Shadowing Practice: Who Can Make You Speak English Fluently? - Learn English Speaking with Video
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You've decided you're going to practice your English.
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So you go looking for someone to practice with and you already know what you're looking for,
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you're looking for a native speaker or a teacher, someone who really knows English,
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someone who can help you.
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You're not interested in talking to anyone else.
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You think, people like me, people who are learning English as a second language,
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those people are only going to make mistakes like I do, so why would I want to practice with them?
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So, you find a teacher,
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and they're great, but the price that they're charging means you can only really afford one hour a week,
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maybe two, which means that in between those sessions all week long,
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you're not actually speaking English with anyone at all.
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Hey ladies, welcome back to our regular listeners and a big welcome if you're listening for the very first time.
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This is the Confident English podcast.
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My name is Emma.
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I'm the founder of Hey Lady,
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an online community that brings together women from all around the world to meet new friends and to practice speaking English.
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To find out more about what we do and how we can help,
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head over to our website where you can sign up for a free seven -day guest pass.
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The link to get your free guest pass is down in the description or in the show notes.
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But right now, let's get straight into this episode.
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I decided to make this episode today because of two questions
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that I hear again and again in the comments of this podcast, but also from people who are asking questions about HeyLady.
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The first one is, are there native speakers?
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And the second one, this second one always makes me smile, the second one is, Emma, will you be there?
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Will you be in the conversations I join?
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These are both fair questions.
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But I want you to notice what's sitting underneath them,
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just behind them, because both questions are really asking the same thing.
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Who is going to be there to make me better?
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Who is going to be making me fluent?
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By the way, yes, I do join and host conversations inside Hey Lady, so I will probably see you inside.
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But the point I want to make is it doesn't matter.
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It doesn't matter whether I'm in the room and it doesn't matter whether there's a native speaker in the room either.
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Because nobody else can make you fluent.
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Not a native speaker, not a teacher, not even me.
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building your fluency and building your confidence are not the result of having a native speaker
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or a teacher to talk to a professional guitar player doesn't
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make your fingers move faster on the strings the strongest person
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in the gym doesn't make you lift heavier weights The weights don't care if that guy's standing there next to you.
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You still have to lift them.
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And speaking English is exactly the same.
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For your fluency to grow and your confidence to build, the words have to come out of your mouth.
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Nobody can do that part for you.
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Because fluency is a skill, it develops through regular and repeated practice.
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And the only person who can do that is you.
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I can help you.
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Your teacher can guide you.
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But you're the person who chooses to show up and do the work.
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So if fluency is a skill and it develops through regular practice,
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repeated practice, does it actually matter who you practice with?
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Yes, it does, but maybe not for the reasons that you might expect.
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Firstly, it matters because of the amount of practice you need.
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It takes the average person about 200 hours of guided learning to move up one level of English from B1 to B2.
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And that is mostly about acquiring knowledge.
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But fluency is a skill it's your ability to use the knowledge
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that you have to communicate freely when you need to and
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that requires hundreds of hours of speaking practice the second reason why it matters is
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because of what i call the exchange this is essentially what
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does the other person receive in return for helping you to practice.
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Now, a teacher is generally paid money in exchange for their time, right?
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But a native speaker, if they're not being paid,
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what do they get out of spending time with you while you practice?
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What do they get in return?
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It may not be much.
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It might be the joy of helping someone else.
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They might be intrigued to meet someone with a different cultural background.
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If you can afford to pay a qualified teacher to sit with you for those hundreds of hours, then honestly, go ahead.
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And if you have a native speaker with lots of free time on their hands?
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Again, go ahead.
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But what are your other options if you don't have those first two?
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Almost nobody is left on your list and that makes practice look very unlikely.
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And yet there are people who are perfect for you to practice with.
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People who are eager to practice with you.
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People who are much easier to find.
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You just need to change what you're looking for.
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I think there is a really unhelpful habit that people who are learning English have,
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which is to divide people who are speaking English into two groups.
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There are the native English speakers and then there's everybody else,
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the ones who have learned English or are still learning English as a second language.
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One group is the group that you want and the other group is the group that you skip past or you overlook.
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But the point I want to make is that everybody who speaks English English is an English speaker.
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Some of us learned it first.
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Some of us learned it second.
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You are an English speaker.
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You learned English as a second language.
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That makes you more experienced in languages than many native English speakers who don't speak a second language.
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And my point is that English speakers come in all shapes and sizes at different stages of the fluency journey.
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There are native speakers with what can only be described as appalling,
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terrible English, and there are non -native speakers with clearly exceptional English.
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English, don't make the mistake of assuming that just
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because someone is still learning English that they haven't already learned a lot or that they have nothing to offer,
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that they aren't worth your time.
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It simply isn't true.
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And it's something that you need to be really careful of because when you refer to other people in this way,
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you are subtly passing the same judgment about yourself.
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And you, as a non -native English speaker, have more to offer as a practice partner than I think you realize.
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So what does a great practice partner actually look like?
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Well, think about any other skill that takes practice.
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Could be cooking, or photography, or painting, or surfing, starting a business, running a marathon.
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With almost any skill you can think of, it makes complete sense to find other people who are on that same journey.
