Shadowing Practice: The Best Way to Learn Vocabulary in Any Language - Learn English Speaking with Video

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People try to say, well, you should try to learn 10 words a day

and really make sure you can use them and sort of nail them down.

I've never found that effective.

Hi there, Steve Coffin here.

Today, I want to talk about learning vocabulary and why we shouldn't try to remember vocabulary.

The most important sort of measure of how well we know a language is the number of words we know.

Vocabulary is key.

Words and phrases.

But phrases consist of words.

So you have to have words and to be fluent, you actually need a lot of words because the native speaker has a lot of words.

So if you're exposing yourself to native speakers in conversation or watching a movie or listening to a podcast,

all of which are tremendous ways of improving in the language, you need a lot of words.

And while I sometimes hear people say, well, I can be fluent with 500 words because 500 words accounts for 60 % of most content.

But in fact, that's not true because the low frequency words and frequency declines very quickly, as I've said before, they're key to,

you know, the gist of what any content is about.

So what are we to do in order to acquire the vocabulary that we need?

Initially, a rich passive vocabulary, and then ultimately an active vocabulary.

So first of all, in, as I've said many times in language learning, the key elements are your attitude,

your motivation, and the time you have available with or spend with the language.

So therefore, it's important to do things that we enjoy doing.

Because you never know in a particular sort of learning activity, how much of that is actual learning, how much is going to stick.

We don't know.

So better to do something I enjoy doing where I'm likely to continue to do it.

The second issue is time is a major, the major constraint.

So it's important to try to do those things that we are convinced or which objectively we can show are most effective.

So is it more effective to review a bunch of words in isolation

or is it more effective to spend that time reading and listening or in conversation?

We have to make these choices.

So obviously if we have eight hours a day to spend on learning a language as I did when I was learning

Mandarin, then I can do a variety of different things.

If I have one hour or two hours a day, then I have to really make sure that I'm spending my time as effectively as possible.

And in that regard, my view is that studying words in isolation,

doing flashcards, even investing a lot of time in any activity to try to sort of activate vocabulary

that you've just learned so that you'll actually be able to use it right away, or doing quizzes or closed tests or any of this stuff,

is less effective than expanding my basic passive vocabulary.

If you're in a conversation group, you're practicing using the words that you already know.

When we are listening, here again, we can only understand the words that we know.

So listening is a way of reinforcing your passive vocabulary, improving your comprehension.

But reading is where we can acquire new vocabulary.

In a way, the ultimate experience in extensive reading is to read a book, a paper book.

It doesn't have to be a novel, by the way.

It can be a nonfiction for that matter.

So that's extensive reading on paper.

However, again, we have to get to that stage because if there's too many words that you don't know,

then reading away from the computer is not a pleasant experience.

So I consider reading online, looking words up, saving words,

that sort of link reading experience is like mining the language, mining for gold, mining for minerals,

mining for vocabulary, bringing that vocabulary in.

Initially, it's in there somewhere you can't retrieve it.

You see that word again in a different context or many different contexts slowly it becomes part of your passive vocabulary,

and eventually over time, some of that vocabulary will become active vocabulary that you can use.

So extensive reading, which is, by the way, something that Stephen Krashen constantly promotes,

there's all kinds of experience which shows that even if we're not consciously looking up words, if we are reading widely,

extensively, we're getting more and more familiarity with the language eventually some of

that vocabulary is naturally going to become known to us as passive vocabulary simply

because we've seen it in so many different contexts that we get a sense of the meaning.

I prefer to look things up

because I can have an erroneous idea of what the word means and stay with that for a long, long time.

If I look it up, I may forget it, but eventually I'll probably get to a correct understanding of the scope of meaning of

that word sooner if I have at least some opportunity to see,

you know, a translation of that word into English or into another language that I know very well.

Learning languages in chunks, as much as 60 % of any language, it consists of these sort of formulaic or formula -based chunks,

words that belong together.

In my view, it's not just the obvious sort of collocations, you know, by the way or on the other hand or expressions like that.

Everything about the language consists of words that normally are used together with other words.

And I remember when I was correcting English at LingQ, the biggest problem was not grammar per se, but that people would choose the wrong word.

Word choice, word usage.

And that has all to do with this idea of chunks.

So how do we learn the chunks?

My strategy is massive exposure.

So as I did with Polish, as I did with Danish, as I did with other languages,

I find a website which has audiobooks and e -books, which in the case of Turkish is Storytel.

And the big advantage of getting on these websites is that in addition to podcasts that you can subscribe to,

you can also, once you connect with audible .com, if you're learning English or Spanish, or in my case, Storytel or Publio .pl or Saxo,

I think it was for Danish, it shows up on your Apple CarPlay screen.

