art, occupation etc.; formal requirements.
audio adjective	/ˈɔ.di.oʊ/	Focused on audible sound, as opposed to sight.
pause noun	/pɔːz/	A temporary stop or rest; an intermission of action; interruption; suspension; cessation.
carefully adverb	/ˈkɛɹf(ə)li/	With care; attentively, circumspectly.
strongly adverb	/ˈstɹɔŋli/	In a strong or powerful manner.
compare verb	/kəmˈpɛɚ/	To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things [“to compare X with Y”]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it…
invitation noun	/ɪnvɪˈteɪʃən/	The act of inviting; solicitation; the requesting of a person's company.
rhythm noun	/ˈɹɪð.əm/	The variation of strong and weak elements (such as duration, accent) of sounds, notably in speech or music, over time; a beat or meter.
painful adjective	/ˈpeɪn.fl̩/	Causing pain or distress, either physical or mental.
instantly adverb	/ˈɪnstəntli/	At once; without delay.
embarrassed adjective	/ɪmˈbæɹ.əst/	Having a feeling of shameful discomfort.
musician noun	/mjuˈzɪʃən/	A composer, conductor, or performer of music; specifically, a person who sings and/or plays a musical instrument as a hobby, occupation, or profession.
confused adjective	/kənˈfjuːzd/	unable to think clearly or understand

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
look forward to verb	To anticipate, expect, or wait for, especially with a feeling of approval or pleasure; to be excited or eager to.
turn off verb	To power down, to switch off, to put out of operation, to deactivate (an appliance, light, mechanism, functionality etc.).

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

You often feel foolish because people don't understand you.
You've got to hear them first.
If you can't hear them, you can't do them.
What do I mean by that?
How is your pronunciation different than the original?

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 53 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, you'll, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: rhythm /ˈɹɪð.əm/, bother /ˈbɑðɚ/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, invitation /ɪnvɪˈteɪʃən/, musician /mjuˈzɪʃən/, foolish /ˈfuː.lɪʃ/, exaggeration /ɪɡˌzæd͡ʒəˈɹeɪʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, invitation /ɪnvɪˈteɪʃən/, ridiculous /ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs/, psychology /saɪˈkɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, comedian /kəˈmiː.di.ən/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like pronunciation, accent, technique.

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 →

Shadowing Practice: Pronunciation Training Techniques - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?