Shadowing Practice: Storyfun5 - unit 7 - Harry's diary - Learn English Speaking with Video

Creating lesson...
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Welcome to CAMFUN Courses, Cambridge English for young learners.
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Today was not a brilliant day, but it wasn't bad.
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I got up late because I forgot to turn on my phone.
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It always wakes me up at 7.23.
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If I don't get up then, Sarah, my older sister, gets to the bathroom before I do.
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She always gets up at 7.25.
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And she takes 17 minutes to wash her face, clean her teeth and comb her hair.
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Oh, sisters!
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So, today I didn't wash before I got dressed.
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Oh, never mind.
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I hope no one sees.
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Dad was coughing a lot when I ran downstairs.
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He put salt, not sugar, in his coffee because he was listening to the news on the radio
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and reading his newspaper at the same time and not looking at his spoon.
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I had a bowl full to the top of my favourite cereal.
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Oh, and our fat cat, Sausage, ate a spider.
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Holly, my little sister, said.
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Sausage might run faster.
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Now she's got a spider inside her.
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My school shirt is pink i've only got one at the moment
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mum washed it with my red football socks oh i couldn't believe it but pink is such a lovely
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colour Harry, she said.
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I don't think my mum understands, boys.
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There was a new driver on the school bus.
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When he opened his mouth to ask me for my ticket, I saw that he had three gold teeth.
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I like making Holly frightened, so I tell her scary story sometimes.
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I may tell her that the driver locks his gold teeth in a secret box with a special silver key,
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and a really long snake sleeps around the box with the key in its mouth each night.
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I love my little sister, but she's difficult to live with sometimes.
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She broke our old computer.
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She put a biscuit in the hole where the CDs went.
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I had to hurry to get to school, but I got there at 8.38.
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William and Emma, my best friends, were already in the playground.
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When I was chatting to them about a program I'm using to make a puzzle app, I put my rucksack down next to theirs.
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Emma's rucksack and mine look the same and yes,
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of course, I picked up hers when I ran into class No English dictionary,
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so I had to borrow one No lesson timetable No homework file No phone No geography book But a dinosaur project?
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some glue, a pair of scissors, some science homework, a picture of an octopus,
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and some expensive chocolate, gold paper.
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I ate the chocolate before I gave Emma's rucksack back to her.
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I shouldn't do things like that, but it tasted delicious.
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It rained a little at morning break, but I didn't mind.
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We were playing volleyball, so I took my sweater off, which was hiding my pink shirt.
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I wanted the rain to change its colour back to white again, but it didn't.
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It's still pink.
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In our next lesson, history,
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a boy called Michael made a noise that sounded like a mouse and whispered to Katie,
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who called out, A mouse!
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A mouse!
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Our teacher, two of the girls, and my friend Richard, jumped on their chairs.
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I tried not to laugh, but it was really funny.
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Mr Brush, our school cleaner, came to find it.
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But he couldn't, of course.
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When we were playing football in the afternoon break, I kicked the ball so high it went up onto the roof.
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I climbed up to get it and found three more footballs up there.
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So we've got four footballs now.
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Excellent!
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I was lucky no one saw me on the roof.
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That's not part of our playground, boys.
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Mr Rocket, our gym teacher says.
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The school bus left before I got to the bus stop because William and I were talking about inventions.
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We want to invent a shampoo that tastes like bananas and socks that always smell like flowers.
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So I had to walk home today.
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I didn't mind, but my head and shoulders,
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shirt, trousers and shoes got really wet because it started to rain again.
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When my sister Sarah saw me, she said, Well, you needed a wash.
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I went upstairs to dry my hair and put my jeans and black t-shirt on.
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My school shirt is still pink.
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Oh, well, never mind.
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I'm beginning to like the colour, actually.
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But I hope Mum washes it for me this evening.
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then it may not be so pink tomorrow.
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We had chips for dinner tonight.
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Mum only lets us have them once a week.
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I had fifty-two.
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I counted each one, then Holly gave me five of hers.
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So I had fifty-seven.
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Excellent!
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Hmm, what else?
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Oh, Sausage came into the house with some plastic false teeth in her mouth.
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I told Holly that they were great grandmas and that she lost them last weekend when she fell asleep in the garden.
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Actually, they were some old toy ones that William gave to me.
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Sausage looks so funny.
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We couldn't stop laughing.
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I did my information technology homework tonight.
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Well, most of it.
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The Wi-Fi stopped working and I needed to find something online.
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I might try to finish it tomorrow morning.
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I practiced on my drums too, so poor mum got a headache again.
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Okay, my teeth are clean.
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None of my teeth are plastic.
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I've got my favourite old pyjamas on.
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They've got spaceships on them, so they look a bit young.
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But it doesn't matter.
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I still like them.
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What's the time?
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Ooh, 9.45, and my phone is on, so it knows I must wake up at 7.23.
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Good night, world.
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Good night, me.
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Huh?
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Oh no!
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There's a biscuit in my bed!
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What You'll Learn from This Story

This video is a goldmine for English speaking practice, especially for mastering daily conversational flow. You’ll build skills in narrating personal experiences with vivid details—like describing a chaotic morning or a funny classroom moment—while keeping your speech natural and engaging. It also helps with IELTS speaking practice by improving your ability to organize thoughts coherently, a key part of the test. Plus, you’ll learn to use casual phrases like “Oh, never mind” and “I shouldn’t do things like that” to sound more like a native.

Listen For These Sounds

Pay attention to connected speech in the dialogue. For example, “I got up late” becomes “I gotupplate” with linking between “got” and “up,” and “up” and “late.” Reductions like “I don’t think” sounding like “I don’t think” (with a weak “t”) and “I had to” becoming “I hadda” are common. Notice how “a pair of scissors” is spoken quickly, with “a pair of” blending into “apairof.” These sounds are crucial for understanding real-life English, and practicing them on a shadowing site can boost your listening skills.

Say It Like a Native

To mirror the speaker’s rhythm, stress the key words in each sentence. For instance, in “I got up late because I forgot to turn on my phone,” stress “got up,” “late,” “forgot,” and “phone.” The speaker uses a conversational pace, pausing slightly after phrases like “Oh, sisters!” and “Oh, I couldn’t believe it.” Use the shadowing technique: play a short clip, pause, and repeat it immediately, copying the tone and stress. This helps with improve English pronunciation and makes your speech sound more natural. Don’t forget to use rising intonation for questions like “A mouse? A mouse!” to show surprise, just like the characters in the story.

Practice these elements regularly, and you’ll soon find your English speaking and listening skills improving. Whether you’re using a shadowing site or practicing with a partner, focusing on these details will make a big difference in your fluency.

Grammar in this video

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

StructureIn the video
Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the pastwas coughing · was listening · was chatting
Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certainmight run · may tell · may not be
Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing formstop laughing · stopped working
Obligation: must / have to / need to saying that something is necessaryhad to hurry · had to borrow · had to walk

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 →