Shadowing Practice: Seminar Presentation: How Social Media Changes Friendship - Learn English Speaking with Video
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36 sentences
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Right, let's get started. Sam's presenting today.
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Sam, the floor is yours!
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Thanks. Um, sorry, give me a second... the laptop's being slow.
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Right... okay. So, my topic is social media and friendship.
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Let's start with a number: one hundred and fifty.
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That's Dunbar's number, named after the Oxford psychologist Robin Dunbar.
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He suggested we can only manage about a hundred and fifty
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stable relationships at any one time.
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But here's the puzzle: lots of us have over five hundred followers!
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So, are all those people really our friends?
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To find out, I ran a little survey with our year group!
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Forty-two students replied, which was more than I expected!
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On average, they had about four hundred online contacts.
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But when I asked who they'd call in a crisis,
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most people named fewer than five!
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Fewer than five? That's rather striking.
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Sorry, but I have to disagree with that.
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Honestly, some of my closest friends are people I met online!
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We've never met in person, but they're always there for me.
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Ah, that's a really good point, actually!
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Okay, I'm not saying online friends aren't real.
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My point is that most online contacts aren't close friends.
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Hmm... okay, I can live with that.
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So, what does social media actually change?
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Well, it's brilliant for keeping in touch over long distances.
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But, oddly enough, it can also make us feel lonelier.
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We scroll through hundreds of updates... and talk to nobody.
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To sum up, social media makes our circle wider,
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but it doesn't necessarily make it deeper.
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So tonight, call a friend instead of just liking their post!
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Thanks for listening! I'm happy to take any questions.
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Excellent work, Sam! Your survey made it all very concrete.
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For the essay, though, you'll need a much bigger sample.
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Ha, fair enough. Forty-two isn't exactly scientific, is it?
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Oh, and next time, survey my online friends too!
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Ha! Right, well done, both of you. Let's take a short break.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Seminar Presentation: How Social Media Changes Friendship”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: hundred, online, survey. This video has 36 sentences and 328 words to shadow. The speech runs for 2:21. The speaker talks at a steady 139 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 82% 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
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| fewer | /ˈfjuː.ɚ/ | Less; a smaller amount of something non-integral commonly expressed as an integer |
| fifty noun | /ˈfɪfti/ | A banknote or coin with a denomination of 50. |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| necessarily adverb | /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/ | Inevitably; of necessity. |
| stable noun | /ˈsteɪ.bəl/ | A building, wing or dependency set apart and adapted for lodging and feeding (and training) ungulates, especially horses. |
| concrete adjective | /ˌkɑnˈkɹit/ | Real, actual, tangible. |
| friendship noun | /ˈfɹɛn(d)ʃɪp/ | The condition of being friends. |
| lonely adjective | /ˈloʊnli/ | Unhappy due to feeling isolated from contact with other people. |
| essay noun | /ˈɛs.eɪ/ | A written composition of moderate length, exploring a particular issue or subject. |
| disagree verb | /dɪsəˈɡɹi/ | To fail to agree; to have a different opinion or belief. |
| puzzle noun | /ˈpʌzəl/ | The state of feeling confused or mystified because one cannot understand a complicated matter, a problem, etc.; bewilderment, confusion; (countable) often in… |
| scroll noun | /skɹoʊl/ | A roll of paper or parchment; a writing formed into a roll. |
| psychologist noun | /ˌsaɪˈkɑl.ə.d͡ʒɪst/ | An expert in the field of psychology. |
| follower noun | /ˈfɒləʊə(ɹ)/ | One who follows, comes after another. |
| oddly adverb | /ˈɑdli/ | In a peculiar manner; strangely; unusually. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. |
| have over verb | To host (a visiting guest) at one's house. |
| sum up verb | To produce a total by adding. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- I'm happy to take any questions.
- Forty-two isn't exactly scientific, is it?
- Let's take a short break.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 10 contractions and reduced forms, such as aren't, I'm, doesn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, psychologist /ˌsaɪˈkɑl.ə.d͡ʒɪst/
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 fewer, fifty, topic.
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.