Shadowing Practice: Teaching groups: How to get them talking #9 - Learn English Speaking with Video

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The dog is walking so the dog's footsteps are going to be in the video.

Hey guys, so recently I've been getting quite a lot of feedback from you

which has been great because that means that you're watching my videos and that they actually mean something to you.

So yeah, thanks.

One question that I got that I thought was pretty interesting was

how to get your students to interact with one another on your lessons.

and I thought that this could be quite an important topic to talk about

because it's a problem that I had in the beginning as well.

I love teaching one -on -one.

I think it's the best way to teach English just because

you get so much more time to spend with one person and maybe that's for a different video.

But sometimes you have to teach in groups.

And with teaching in groups, there come different problems.

One of which I experienced, and this was the fact that when you have a group of people, you have many different personalities,

which means you get shy people, and you get very talkative people and what usually happens is that the talkative people,

well, talk a lot and the shy people kind of disappear into the background.

Another thing that I noticed is that in groups it's a lot more difficult for people to open up.

So even if these are people who aren't shy, they might feel uncomfortable to speak when they're in a group just because they're

not really confident about their language and about speaking in front of their peers or their colleagues in another language.

So over the past couple of years, I have used a couple of different methods to get my students

talking on my lessons

and interacting with each other in my lessons some of these

ideas are in mine i also have to google them up

and find them on the internet but i'd love to share them with you guys

So one of the first things I like to do on my lessons, on my group lessons, are warm -ups.

One of the warm -ups, which is I guess the most basic and most obvious one, is I start by asking my students how they are.

and asking a little bit about their lives, what they've been up to, and kind of seeing where the discussion goes on from there.

Because sometimes it can, I don't know,

somebody can do something or have done something over the weekend that will join with somebody else's story and

you'll get a discussion going on.

Sometimes, however, I got students who like to give me easy answers.

Easy answers being, Oh, I don't know, nothing much.

Or I just stayed at home.

Or I'm fine and they wouldn't

elaborate on that idea which made things very difficult for me

because it's hard to have a discussion when somebody keeps on ending it. with you.

So for the students that gave me very quick and easy answers, I found another way.

What I would do is on the next lesson, I would get the students to talk not about themselves but about the person sitting next to them.

So if it's an introductory lesson, what

What is great is I would get them to introduce the person sitting next to them

That usually ended in quite a laugh and it made the atmosphere like a More.

easy going and if that didn't work then i had another i had this other thing that worked.

I have an envelope with these random words and I would get my students to pick out a random word,

and we would kind of go around in a circle

where one person would start a story that had to contain this word, and then the next person would continue with their word.

These could be short words like, I don't know, beard and bust and I don't know, cat too.

If you want to be more ambitious, these could be words that you used in your previous lesson.

So it could be like a vocabulary practice

so another way to get your students talking

but this is a bit of a brutal way is talking

with a timer this is what my english teacher used to do to us in in primary school

and although it was really stressful i do only have positive memories about it

which is why i do it with my students otherwise i wouldn't put them through this turmoil

but um the point of talking topic and they have to talk about this topic for um,

you can decide if it's two minutes or three minutes or five minutes I would stick to like

two minutes in the beginning, because it really can get quite difficult.

And the topics can be really random.

And also you don't have to think of the topics yourself.

You can give your students the opportunity to give topics to one another.

And the last thing that I'll share with you is my personal favorite that works every time.

It's the most important thing because it's what makes my lessons work and this is a

Topics of interest and when I say topics of interests, I mean getting to know your students well enough

to be able to prepare topics for them that they are interested in and that's spark their enthusiasm on your lessons.

This does take a bit of work because it means

that you have to spend the first couple of lessons building a connection with your students and a relationship.

But it really pays off because as a teacher it makes The next.

series of lessons you have with this group really easy.

because you don't have to motivate them to talk.

They will talk on their own because it'll be topics that they are passionate about.

So after speaking with my one group, I found out that they were quite upset with their management and the way the management was treating them as employees.

And this sparked quite an interesting discussion that I saw that even those

who usually don't participate in my lessons had this fire that they wanted to share how unfair they felt certain situations were.

And what I did in the next couple of lessons is I

pulled on these emotional strings and I found different videos on, for example, TED or articles about

successful companies that really treat their employees well

and this sparked up more discussions and we could learn new vocabulary from these articles and these talks.

And together we kind of drew up ideas of the ideal

working environment that we would like to have or what things we would change within the company.

And this was pretty amazing because

They had a lot to say and I was basically just there to listen

and to either correct mistakes or add in the correct vocabulary and they were doing all the talking.

So yeah, so if you find the topics that interest your group,

what you can then do is find short videos on YouTube about this topic or TED Talks or

articles that you can then either send to your students before the next lesson

or you can use them to watch and discuss the next time that you meet with them.

So those were my tips on how I get my students to interact with one another on my lessons.

If you guys have any questions or maybe there are some problems that you guys encounter on your group lessons, maybe I can help out.

Otherwise, thanks for watching.

Don't forget to like and subscribe and I will see you soon.

Bye!

Bye.

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Why practice speaking with this video?

The video titled "Teaching groups: How to get them talking #9" offers valuable insights into facilitating interaction among students during group lessons. Engaging in conversation within a group setting can significantly boost your speaking skills, including confidence and fluency. One of the key benefits of this approach is that it encourages students, especially those who may feel shy, to express themselves. By learning and practicing in a supportive environment, learners not only enhance their speaking abilities but also cultivate important social skills, which are crucial for real-life interactions.

Using techniques from the video, such as starting discussions with warm-up exercises or group activities, allows you to practice English in a way that simulates real-life conversations. These speaking strategies can be particularly useful for IELTS speaking practice, as they help you develop the skill to elaborate on your answers and engage your peers effectively. This interactive learning experience ultimately transforms how you think about speaking English, allowing you to focus not just on grammar but also on meaningful communication.

Grammar & Expressions in Context

In the video, the speaker utilizes several key sentence structures and expressions that can enhance your speaking capabilities. Here are some notable examples:

“I like to…” - This phrase is useful for expressing personal preferences. For instance, “I like to ask my students how they are.” Practicing this structure will help you communicate your thoughts more clearly.
“What’s great is…” - This phrase helps to introduce positive aspects of a situation. Using such expressions can enhance your ability to share opinions and thoughts during discussions.
“I found another way…” - This structure is perfect for explaining solutions or alternatives. Mastering this can help you articulate problem-solving situations effectively.

Incorporate these phrases into your speech to make your conversation more engaging and dynamic. Activities that resemble "shadowspeak" can further allow you to practice these structures in context, enhancing your overall communication skills.

Common Pronunciation Traps

Although the speaker communicates clearly, certain words and phrases may pose challenges for English learners. Here are a few common pronunciation traps to watch out for:

“Elaborate” - Many learners struggle with the correct syllable stress in this word. Remember to emphasize the second syllable: e-LAB-orate.
“Discussion” - The 's' sound followed by 'c' can often trip up speakers. Aim for a clear distinction: dis-CUS-sion.
“Atmosphere” - This word features multiple syllables, which can be difficult to pronounce clearly. Break it down into parts: at-MO-sphere.

Utilizing a shadowing app can help you practice these tricky words. Listening closely and repeating after the speaker can significantly improve your English pronunciation and overall confidence in speaking.

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	has been · they've been · have done
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	people who aren · ups, which is · students who like
Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group	the best · the most basic · the most important
Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past	was treating · were doing

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 →

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