Shadowing Practice: React Native for Beginners tutorial - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hello and welcome.

I'm Dave and I'm excited about this

React Native for Beginners course.

If you want to learn

React Native and build apps that are compatible with both

Android and iOS devices, you're in the right place to start.

I'll provide links to all resources in the video description.

I'll also provide a link to join my Discord server where you can discuss

React Native with fellow students, ask questions, and help each other out.

Hey everyone, this

React Native for beginners educational video series is made possible by Zero to Mastery, also known as ZTM.

I've been recommending ZTM on my channel for a couple of years now because ZTM has an amazing selection of in -depth, up -to -date courses.

React, Next .js, Node .js, ZTM has it.

Python, AI, prompt engineering, ZTM has it.

Security, code interview prep, ZTM has it.

When viewers ask me where they can go to learn more after completing a course on my channel, I recommend ZTM.

And I always put links in my video description to ZTM courses,

just like I've linked to ZTM's React Native course in the description for this video.

After you complete this

React Native course, ZTM's Complete React Native Developer is your next logical step.

ZTM's course will reinforce the basics you learn from me and guide you through creating large -scale

React Native apps that you can put in your portfolio and show confidently in a job interview.

Look for the link in the video description and check out ZTM today.

And we begin on the React Native homepage.

You'll find that at reactnative .dev.

And you can see it says

Learn Once, Write Anywhere.

That's because when you create an application with React Native, it can run on Android devices, iOS devices, and all types of web -enabled devices,

laptops, desktops, possibly tablets or any other internet device as well as you see the different logos here for browsers,

different platforms, and of course

Android and iOS.

Let's scroll down just a little further and you can see it says create native apps for Android, iOS, and more using

React and that's what we're going to learn how to do.

Now let's talk requirements

because at the beginning of every course you have requirements both what knowledge should you already have

and what tools do you need to get started?

Let's begin with the tools.

So first, we'll go to code .visualstudio .com.

And if you don't have

Visual Studio Code or VS Code for short, you want to download that for the platform you're on.

Here, it automatically identifies that I'm on Windows, so it wants me to download for Windows.

If you're on Mac or Linux, those are also supported.

Now after you get VS Code, you will likely also want to get Git.

So that is available at git -scm .com.

And here is a download for Windows in the bottom right.

Of course, this will also identify what operating system you are on and suggest that download for you.

Now, after you have Git, there's one more thing you want to download, and that is Node .js.

And you'll find that at Node .js .org.

Now you can see you can download Node .js.

LTS is the long -term support version, and that's what I recommend.

Okay, I have VS Code running.

I have closed the welcome screen that you might see after you install VS Code, and I just have an empty folder open.

My folder is named React Native Series that you'll see over here.

You don't have to create that if you don't want to.

That is what I have called my folder.

And then you have some menus here at the top.

Now, I'm zoomed in some to help the video and help you see what's going on.

So you don't see all of the menus at the top.

But if you click the three dots, you see the other menus that are available.

We're going to open a terminal.

So you can choose the terminal menu and then choose new terminal here.

And once you do that, you'll have a terminal window.

I already had one open so I just closed one

but with this terminal window you'll notice a couple of things one

you can see where my folder is here on windows I'm in documents tutorials

and then the react native series folder that I created

but also at the top you'll see what type of terminal I'm running so

if I click this where it says bash I believe

I could hear maybe the arrow to the right there we go I could change the type of terminal

that I have here's PowerShell that comes with windows

but bash comes with git

and that's what i want to use now it just opened another new one

but i'm using the bash terminal and since you installed git you should also have

that option available for your vs code

so you'll be using the same terminal as i do throughout

this series now let's also check what versions we installed

and we can do that say with node js that we installed by typing node dash V

and you can see it gives me the version

that i just installed now

if you're watching this video months after i've created it you may have a newer version

and that's okay as well now let's do the same with git i'll just type git for git dash v

and we'll see what version of git i have installed

so those are the versions that i currently have and

if you have newer versions than that installed that's okay too

and since we've installed node we also have npm

so we can check the version of that as we will also use it in this series.