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Runners find other runners to keep each other accountable.
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right?
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Photographers find other photographers to share what they know about equipment and different techniques.
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Business owners spend time with other business owners to learn different strategies to help grow their businesses, right?
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English is no different.
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So a great practice partner is, first of all, it's someone who speaks English.
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And secondly, it's somebody who gives you the space to speak.
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Somebody who makes you feel supported.
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Someone who makes you feel safe enough to make mistakes, to try and to make those mistakes.
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Which is why finding other women on the same journey as you, with the same goals, at a similar level to you,
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or maybe a little further ahead.
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That is so valuable.
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They know exactly what it's like to be in your shoes.
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They're far more likely to give you that space and that support.
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They understand when something is difficult and they understand why it is difficult,
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which means that they are so excited,
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so able to cheer you on when you need it because they recognize exactly what it takes to reach those milestones.
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And remember what I asked earlier?
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What do they get in this exchange?
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When you practice with someone who also needs to get practice
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she gets exactly what you get she gets to practice too you could talk for one hour
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or five hours and you would both leave
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that conversation with the same thing that you came for
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and that's a good deal for both of you so if you enjoy the practice and you get value from the practice,
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you'll come back and do it again and again.
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And that's the whole point.
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So to those of you who are interested in joining Hey Lady,
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and you've been wondering about whether there's native speakers or whether I'm the one who'll be there with you in conversations,
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The most important thing is that you have the opportunity to practice speaking English regularly.
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Our members come from all over the world.
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They are women who speak English as a second language, women who are building their confidence together,
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supporting each other in the very best ways.
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Some of them are a little ahead of you on their English fluency journey.
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Some will be a little behind, but they are all motivated to transform their lives through English, just like you.
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And they're just as eager to find the right people to practice speaking with regularly.
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So I would love to invite you to come and try out Hey Lady for yourself.
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I'm going to put a link down in the description
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or in the show notes so
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that you can get your free seven -day guest pass or
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if you're watching on YouTube you can scan the code
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that you can see up on screen right here it is
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completely free you do not need a credit card you just need to show up
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and to try it out for yourself you'll get seven days inside the hey lady platform
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and three scheduled conversation events so
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that you can come in see exactly how it works
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and decide whether hey lady is the right solution for you
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if you enjoyed this episode today please make sure you hit like
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and you subscribe so
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that you don't miss the next episode it also helps other women to find us too
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so in any way
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that you can support the channel please do i want to
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thank you for spending some time with me today I really hope that you found it useful and as always,
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I will see you in the very next episode.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Who Can Make You Speak English Fluently?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: English, practice, speaker, native, fluency. This video has 153 sentences and 1814 words to shadow. The speech runs for 14:19. The speaker talks at a steady 127 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 91% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| fluency noun | /ˈfluːənsi/ | The quality of smoothness of flow. |
| fluent adjective | /ˈfluənt/ | That flows; flowing, liquid. |
| eager adjective | /ˈiɡɚ/ | Desirous; keen to do or obtain something. |
| podcast noun | /ˈpɑdˌkæst/ | A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on… |
| runner noun | /ˈɹʌnɚ/ | A person who moves, on foot, at a fast pace, especially an athlete. |
| appalling adjective | /əˈpɔːlɪŋ/ | Horrifying and astonishing. |
| intrigue noun | /ˈɪntɹiːɡ/ | A complicated or clandestine plot or scheme intended to affect some purpose by secret artifice; conspiracy; stratagem. |
| subtly adverb | /ˈsʌt.l̩.li/ | With subtleness, in a subtle manner; with cleverness rather than brute force. |
| unhelpful adjective | /ʌnˈhɛlpfəl/ | Not providing help or assistance; not helpful. |
| listener noun | /ˈlɪs(ə)nɚ/ | Someone who listens, especially to a speech or a broadcast. |
| overlook verb | /ˈoʊ.vɚˌlʊk/ | To offer a view (of something) from a higher position. |
| motivate verb | /ˈmoʊ.tɪ.veɪt/ | To provide someone with an incentive to do something; to encourage; to actuate. |
| milestone noun | /ˈmaɪlˌstoʊn/ | A stone milepost (or by extension in other materials), one of a series of numbered markers placed along a road at regular intervals, typically at the side of… |
| firstly adverb | /ˈfɜɹstli/ | In the first place; before anything else; first. |
| secondly adverb | /ˈsɛk.(ə)ndli/ | In the second place. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| go ahead verb | /ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/ | To proceed with; to begin. |
| show up verb | To appear, arrive, or attend, especially suddenly or erratically. | |
| bring together verb | To cause people to do something together; to bring about togetherness. | |
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. | |
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. | |
| live through verb | To survive a difficult period or event | |
| move up verb | To promote, put onto a higher level. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- You're not interested in talking to anyone else.
- Will you be in the conversations I join?
- Who is going to be there to make me better?
- Who is going to be making me fluent?
- You just need to change what you're looking for.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | someone who really · someone who can · people who are |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | being paid · might be intrigued · is left |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | You've decided · have learned · haven't already learned |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 36 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, doesn't, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/, marathon /ˈmæɹəθən/
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 fluency, fluent, eager.
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.