So the minute I get in the car, I just turn on an audiobook that I'm listening to in Turkish.

I'm listening to it.

I'm picking up chunks here and there.

I don't understand actually what they're talking about.

But I do hear very clearly defined chunks

that form part of the language that I eventually want to be able to use.

And so what I then do is, because I always get the audiobook and the e -book, then I go into the e -book on link.

And in particular, as I'm reading it, where I see some really useful chunks, I can go into sentence mode.

I can link some of these words together to form phrases.

I can review them.

And then I have to reassemble the sentence.

And in this way, I get a sort of a random exposure to different chunks.

Of course, it's not the tremendous number of chunks that I will eventually need.

But slowly, I'm going to be picking up and noticing

and collecting more and more of these chunks through massive exposure to the language

and the occasional effort at sort of isolating and focusing in on certain chunks based on my experience, I will eventually get better.

I think sometimes in schools, we are trained to not want to forget.

We're trained, you know, the teacher teaches something and we've now got to try to remember it.

Or we have tests on what was said in the story.

And we're very much oriented towards trying to get it right, trying to retrieve it.

And I sometimes think we would be better advised to accept that we're going to forget, not worrying too much about what we retain,

but making sure that we expose ourselves to this information in different ways.

A good example of learning things in different environments,

learning and forgetting, is the way I use LingQ on my iPad.

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So if I look at our mini stories, for example, lesson 59, I can read it in the full lesson mode,

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or I can go, you know, So here, for example, here's the next page, but I can also look at it one sentence at a time.

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So that's a different experience.

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Varying the experience, the way we do things is a good thing to do.

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Here, for example, I have a number of words that I am trying to learn.

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I don't spend a lot of time deliberately trying to remember these words, but I can still go through some of the,

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you know, exercises here right after the page.

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So I might say.

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Mutanawal is accessible, I hope.

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And I don't try too hard to remember these things.

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I just kind of go through them.

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Bimaani, in other words, being, no, being, as, seeing, how.

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So I get it wrong.

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It doesn't matter if I get it wrong, continue.

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And then what you will soon be seeing is the opportunity then to reassemble this into a sentence.

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I do it not for all the text, but I do it to some extent.

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But the key thing is I don't worry about what I don't understand.

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I don't worry about what I forget.

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I vary how I do things.

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Sometimes I do it in full text mode.

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Sometimes I do it, you know, a sentence at a time.

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Sometimes I do easy content such as the mini stories.

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Sometimes I do more difficult content.

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I never worry about what I forget because I know that forgetting is the key to learning.

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I set myself a goal.

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I want to get over 100 known words a day, push some days to 200 known words a day.

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So why do I do this?

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Why is it important?

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First of all, those days when I feel a bit sluggish

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and I'm not that motivated by the content and I'm kind of not that interested,

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I say I still have to meet my minimum of 100 known words.

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If I'm going to be going off to play golf that day, I try to get in 50 or 60 known words in the morning

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and then finish off with another 50 or 60 in the evening those days

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when I have lots of time I'll push it up over 200 known words

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and I will show you how I do that.

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So here I am.

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You'll see that I've loaded up into Turkish, a bunch of lessons that I've sort of played with.

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I have my mini stories that I regularly review, or it's an easier text from Baha stories.

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However, I have this fabulous tutor and he gave me some magnificent resources.

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So lots of stuff to work with.

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First thing, of course, is we want to start harvesting some words.

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So obviously if there's zero new words, you're not going to harvest any new words you have to start by collecting new words

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that will become the yellow words so

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if i go to my uh this guy here for example i can use keystrokes

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so that's one thing i want to show so

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if you're starting up here i can just move from one this is the yellow word to debbie

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so i can look at all the yellow words

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if i saw does look much friendship whatever i could try

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and claim that as known but i'm not going to do

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that this time those look as you then did

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so your keystrokes can move you through here pretty quickly then you get syrup syrup okay i don't know what

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that is i go take it yes

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i am will write let's see what they tell me yes

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i will write yes i am yes i am i can say known hit it k

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so i have the opportunity with my keystrokes to either take it hit return K, known, or X.

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I don't want it.

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So that's insofar as collecting.

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And we go to the next page.

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So we are collecting yellow words.

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Remember, we're going to harvest our known words from the yellow words.

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Now, what can I do with the yellow words?

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So if I go now to the bottom right -hand corner, where I have a number of options,

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I can do flashcards, I can do different things, but I'm not a big flashcard fan.

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So I go to manage links.

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These are the words that are in this lesson.

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But what I have to do, first of all, go to the filters and it comes from this

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Radio Teatro Su, but I don't want my known words in there and I don't want the loan words in there.

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So I apply that first of all, because I want to be reviewing the yellow words.

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I want to be harvesting yellow words.

