Shadowing Practice: Talking About Your Family in English - Spoken English Lesson - Learn English Speaking with Video

Creating lesson...
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Hi, I'm Oli.
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Welcome to Oxford Online English.
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In this lesson, you can learn how to talk about your family in English.
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Do you have a big family?
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What do you like doing when you spend time with your family?
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Thank you.
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Talking about family can be a good way to start a conversation in English, so it's useful if you know what to say And if you have some questions to ask,
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Let's start with something simple.
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Part 1: Introducing your family.
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Okay.
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Okay, so let's start with a simple sentence.
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There are people in my family.
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So, you can say: There are five, there are ten, there are thirty people in my family.
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That's not very hard, but it's not very interesting either.
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you should say who these people are.
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Okay.
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There are ten people in my family.
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I have two sisters: my brother, my uncle and aunt, To grandparents and my parents, of course.
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There are four people in my family: my wife, my two sons, and myself.
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Okay.
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Part 2: Talking about your brothers and sisters Thank you.
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How many brothers and sisters do you have?
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You could say: I have two brothers and one sister.
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I just have one sister.
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Thank you.
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I'm an only child.
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Let's make it more interesting by adding more information.
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Thank you.
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Are your brothers and sisters older or younger?
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Where are you in the family?
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"I have two older brothers and one older sister.
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I'm the youngest in the family." "I just have one sister who's five years older than me.
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I'm the middle child.
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My brother is two years older, and I have a younger sister who's finishing university this year.
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Part 3: Talking about your immediate and your extended family In English,
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we sometimes draw a line between your immediate family That means you, your husband or wife, your children,
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parents, and brothers and sisters.
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Then you have your extended family.
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That means aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces, grandparents, grandchildren.
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and so on.
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Now, you can give more details about the people in your family like this: My immediate family is quite small,
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because I'm an only child.
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My mum is one of five children, so I have a lot of cousins who are kind of like my brothers and sisters.
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There are six people in my immediate family: my parents, my brother and his wife, my sister and me.
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I have a lot of other relatives, but they live in Canada, so we don't see them often.
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Part 4: Talking about your children. Do you have children?
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Let's see what you can say.
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I have three kids: two girls and a boy.
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"We have a newborn son." We have one daughter, and my wife's expecting our second child.
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As always, you should add details to make your answers longer and more interesting.
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you I have three kids: two girls and a boy.
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Our eldest daughter has just started secondary school, and the two younger ones are still in primary school.
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We have a newborn son.
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He's just three weeks old now, so we're still getting used to things.
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We have one daughter and my wife's expecting our second child.
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We don't know if it's a boy or a girl, but we'll find out in three months.
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Part 5: Talking about your relationship with your family.
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Finally, let's add some information about how often you see your family and what you like to do together.
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For example: I'm very close to my family.
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We have lunch together every weekend.
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I see my elder brother once a week.
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We play tennis or basketball together.
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I try to spend as much time as possible with my kids.
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What now?
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Well, you should know the answer.
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Add more details.
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Let's look.
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I'm very close to my family.
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We have lunch together every weekend at my grandmother's house.
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She always cooks something delicious.
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"I see my older brother once a week.
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We play tennis or basketball together.
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I don't see my other brother so often because he lives overseas,
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although we talk on Skype every so often." I try to spend as much time as possible with my kids.
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We play cards, we watch films, or we go to the park if the weather's nice.
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Okay, part six: making a longer answer.
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Now, you should be able to make a longer answer talking about your family.
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You should be able to talk about your relatives, your brothers and sisters, your children, if you have any, and your relationship with your family.
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Let's look at a sample answer.
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Thank you.
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There are five people in my immediate family, although my extended family is quite large.
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I have two sisters, both younger, so I'm the oldest child.
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"I don't have kids yet, but I'd like to have a big family one day."
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I see my parents and my sisters quite often because we all live near each other, although I don't see my other relatives that much.
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OK, could you make an answer like this?
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Let's look at one more sample answer first.
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I come from a big family.
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I'm the fifth child and I have three brothers and one sister.
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They're all close to each other in age, but there's a big gap between them and me.
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I don't have children, but I have lots of nieces and nephews.
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I don't see my family often, because I live in a different country, but I speak to them regularly,
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and we all get together once or twice a year which is always very noisy but lots of fun.
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What about you?
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Try to make a longer answer talking about your family.
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Use the vocabulary and the ideas from the lesson to help you.
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Next time you talk about your family in English, hopefully you'll have lots to talk about.
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OK, that's the end of the lesson.
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I hope it was useful.
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You can see more of our free English lessons on our website: Oxford Online English dot com.
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Thanks again for watching.
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See you next time.

Why practice speaking with this video?

In this lesson, you will learn vital strategies for discussing family in English, making it an essential practice for engaging with others. Talking about family is one of the most universal conversation starters, as it allows you to connect with people on a personal level. By practicing speaking through this video, you can gain confidence in using vocabulary and structures relevant to family discussions. You'll not only enhance your spoken English skills but also become more adept at initiating conversations, whether in casual settings or more formal environments. Incorporating these elements into your speech will help you improve your English pronunciation and fluency.

Grammar & Expressions in Context

  • Simple Introductions: The video begins with the phrase, "There are ______ people in my family," illustrating a straightforward method for introducing family structure. For example: "There are four people in my family: my wife, my two sons, and myself."
  • Descriptive Details: Adding depth is essential. Phrases like "I have two older brothers" or "I’m the youngest in the family" enable you to enrich your sentences, which aids in making your speech more interesting.
  • Immediate vs. Extended Family: The distinctions between "immediate family" and "extended family" are critical in family discussions. This understanding helps clarify who you are talking about, whether they are close relatives or more distant connections.
  • Talking About Children: Phrases such as "We have one daughter and my wife’s expecting our second child" demonstrate how to transition to discussions about children—something that often elicits engagement in conversations.
  • Relationships and Activities: Statements like "I see my brother once a week" and elaborating on shared activities (e.g., "we play tennis together") provides context and relatability to your stories. This context enhances your speaking and can motivate you to improve your pronunciation further.

Common Pronunciation Traps

While practicing the phrases from the video, pay attention to certain words that can be tricky due to their pronunciation. Terms like "grandparents," "nieces," and "nephews" may pose challenges, especially for non-native speakers. The vowel sounds and stress patterns in these words can lead to misunderstandings if not articulated clearly. Utilize a shadowing app like Shadowspeaks to mimic the pronunciation, allowing you to improve English pronunciation through shadow speech accurately. This technique ensures you are not only repeating but truly mastering the subtleties of spoken English.

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.