Shadowing Practice: The Internet and Us - Learn English Speaking with Video

Creating lesson...
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Unit 6.
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The Internet and Us.
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Track 11.
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Reading.
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The Internet and Us.
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Every one of us uses the Internet almost every day.
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We all know that it is a very useful tool.
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But most of us take the Internet for granted and forget just how important it is to our daily lives.
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Have you ever thought about what life was like before we had the Internet?
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Years before the Internet became common to everyone, It took about one week to send a letter from one country to another.
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But now, it takes just a few seconds to send a message through email.
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Information was also very difficult to find.
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People had to spend a lot of time at libraries just to find the information they were looking for.
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But thanks to the Internet, we can now find the information we need on the Internet just by clicking a mouse.

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 14 sentences and 148 words to shadow. The speech runs for 1:21. The speaker talks at a steady 110 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing.

Key vocabulary in this video

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

WordPronunciationMeaning
mouse noun/maʊs/Any mammal of the many rodent families (especially Muridae) that have a small body and a long tail.
litter noun/ˈlɪt.ɚ/Straw, grass, and similar loose material used as bedding for people or animals.
email noun/ˈiˌmeɪl/A system for sending messages and datas by means of a computer network, primarily the Internet, using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and the Internet…
grant verb/ɡɹɑːnt/To give (permission or wish).
tool noun/tul/Any physical device meant to ease or do a task.
message noun/ˈmɛs.ɪdʒ/A communication, or what is communicated; any concept or information conveyed.
spend verb/spɪnd/To pay out (money).
unit noun/ˈjuː.nɪt/Oneness, singularity, seen as a component of a whole number; a magnitude of one.
library noun/ˈlaɪˌbɹɛɹ.i/An institution which holds books and/or other forms of media for use by the public or qualified people often lending them out, as well as providing various…
click verb/klɪk/To cause to make a click; to operate (a switch, etc) so that it makes a click.
useful adjective/ˈjuːsfəl/Having a practical or beneficial use.

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 pastwere looking
Obligation: must / have to / need to saying that something is necessaryhad to spend

How to practise with this video

  1. Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
  2. Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
  3. Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like mouse, litter, email.

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 →