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You know, if you click on this or if I click on there, all of them are highlighted.

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Now I have more options.

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I can move the status of them.

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I can remark them as known.

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I can export them to an anki file there's a lot of things i can do

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but i'm not going to do those things

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so i'm going to untick here and i'm going to go through

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and see which words here i know acharis we open kind of

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but not not really at sana no i don't know

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that word i didn't seen something no af pardon i don't know arch arch i know archa

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so i click that one ahbabam, ailejek, as a family, maybe, akla, akla, akla is, yeah,

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let's take that just to show the example.

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I'm not going through them all, but the point is you can go and select those that you think you know.

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And remember, we don't need to be so tough on ourselves because if we don't know them later on, we can always move them back.

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And so then I just go more actions in here and And make known.

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Bingo.

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So it's a rather fast way of going through a list of words, yellow words, many of which might be status three.

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In other words, you're close to knowing them.

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You can mark them as known.

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You move them to known.

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People try to say, well, you should try to learn 10 words a day

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and really make sure you can use them and sort of nail them down.

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I've never found that effective.

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Don't worry about not remembering.

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In fact, don't even try to remember the vocabulary.

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Keep moving, keep moving on.

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And eventually the words will start to stick.

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Like a lot of people say to me, well, I can't learn languages because I have a poor memory.

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Your poor memory is probably not that poor.

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It's irrelevant.

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Language learning is not about memorization.

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Language learning is about committing yourself to a process,

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enjoying the process, allowing the language to come into you and trusting that your brain will gradually understand more and more,

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gradually acquire more and more words.

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So my advice on language learning or in terms of acquiring words, and I should say accumulating words is the fundamental task in language learning.

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And so the more words you have, even passively, the better your potential in the language.

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So it is important to acquire the words,

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but you're not necessarily going to acquire words by deliberately trying to remember them thank you for listening bye for now

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “The Best Way to Learn Vocabulary in Any Language”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: word, language, vocabulary, learning, chunks. This video has 153 sentences and 2667 words to shadow. The speech runs for 14:44. The speaker talks fast, about 181 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

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

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
vocabulary noun	/vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/	A usually alphabetized and explained collection of words e.g. of a particular field, or prepared for a specific purpose, often for learning.
chunk noun	/t͡ʃʌŋk/	A part of something that has been separated; a generally squat, thick, irregular piece of something, e.g. wood or stone.
acquire verb	/əˈkwaɪɚ/	To get.
passive adjective	/ˈpæs.ɪv/	Being subjected to an action without producing a reaction.
lesson noun	/ˈlɛs.ən/	A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
collect verb	/ˈkɑlɪkt/	To gather together; amass.
harvest noun	/ˈhɑɹ.vəst/	The process of gathering the ripened crop; harvesting.
exposure noun	/ɪkˈspəʊ.ʒə(ɹ)/	The condition of being exposed, uncovered, or unprotected.
mini adjective	/ˈmɪn.i/	Miniature, tiny, small.
phrase noun	/ˈfɹeɪ̯z/	A short written or spoken expression.
consist noun	/kənˈsɪst/	A lineup or sequence of railroad carriages or cars, with or without a locomotive, that form a unit.
frequency noun	/ˈfɹiːkwənsi/	The rate of occurrence of anything; the relationship between incidence and time period.
vary verb	/ˈvɛəɹi/	To change with time or a similar parameter.
gradually adverb	/ˈɡɹæd͡ʒuəli/	In a gradual manner; making slow progress; slowly.
nail noun	/neɪl/	The horny plate or appendage at the ends of the digits of various animals, including most reptiles, birds, and mammals (both nonhuman and human).

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
go through verb		To travel from one end of something to the other.
pick up verb		To lift; to grasp and raise.
get over verb		To overcome.
look up verb	/ˌlʊk ˈʌp/	To have better prospects.
start up verb	/stɑɹˈtʌp/	To rise suddenly.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

Initially, it's in there somewhere, you can't retrieve it.
I'm picking up chunks here and there.
It doesn't matter if I get it wrong.
I don't worry about what I forget.
Let's see what they tell me.

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	I've never found · I've said · you've just learned
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	are used · are trained · was said
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	reading, which is · website which has

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 81 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, gonna. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: exposure /ɪkˈspəʊ.ʒə(ɹ)/, isolation /ˌaɪsəˈleɪʃən/, friendship /ˈfɹɛn(d)ʃɪp/, translation /tɹænzˈleɪʃən/, motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, deliberately /dɪˈlɪb.(ə.)ɹət.li/, isolation /ˌaɪsəˈleɪʃən/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like vocabulary, chunk, acquire.

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 →

Shadowing Practice: The Best Way to Learn Vocabulary in Any Language - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?