And there is my version of NPM.

Now before we're finished talking about tools, I want to mention a couple of optional VS Code extensions you can add.

Now I'm not going to focus on those, but since you're learning

React Native, you can go ahead and add them if you want to.

So let's search for React Native.

And then of course it'll take just a little bit of time and we should get what extensions are available.

Here is the React Native tools.

If you want to install that, that would be a good one to use.

Another one that we're going to have is called Expo Tools.

And Expo is a framework that we're going to introduce here in just a moment.

So you could add the Expo Tools as well.

You might want both of these extensions.

Again, I'm not going to focus on them, but as you're learning

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React Native and continue on your journey, they will probably be helpful for you.

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And now continuing with requirements, let's just talk about what knowledge you should already have.

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I'm not going to say knowing

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React is a prerequisite, although it will help you if you're learning React Native.

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If you already know

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React, it will be easier to understand some things.

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But the things that I do require are what are called the pillars of the web, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

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Now, I have free courses for all three of those topics on my youtube channel

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so you can find those

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and watch those videos as the prerequisites for this class just as

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when you take a college course

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or some other course sometimes there is a class

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you should have taken before these three items will help you as you now learn react native

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and we're back on the react native home page let's click the get started button

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and here we have get started with react native

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but one thing they say here that i want to really highlight is we believe that the best way to experience

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React Native is through a framework, a toolbox with all the necessary APIs to let you build production -ready apps.

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And so with that said, we're going to use a React Native framework called Expo, as they mention here.

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And Expo is a framework

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that will give us a lot of extra tools to help build our React Native apps that will work on all platforms.

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And now we're on the Expo homepage, and this is at expo .dev.

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From here, we want to go to the Docs link.

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So let's go to the Docs, and from there, we want to click

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Create a Project.

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Now you can see on the Create a Project page, they give us some code that we can copy,

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and we'll paste it into our terminal in VS Code to help create our Expo application with React Native.

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Back in VS Code, I'm going to open a terminal window by pressing control and the back tick.

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And now that I've copied that code from the Expo website, I'm going to paste it here by right clicking.

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And of course, I'm on Windows.

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So if you're on Mac or Linux, that could be just a little different.

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Now that I've pasted that command in here, it says npx create

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Expo app at latest.

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So it's going to install the latest version for Expo.

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Let's go ahead and press enter it will start to ask us some questions

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and it says what do we want to name the app well i'm going to suggest

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that you name this welcome as it's just an example here in the welcome get started video

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you could name it get started or go with my app

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if you want to i'll just say welcome what i'm going to call it is lesson one

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because i'm creating a series of tutorials here so lesson 01

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and press enter and now it starts creating everything that we need for this project.

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Now one thing I'm commonly asked about a tutorial series

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and especially a few months after it's been created or a year

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or even two years later is is this tutorial still valid

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because tech does change and I'll say yes this tutorial is still valid

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if you install the same dependencies that I have in my package .json file

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and you'll soon see a package .json file in this lesson 01 folder when this finishes installing.

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Now what I'm going to suggest

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if you're watching this video a year after I've created it

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or two years after I've created it is you're probably going to want to get my code from GitHub

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and there you're going to copy that package .json

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and then you'll type npm install to get the exact same versions that I use in this tutorial,

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and that will let you have the same experience that I've had.

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So for now, you can see we have a message.

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Everything is installed, and it says we want to CD, that is change directory, and go into lesson 01.

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So let's do that down here, CD, lesson 01.

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If you named yours welcome, it would be CD welcome.

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And that is going to take us into that lesson 01 folder that I have.

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So now you can see I'm in documents, tutorials, React Native series.

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And as far as the terminal is concerned, I am in the lesson 01 folder.

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Now up here, we'll have to open it to see what's inside.

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I was talking about a package JSON file, and now you see this.

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So we typed install latest.

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If I scroll back up here, we might still be able to see that.

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No, there's a lot of messages.

