Shadowing Practice: SPEAK BETTER ENGLISH! ⭐| Improve your FLUENCY!! | British English 🇬🇧 - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Speaking in English.
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Difficult, isn't it?
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But don't worry, I'm here to help.
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Welcome back to English with Catherine.
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As you can see, I have a new filming spot.
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How exciting!
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Today, I'm going to give you three tips to help with your speaking.
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This video will be really useful for IELTS, specifically the speaking section, and hopefully it will give you motivation and inspiration to get better at speaking English.
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Don't forget to watch to the end of the video because we have a wonderful word of the week.
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Advanced level and IELTS friendly.
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What are we waiting for?
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Let's get started!
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Start with sound.
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Sound is something you can hear.
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When you're speaking, you're making a sound.
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Your ears are the secret to learning how to speak in English.
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Forget reading, forget writing for this.
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Focus on listening to people speaking in English.
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Listening is the key.
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Because speaking is the most primitive form of communication.
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Okay, it's very basic.
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It's what you learn when you're a baby.
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As human beings, we learn through imitation and doing.
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Your learning conditions for how to speak should never be quiet.
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there should be sound always.
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Here are my recommendations: If you're someone that's interested in music, like me, listen to interviews with musicians.
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You will hear them speaking, using natural conversation, and you'll naturally learn Lots of vocabulary to do with music.
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I'll put some recommendations in the description box because I love music so much and these interviews are just so so good.
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If you're interested in nature and the outdoors, you should watch an interview with David Attenborough.
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one of my heroes.
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He speaks with the RP accent, so really good for your ear.
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Again, I'll put an interview link in the description box.
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If you're interested in books and reading and literature, try watching an interview of a lovely author from Britain.
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And for general learning, guys, you have got to check out Diary of a CEO.
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It's so amazing because there are lots of different interviews with different experts and professionals, and you learn about all these different subjects.
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It's so good.
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There's never been a better time to learn how to speak English
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because the internet gives you access to all of these sources.
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The internet is the best thing since sliced bread.
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And while you're listening, try to make a note of vocabulary, listen out for their accent, their pronunciation, try to imitate them,
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rewind it, listen to it again, That's the beauty of YouTube, you can easily do that.
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By doing this, you will be learning real life English.
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English that is in use, that people are using to communicate with each other.
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You will learn natural English in conversation form.
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You will also learn pronunciation.
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And you will learn vocabulary in context.
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Please don't think you can learn how to speak by picking up a textbook.
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It's not going to give you the results that you need, unfortunately.
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Tip number two: word communities.
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What do I mean by that?
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A word community is two to four words that all relate to each other.
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This is much more effective than learning just one word.
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You need to learn about the community of that word.
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This will really help your fluency.
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Because fluency is related to vocabulary, how many words you have in order to express yourself.
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you're not limited to just one word to try to communicate like Eats.
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want eat that would be very basic fluency but if you said I fancy a bite to eat I
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That would be more advanced level fluency.
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Let's look at some word communities.
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Take the word 'rain' for example.
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Rain, a lovely word, I love the rain.
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Which words tend to come with rain?
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I wonder if you know any of them?
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First one is heavy.
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When it's raining a lot, we don't say "There's a lot of rain" or "There's big rain" No!
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We say "heavy rain" We also say "tipping it down" tipping it down.
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This is an expression to do with very heavy rain.
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What you're doing is you're not only just learning the word rain, you're learning about the community that surrounds that word.
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It will make you much more fluent whenever you have to talk about the rain.
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Take music for example.
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Let's look at the word community of music.
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download we download music that comes with music experimental music that's a type of music
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that is a little bit different to mainstream
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or regular style music we make music as well we make it we don't do music we make it okay
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so every time you learn a new word try and learn the word community for that word.
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One more example would be shopping.
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Shopping spree is when you go shopping for lots of things so you go on a shopping spree.
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Late night shopping, that's shopping in the evening, which is quite rare here in the UK because shops usually close at about 5 or 6.
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Sometimes they stay open late, and you can go late night shopping.
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some homework for you, pick something that you really love like a river or some beautiful scene like a sunset,
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try to learn all the words that come with that word.
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So if it's the sea that you love, Think of all the words that are connected to the C.
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The result of doing this is that you'll be able to talk about lots of different topics, because you'll know all the vocabulary connected to that topic.
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Choose topics that you're interested in, and then when you have conversation, you're more likely to be able to talk about that topic.
