Shadowing Practice: story 23 The Gentle Giant - Learn English Speaking with Video
Choose a practice mode
Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.
Download App
Everything you need to speak fluently
Same Channel
Story 22 The missing Gloves
Story 25 How old Are you
A2story 5 Do fish breathe water
A2Story 7 When the Earth shakes
A2Story 18 The little Red Teapot
A2Story 15 The picture
A2Story 16 Healthy heart
A2Story 12 Needles don t hurt
A2Story 11 Earth day
A1Story 19 The party
A2Story 20 The three Sisters
A1Story 13 Colours
A2Story 8 Just the way you are
A2Story 17 Baby Jessie
A2Story 14 Open your eyes
B1story 4 Snow or not
A2Story 10 Where is Danny
A1Story 2 Grandma's moving day
A2Story 21 Baseball or piano
A2Story 9 My mother's chair
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “story 23 The Gentle Giant”. This video has 13 sentences and 127 words to shadow. The speech runs for 1:25. The speaker talks slowly, about 89 words per minute, so there is time to copy every sound.
Key vocabulary in this video
14 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| elephant noun | /ˈɛlɪfənt/ | A large mammal of the family Elephantidae in the order Proboscidea, having a trunk, and native to Africa and Asia. |
| gentle adjective | /ˈd͡ʒɛntl̩/ | Tender and amiable; of a considerate or kindly disposition. |
| knock verb | /nɑk/ | To rap one's knuckles against something, especially wood. |
| kilogram noun | /ˈkɪləɡɹæm/ | In the International System of Units, the base unit of mass; conceived of as the mass of one litre of water, but now defined by taking the fixed numerical… |
| deserve verb | /dɪˈzɝv/ | To be entitled to, as a result of past actions; to be worthy to have. |
| train noun | /ˈtɹeɪn/ | The elongated back portion of a dress or skirt (or an ornamental piece of material added to similar effect), which drags along the ground. |
| carry verb | /ˈkæɹ.i/ | To lift (something) and take it to another place; to transport (something) by lifting. |
| male noun | /meɪl/ | A human member of the masculine sex or gender. |
| tree noun | /tɹiː/ | A perennial woody plant taller and larger than a shrub with a wooden trunk and, at some distance from the ground, having leaves and branches. |
| smart adjective | /smɑɹt/ | Exhibiting social ability or cleverness. |
| push verb | /pʊʃ/ | To apply a force to (an object) such that it moves away from the person or thing applying the force. |
| animal noun | /ˈænɪməl/ | A multicellular organism of the kingdom Animalia that is usually mobile, with cells that are not encased in a rigid cell wall (distinguishing them from plants… |
| strength noun | /ˈstɹɛŋθ/ | The quality or degree of being strong. |
| forest noun | /ˈfɔɹəst/ | A dense uncultivated tract of trees and undergrowth, larger than woods. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| knock down verb | To hit or knock (something or someone), intentionally or accidentally, so that it falls. |
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 | have been known |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | have been known |
| Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group | the largest · the smartest · The oldest |
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 elephant, gentle, knock.
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.