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But we had that pasted command at our terminal, and it said npx create expo app at latest.

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Well, behind latest are a lot of different packages this create expo app installed.

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So I'm going to close this and we can see everything that was installed under dependencies in my package JSON file.

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So now that I scroll down, you can see all of these dependencies it added for our application.

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Here's React.

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Here's a lot of things to do with Expo.

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We also have some

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React Navigation for native up here, React Native things down here.

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So a lot of things were installed.

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Now these are the versions that I currently have as I create this tutorial.

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If you're watching the video a year or two years from now, there's probably newer versions of these things available,

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which you will get if you install at latest like we just did here in this video.

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But if you want to have these exact same versions

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that I do for the tutorial and have the exact same experience that I show,

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what you'll want to do after you go ahead and copy my package JSON from GitHub,

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You could just highlight all the code and paste it in here if you want to, but you want to have this package .json file.

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And after that, I will just open up the terminal window again, and I can type npm install,

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and it will install all the versions that are in my package .json file.

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And that's what it's doing now, but it quickly just looked over everything and said I was already up to date,

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and so it left it alone.

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If you haven't installed anything yet, it would take just as long as that first installation.

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Back on the Expo website, we were on the Create a Project page.

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Now let's go to the Set Up Your Environment page.

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And it asks you a few questions.

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It says, where would you like to develop?

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And you can choose Android device.

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You can choose iOS device.

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You could also choose

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Android emulator or iOS simulator.

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And we'll look at each one of these.

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So the Android device itself, once we choose that, it says, hey, use Expo Go.

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That is the Expo application that we'll use to test out an application with.

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But it doesn't mean we're only going to build for Android.

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And then it gives us a QR code that you can scan that will take you to the Expo app.

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The Google Play Store or the Apple Store would have that to download, for example.

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So if I scroll back up here and I choose iOS device,

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then it still says Expo Go and it says set up an iOS device with Expo Go.

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Before I believe it said set up an Android device.

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Yep, set up an Android device.

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So either one of those.

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Now if we said we had an Android emulator that means you probably want to install Android Studio.

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Now that may still be what you want to do.

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You may want to check it out in several different environments and running

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Android Studio where you would traditionally write an Android application lets you use the Android Studio emulator.

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So that can be set up on macOS and Windows.

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If we chose iOS simulator and we came down, well then you need Xcode where you would traditionally create an iOS application,

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but that is only available on macOS.

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So you would need a Mac to do that.

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It says open up the Mac App Store.

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It doesn't give us a Windows this option at all.

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But what we can do is choose either one of these depending on what type of mobile device you have.

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I have an Android so I'm going to choose this.

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We'll come down here and scan this QR code and install the Expo Go app.

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Okay you should see a screen something like I'm showing here that shows

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Expo in the Google Play Store right now for Android.

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Go ahead and install that and then we'll come back to the tutorial

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and I also want to quickly mention while I won't go over those

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that I will go ahead and provide links to Android Studio

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and Xcode in the video description if you want to install either one of those.

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Okay with the Expo app

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now installed let's click on start developing over here on the left as we're still on the expo .dev website

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and you can see it gives us another command to run in the terminal for our application.

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We're going to actually start the app with NPX.

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expo start you can copy that

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and let's go back to vs code back in vs code now i'm going to paste

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that command in npx expo start and press enter

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and notice once again i'm in that lesson 01 folder

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or you want to be in the folder that whatever the name is

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that you gave your folder you want to be in

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that folder when you run that command and

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so now it has started the project let me scroll back up

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because it gave us a lot of information here it gives us a qr code

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and you'll scan this qr code with that expo app

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that you just installed on your mobile device it also says here is the ip address

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that we have set up for the application that is now running

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and we'll also check it out as

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if we were browsing a website at localhost on port 8081 so it's available in both of those locations

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If I scroll down, there's some other commands available here as well.

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So right now, get out your mobile device, open the Expo app, and scan this QR code.

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I'll show you some screens to show you what it's like.

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Here's what it looks like when I first open the Expo app, and I'm going to tap

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Scan QR Code.

