Shadowing Practice: The Gingerbread Man - 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
Recommend Video
A2The Gingerbread Man | Fairy Tales | Gigglebox
A1Fast and Slow: The Big Race
A1FINGERPRINT 2_ UNIT 10
A1SATURDAY MORNING MINIONS Episode 20 "Food Fright" (NEW 2021) Animated Series HD
A1Big Ball, Small Ball: Pippa's Snowman
A1Milk & Cookies
A2Wolf Trapped by a Squirrel! 🐺🐿️😂 | Funny Animal Story #animation
A1Biscuit’s New Trick - Book #17
A1The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Stories - The Mixed-Up Chameleon | OFFICIAL | ZeeKay Junior
A1BabyRIKI Time | English Cartoons | Videos for children | The Toy Boat (EP02) | KIDSY
A1The farmer and the carrot.
A1Tom & Jerry | Moments of Luck! 🍀 | St. Patrick's Day | Classic Cartoon Compilation | WB Kids
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “The Gingerbread Man”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: gingerbread, sees, catch, crocodile, lady. This video has 36 sentences and 282 words to shadow. The speech runs for 2:36. The speaker talks slowly, about 108 words per minute, so there is time to copy every sound. Only 62% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
13 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| mouse noun | /maʊs/ | Any mammal of the many rodent families (especially Muridae) that have a small body and a long tail. |
| rabbit noun | /ˈɹæbɪt/ | A mammal of most genera of the family Leporidae, with long ears, long hind legs and a short, fluffy tail. (Those of the larger kind are instead called hares) |
| turtle noun | /ˈtɝtl̩/ | Any land, aquatic, or semi-aquatic reptile of the order Testudines, characterised by a protective shell enclosing its body. See also tortoise. |
| asleep adjective | /əˈsliːp/ | In a state of sleep; also, broadly, resting. |
| swim verb | /swɪm/ | To move through the water, without touching the bottom; to propel oneself in water by natural means. |
| cookie noun | /ˈkʊki/ | A small, flat, baked good which is either crisp or soft but firm. |
| yummy adjective | /ˈjʌm.i/ | Delicious. |
| gingerbread verb | /ˈd͡ʒɪn.d͡ʒɚˌbɹɛd/ | To decorate or embellish in an ornate or intricate way. |
| crocodile noun | /ˈkɹɑkədaɪl/ | Any of the predatory amphibious reptiles of the family Crocodylidae; (loosely) a crocodilian, any species of the order Crocodilia, which also includes the… |
| parrot noun | /ˈpæɹət/ | A kind of bird, many species of which are colorful and able to mimic human speech, of the order Psittaciformes or (narrowly) of the family Psittacidae. |
| woohoo | /wuːˈhuː/ | Used to express sudden or exuberant joy, happiness, excitement, approval or delight. |
| jump verb | /d͡ʒʌmp/ | To propel oneself rapidly upward, downward and/or in any horizontal direction such that momentum causes the body to become airborne. |
| bird noun | /ˈbɜːd/ | An animal of the clade (traditionally class) Aves in the phylum Chordata, characterized by being warm-blooded, having feathers and wings usually capable of… |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| jump out verb | To emerge suddenly. | |
| run away verb | To flee by running. | |
| wake up verb | /ˌweɪk ˈʌp/ | To stop sleeping; to awake. |
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 mouse, rabbit, turtle.
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.