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in an advanced, fluent way.
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Tip number three: Forget comfort.
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I'm sorry guys, comfort can be a wonderful thing, but when it comes to learning how to speak in English, comfort is not important.
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What I mean is, leave your comfort zone.
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That means take risks, do things that you would never usually do.
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You need to be speaking in English as much as you can, in any situation that is available to you.
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Do you know why this is important?
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because it gives you confidence.
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Confidence is the key to fluency.
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I see it in my students when I teach them.
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When they feel confident and empowered They are so fluent!
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It's almost like a button has been turned on.
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English is flowing out of their mouth.
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Do one single action that will give you confidence.
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This could be attending an English class where it's mainly focused on speaking, striking up a conversation with someone in a shop, Just go for it, honestly, you won't regret it.
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This could be just simply speaking to others whenever you can.
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At the bus stop when you're waiting for the train, Any way that you can, just go for it.
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Do the scary thing, guys.
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Just do it.
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Or you could just book a class with me and I'll give you confidence.
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Using English in the real world.
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I know that we all exist kind of online now, and that in itself is a comfort zone by the way.
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The online world is a massive comfort zone.
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The real world is outside your door.
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You just have to leave your house and you'll be in the real world.
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And that's where you should be speaking English.
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Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the word of the week.
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Are you excited?
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Iridescent!
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Do you know what that means?
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This is related to colour, when something is actually two colours at the same time.
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From one angle it's maybe blue, and from another angle it's green.
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This could be a good word to describe ducks.
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Ducks are one of my favourite animals and on their neck it is quite iridescent because it shines blue and green.
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depending on which angle the duck is in.
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Actually, this word is great for nature.
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So if you're choosing the topic of nature to learn, learning lots of word communities in nature,
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iridescent is a great word that connects to ducks and also fish.
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You know the beautiful scales of a fish?
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They shine different colours.
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That's iridescent.
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Peacock feathers are also iridescent.
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You also get this effect on a butterfly's wings.
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If you're interested in jewelry, iridescent is a great adjective for some of the gemstones like moonstone, like opal.
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The pronunciation is kind of interesting.
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There's a silent C, okay, so don't pronounce the C.
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It's just iridescent.
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Iridescent.
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Make sure you stress Dess.
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era I hope you enjoyed my video guys!
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I hope it's given you some motivation to learn how to speak better English.
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With trying to achieve anything difficult, it's really worth breaking it down into sections and stages, so that you don't get overwhelmed by how difficult it is.
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And these three tips I think are really good steps to learning how to be more fluent.
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If you enjoyed my video let me know in the comments.
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Please, I love reading all your comments, it's so amazing.
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You can also follow me on Instagram, just type in English with Catherine and you'll find me.
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I love helping you guys and I want to do that in the most efficient way.
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So anything that you're struggling with, put it in the comments and I'll definitely read it and take it on board.
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Wishing you a wonderful weekend with lots of English speaking.
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I'll see you next Friday.
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Bye.
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3 Key Speaking Skills to Boost Your Fluency
This video equips you with actionable strategies to enhance english speaking practice, focusing on real-world communication. You’ll learn to use listening as a foundation for speaking, master vocabulary in context, and adopt natural conversational patterns—skills critical for exams like IELTS and everyday fluency.
Listen For These Sounds to Improve Pronunciation
The video emphasizes that sound is the key to speaking, and active listening helps you pick up connected speech, linking, and reductions. Whether you’re tuning into musician interviews, David Attenborough’s RP accent, or Diary of a CEO episodes, focus on how words flow together. Notice how native speakers shorten phrases or connect sounds—these details are vital for improve english pronunciation. Pause, rewind, and repeat to internalize these patterns; this is how you learn English as it’s actually spoken, not just from textbooks.
Say It Like a Native: Mirror Rhythm and Stress
To speak like a native, use shadow speech—imitate what you hear immediately after listening. This technique, also called shadowspeaks, helps you mirror rhythm, stress, and intonation. When you listen to interviews, pay attention to which words are emphasized and how sentences rise and fall. A shadowing site can enhance this practice, but even YouTube works: rewatch clips, mimic the speaker’s pace, and focus on stressing the right syllables. By doing this, you’ll develop a natural flow that makes your speech sound more authentic. Combine this with noting "word communities" (groups of related words) to build vocabulary that fits context, and you’ll see rapid progress in your fluency.
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 | There's never been · has been turned |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are connected · has been turned |
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.