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Here's what the screen looks like when I'm getting ready to scan a QR code, but the camera hasn't activated yet.

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It takes just a second.

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You'll be able to tell when it does and then just aim your device at this QR code.

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And here's the welcome screen for the application as I see it on my phone.

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And that's what you should also see after

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Expo opened up the application.

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But what if you're not seeing it?

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What if there's a problem and maybe you're seeing a screen like this?

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This screen, for example, indicates that I cannot load the application.

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So let's look at some troubleshooting.

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Back on the Expo website, if we scroll down, there is a having problems section.

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So go ahead and click that.

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And when you open this up, it gives you a few tips.

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Make sure you're on the same

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Wi -Fi network with your device and your computer.

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They need to be on the same Wi -Fi.

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If it still doesn't work, it could be due to something in the router configuration, and that could be a bigger issue.

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So maybe if you're on a public network, like in the school library

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or somewhere else you might need to use npx expo start dash dash tunnel

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but that will slow things down and they recommend that

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if you have to use tunnel you may actually want to use the android studio

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or the xcode emulator something like that

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because this will be a little bit slower

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if you have to use the dash dash tunnel route

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i will say i have tried it with dash dash tunnel

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and it wasn't that slow for me

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so you might might as well go ahead and give

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that a shot too again only

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if you're having trouble getting the app to show in your mobile device

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when you're running this if not if you weren't having any trouble

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that original just npx expo start should be all you need

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now back in vs code we have got the application running in expo

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and you can see it on your device that's great let's scroll down here

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and look at these commands you can also press W to open it on the web

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because remember on the web it's at this local host 8081 instead of this address up here

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so for this I'm just going to come down here

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and press W

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and now it's going to open it as a website in the browser

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it will take it just a moment to load but

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when it does we should see the application as expected here in our browser

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and we do now of course

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this looks very different from being in the mobile phone view this is a widescreen on a browser

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but we still see the application

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we can still click in the status bar to go to the other page everything works as expected

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now i'm going to show you one other thing

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that we can do to make chrome look more like a mobile device

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so i'm going to control shift and the letter i to open dev tools here I'll clear all of that out.

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But now I'm going to scroll this or pull this over here

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so we see more of the window here on the left.

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Now notice a couple of things.

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You may not have this bar at the top yet.

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So I'm going to click that and take it away

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because this is the view you may have when you open up DevTools, which is what I did with Control -Shift and the letter I.

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I'll close them real quick to show you one other way.

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You can also right click and choose inspect

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and then it takes you to a different tab in DevTools but it still opens DevTools.

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Either way what you want to do now

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that you have DevTools open is click the little icon up here

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that looks like a laptop and a mobile device

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and it gives you this along the top

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and now what we can do with

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that I'm going to pull this over further and i like to have

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that on my console along this top bar you can choose the drop down menu

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and you can choose different mobile devices some of them will show the frames and some won't so for example

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I'm going to choose an iPhone 6, 7, or 8.

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Now it actually shows the display frame around it.

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If I choose a different one, it may not.

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So let me choose like an iPhone X.

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It doesn't show the phone around it, so it doesn't quite look the same, but you are seeing the mobile view.

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Also notice I'm viewing at a smaller view here, this 75 % instead of 100, because 100 % takes it off the screen.

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So back to 75.

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This also says mobile over here.

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See what this does.

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Looks like everything is fine.

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There might, oh, hide device frames.

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So if you didn't have the frame before, when you went to iPhone 6, 7, and 8, now I don't have a frame.

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You want to click over here on the right and click show device frame, and then it will show the phone around it.

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So even for the web view

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you can kind of check to see what it looks like on a mobile device

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but it's not as good as running it on a mobile device

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and since we have the Expo Go app

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it's better for us to just look at the web view like this

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and use our own mobile device to check the application as well.

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Back in VS Code I'm going to close the terminal window close the package .json file

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and let's go ahead and look at this application, I should open up the app directory and then the tabs directory.

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Now let's go to the index page.

