Shadowing Practice: Understand ANY English Word (No Dictionary Needed!) - Learn English Speaking with Video
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You are happily reading a book or talking to someone in English, and then a word stops you.
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You don't know what it means. What do you do?
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You can't stop and look in the dictionary every time there's a word you don't know, so you have to guess what the word means.
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But here's the problem: Most people guess wrong.
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In this video, I'm going to show you a simple three step technique that will dramatically increase your ability to correctly guess the meaning of unknown words and remember them for the future.
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The best thing about this technique is that it has been proven to work in just 15 minutes, and it works for all levels of English, especially lower-level learners.
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You'll also get to try a special test called the Word Detective Test, where you can practice your new skills and see your results instantly.
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But before we start, let me show you how difficult it really is to guess word meanings in English.
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This research shows that on average learners who pass the Cambridge C1 exam know between 3,750 and 4,500 words.
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If you know 4,500 words, then you would know 95% of the words in a typical English fiction novel.
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That seems pretty good!
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But it also means that 5% of the vocabulary in the novel would be new, which is the equivalent of 15 unknown words on each page.
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That's a lot!
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And that's why being able to guess the meaning of words from context is such an important skill.
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But as I said, guessing is not easy.
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Studies have shown that a typical learner is only able to guess correctly around 25% of the time, so you will be wrong three out of four times.
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The good news is that using the simple technique I'm about to show you, you can increase the probability of guessing correctly to 80%.
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So you will be right three out of four times.
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That's pretty amazing.
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But please note that you shouldn't stop and try to guess every unknown word because as I just explained, there might be a lot of them.
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Focus your attention on the unknown words that are causing communication problems.
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Now it's time to learn the three-step technique that will improve your ability to guess unknown words and become a professional word detective.
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The first step is: Parts of speech.
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Can you correctly identify nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs?
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This is a really fundamental skill.
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In fact, some research has shown that most incorrect guesses about word meanings are caused by getting the part of speech wrong.
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So here are some quick tips to help you: Find the verb first. It tells you what the subject is doing.
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Ask yourself: What is happening in this sentence?
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Next, look for nouns.
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You can identify nouns by looking for words with a, an, or the in front of them, and you can also look for words that start with capital letters.
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Next, find the adjectives and adverbs.
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Adjectives will almost always be directly before nouns, and adverbs will almost always be directly before or after all those other words.
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Here's a pro tip from me as an English teacher of 15 years: if you don't know what part of speech a word is, it's probably an adverb.
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Finally, be careful when using word endings to identify the part of speech, because in English they can be tricky.
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For example, you might associate the ED and ING endings with verbs in English, but many adjectives also end in ED and ING.
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The key to correctly identifying the part of speech in English will most often be word order.
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Once we have correctly identified the part of speech that gives us some vital information that helps us to successfully guess the meaning of the word.
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If it's a verb, we know that our unknown word probably describes an action or a state.
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If it's a noun, then the word is probably a person, place, or thing.
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If it's an adjective, it gives us extra information about the noun.
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And if it's an adverb, it usually gives more detail about how, when or where.
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Now we can move on to step two: Helper vocabulary.
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Are you able to get helpful information from the vocabulary surrounding the unknown word?
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Take some time to look at all the words and phrases around this unknown word.
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This will give you a general feeling for the word.
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It's important to note that you don't need to know exactly what the unknown word means, so you don't need to translate it, or look for a synonym in your native language.
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Often you only need to know if it's a positive or a negative word.
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For example, the surrounding words: sunny, laughing, smiling, and happy, tell us that the unknown word is probably positive.
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Something else that can really help is focusing on those little grammar words like and, but, because, if, and so.
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Those words can give you vital context clues.
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For example, in this sentence, the word because indicates cause and effect.
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His dog died, so we can expect the missing word to be negative, like sad or devastated.
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But in this sentence, the word although indicates contrast.
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So even though something bad happened, the missing word is probably positive, like calm or happy.
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In a situation where you don't have a lot of time to analyze all the language, like in a spoken conversation, simply focusing on those grammar words can be a quick and effective way to guess word meanings.
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Now we can move on to the third and final step: Guess and check the word meaning.
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Did you get it right?
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This is a really important step, not only for fluent communication, but also for learning and remembering new words.
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If you are reading a book, you can check your guess using a dictionary.
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In a conversation, you can get confirmation from the other person, like this: Does _____ mean happy?
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You mean _____, like happy?
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Was he _____ because he was happy?
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If you check your guess and use the word in context, you will be much more likely to remember the word and be able to use it again in the future.
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So let's revise those three steps again.
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Step one, identify the part of speech.
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Step two, look at the surrounding language.
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And step three, guess and check the meaning.
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Learning words from context is an important skill because the reality is that all language learners, including native speakers, will learn most of their vocabulary in this way.
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Of course, it's possible to learn vocabulary through deliberate study or flashcards, but most learners simply don't have time to learn thousands of words this way, and research shows that learning vocabulary in context is more effective and allows you to be actually able to use the words you learn.
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If you want to practice the technique you learn today and see how good your guessing skills really are, go to the Canguro English website and take the free Word Detective test.
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You will get instant results that show you exactly where you need to improve.
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But please remember that in language learning there are no magic techniques.
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Your guessing skills will only continue to improve with practice.
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I hope that this video has given you the tools and the motivation to do that.
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I'm Christian. This is Canguro English, and I'll see you in class.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Understand ANY English Word”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: word, guess, unknown, step, English. This video has 75 sentences and 1237 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:49. The speaker talks at a steady 114 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| noun noun | /naʊn/ | A word that functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as person, animal, place, word, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality, or idea… |
| 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. |
| adjective noun | /ˈæd͡ʒ.ɪk.tɪv/ | A word that modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes a noun’s referent. |
| learner noun | /ˈlɜɹnəɹ/ | One who is learning; one receiving instruction. |
| verb noun | /vɝb/ | A word that indicates an action, event, or state of being. |
| surround verb | /səˈɹaʊnd/ | To encircle something or simultaneously extend in all directions. |
| dictionary noun | /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/ | A reference work listing words or names from one or more languages, usually ordered alphabetically, explaining each word's meanings or senses, oftentimes also… |
| grammar noun | /ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/ | A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general. |
| flashcard noun | /ˈflæʃˌkɑɹd/ | A card used to aid rote memorization. One side of the card contains data of one kind, or a question, and the other side contains the associated response which… |
| revise verb | /ɹɪˈvaɪz/ | To review, alter and amend, especially of written material. |
| synonym noun | /ˈsɪn.əˌnɪm/ | A term (word or phrase) which is synonymous with others. |
| fluent adjective | /ˈfluənt/ | That flows; flowing, liquid. |
| devastated adjective | /ˈdɛv.əˌsteɪ.təd/ | Ruined, ravaged. |
| deliberate adjective | /dɪˈlɪb.(ə.)ɹət/ | Done on purpose; intentional. |
| analyze verb | /ˈæn.əˌlaɪz/ | To subject to analysis. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- You don't know what it means.
- What do you do?
- Can you correctly identify nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs?
- Did you get it right?
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 proven · have shown · has shown |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | has been proven · are caused |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 14 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, can't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/, flashcard /ˈflæʃˌkɑɹd/, confirmation /ˌkɑn.fəɹˈmeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/, devastated /ˈdɛv.əˌsteɪ.təd/, deliberate /dɪˈlɪb.(ə.)ɹət/, probability /ˌpɹɑ.bəˈbɪl.ə.ti/
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 noun, vocabulary, adjective.
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.