Shadowing Practice: Speaking Challenge: My Favourite Food - Learn English Speaking with Video

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17 sentences
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1
Hello everyone! Welcome back to my speaking challenge.
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Today I want to talk about my favourite food!
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It's pho, a noodle soup from Vietnam.
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I first tried it five years ago, on a trip to Hanoi.
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Wow, I still remember that first bowl!
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The soup was hot, and it smelled amazing.
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So, why do I love it so much?
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Well, it's healthy, and it's never too heavy.
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I prefer pho to burgers because it makes me feel good.
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And on a cold day, nothing is better!
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Last month, I tried to cook it at home.
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Ugh, it was a disaster!
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Oh... the soup was too salty, and the noodles were too soft.
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Ha, but my husband ate it all and said it was great!
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Now I usually eat it at a small café near my house.
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What's your favourite food?
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Tell me in the comments!

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This A2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Speaking Challenge: My Favourite Food”. This video has 17 sentences and 145 words to shadow. The speech runs for 1:08. The speaker talks at a steady 128 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing.

Key vocabulary in this video

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

WordPronunciationMeaning
soup noun/sup/Any of various dishes commonly made by combining liquids, such as water or stock, with other ingredients, such as meat and vegetables, that contribute the food…
disaster noun/dɪˈzɑːs.təː/An unexpected natural or man-made catastrophe of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life or sometimes permanent…
burger noun/ˈbɝ.ɡɚ/A hamburger.
salty adjective/ˈsɔlti/Tasting of salt.
noodle noun/ˈnu.dəl/A string or flat strip of pasta or other dough, usually cooked (at least initially) by boiling, and served in soup or in a dry form mixed with a sauce and…
favourite adjective/ˈfeɪv.ɹɪt/Most-liked. (In other words, [person]'s favorite [noun] = the [noun] that [person] likes the most.)
soft adjective/sɔft/Easily giving way under pressure.
cook verb/kʊk/To prepare food for eating, typically by heating it, combining it with other ingredients, seasoning it, preparing it for serving, etc.
bowl noun/boʊl/As much as is held by a bowl.
prefer verb[pɹɪˈfɝ]To be in the habit of choosing something rather than something else; to favor; to like better.
smell verb/smɛl/To sense a smell or smells.
husband noun/ˈhʌzbənd/A man in a marriage or marital relationship, especially in relation to his spouse.
heavy adjective/ˈhɛv.i/Having great weight.
trip noun/tɹɪp/A journey; an excursion or jaunt.
challenge noun/ˈt͡ʃæl.ɪnd͡ʒ/An antagonization or instigation intended to convince a person to perform an action they otherwise would not.

How to practise with this video

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

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 →