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And here we should see our welcome.

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Let's go ahead and change welcome on line 19 to hello world and save our changes.

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Now check your mobile device to see if the app reflects this change.

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Here's mine.

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And you should also be able to see the change on the website.

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Well, congratulations, you have your first development environment for React Native set up.

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You have your first application running, although this sample project was already built for us.

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So in the next video, we'll start building an application from scratch.

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A quick shout out to my patrons.

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Holy Coder is a progress provider and my junior patrons.

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Programming Polyglot, Isaac, Will, Ernie, Georgie, Mitch, Stacy, Scott, Abe, Javier, Michael thank you very much.

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You're helping me reach my goals.

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Remember to keep striving for progress over perfection, and a little progress every day will go a very long way.

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Please give this video a like if it's helped you, and thank you for watching and subscribing.

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You're helping my channel grow.

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Have a great day, and let's write more code together very soon.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “React Native for Beginners tutorial”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: expo, react, native, device, code. This video has 347 sentences and 4112 words to shadow. The speech runs for 22:38. The speaker talks fast, about 182 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 83% 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
expo noun		An exposition (type of public exhibition).
react verb	/ɹiːˈækt/	To act in response.
android noun	/ˈænˌdɹɔɪd/	A robot that is designed to look and act like a human being (not necessarily a male one).
terminal noun	/ˈtɚmɪnəl/	A building in an airport where passengers transfer from ground transportation to the facilities that allow them to board airplanes.
installed verb	/ɪnˈstɔːld/	readied for use
install verb	/ɪnˈstɔl/	To connect, set up or prepare something for use
folder noun	/ˈfoʊldɚ/	An organizer that papers are kept in, usually with an index tab, to be stored as a single unit in a filing cabinet.
package noun	/ˈpæk.ɪd͡ʒ/	Something which is packed, a parcel, a box, an envelope.
tutorial noun	/ˌtjuːˈtɔːɹɪəl/	A self-paced learning exercise; a lesson prepared so that a student can learn at their own speed or convenience.
scroll noun	/skɹoʊl/	A roll of paper or parchment; a writing formed into a roll.
lesson noun	/ˈlɛs.ən/	A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
dash noun	/ˈdæʃ/	Any of the following symbols: ‒ (figure dash), – (en dash), — (em dash), or ― (horizontal bar).
node noun	/noʊd/	A knot, knob, protuberance or swelling.
scan verb	/skæn/	To examine sequentially, carefully, or critically; to scrutinize; to behold closely.
menu noun	/ˈmɛn.juː/	The details of the food to be served at a banquet; a bill of fare.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
go ahead verb	/ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/	To proceed with; to begin.
open up verb		To open.
set up verb	/ˌsɛt ˈʌp/	To make ready for use.
back up verb		To move backwards, especially for a vehicle to do so.
come down verb		To descend, fall down, collapse.
check out verb		To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
drop down verb		To sail, move, or row down a coast, or down a river to the sea.
get out verb		To leave or escape.

Sentences worth repeating

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

You'll find that at reactnative .dev.
Let's begin with the tools.
We're going to open a terminal.
It says, where would you like to develop?
But what if you're not seeing it?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if you want to i'll just · If you named yours welcome, it would be
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've linked · have closed · have called
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is made · are also supported · is named
Advice with “should” should + verb — saying what is a good idea	should you already have · should also have · should get

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 123 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, you'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: dash /ˈdæʃ/, extension /ɪkˈstɛnʃən/, bash /bæʃ/, traditionally /tɹəˈdɪʃ.ə.nə.li/, congratulations /kənˌɡɹæt͡ʃəˈleɪʃ(ə)nz/
Long words — get the stress right: directory /dɪˈɹɛktəɹi/, dependency /dɪˈpɛndənsi/, traditionally /tɹəˈdɪʃ.ə.nə.li/, simulator /ˈsɪmjəˌleɪtɚ/, congratulations /kənˌɡɹæt͡ʃəˈleɪʃ(ə)nz/

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 expo, react, android.

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 →