Shadowing Technique in English: are you wasting your time?

Hey everyone, it's Hadar.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Today we are going to talk about how to do the best possible shadowing exercise.

If you have no idea what a shadowing exercise is, then you are in for a treat

because it's really one of the best ways to improve everything about your English.

And if you've been doing this for a while, then you might want to stick

around as well because you'll learn the biggest mistakes English learners

make when doing the shadowing exercise.

And also, I'm going to give you a few tips on how to improve it and

optimize it because I love efficiency.

If you're already practicing, it might as well work really, really well for you.

And this is what this video is all about.

But before that, if you are new to my channel, then hello.

My name is Hadar.

I'm a non-native speaker of English and I am here to help you sound confident,

clear, and proud when speaking English.

Now, pride is not something that you hear, but it's something that you

feel when someone else is speaking.

And I want you to be very, very proud of your English.

Because it's your second language, or third, or fourth and you should be very

proud no matter what the outcome is.

Now, if you want to find out more about how I can help you, then I

highly recommend that you visit my website hadarshemesh.com, or you

can also follow me on Instagram at @hadar.accentsway, where I share a

new piece of content every single day.

So I have a feeling that you're going to like it.

I'm going to put all the links below this video.

Now let's talk about the shadowing technique.

The shadowing technique is basically you shadowing someone else speaking, meaning

you're repeating what they are saying.

Now, you can also call it the imitation exercise or, as I like to call it, the

echoing exercise, where you're just like echoing what someone else is saying.

Now, before we get into how to do it and how to avoid the biggest mistake,

the reason why it's so good is because, first, it helps you develop intuition.

What does that mean?

It helps you understand things in English on a deeper level, a level

that is not logical or intellectual, but you feel it in your body, you feel

the rhythm of the words and sounds.

And there are things that you can't put in words or you can't find

the logical explanation to why something sounds the way it does.

And when you're imitating someone, it's like when you're singing along or humming

along with a melody, you're tapping into different layers that usually

don't exist when we just think of the language as spoken language or words.

So that's the first reason.

The second reason it can help you understand and listen to sounds in a

way that you usually don't listen to, especially if you're paying attention.

You also start noticing things like melody, intonation, rhythm, all

of which are very, very important when communicating in English.

And they give you that extra sense of confidence and ability to express

yourself and how you're feeling and your attitude towards things.

Now, if you're only focusing on the words and sentences, then you're losing a lot of

the elements that we have in normal speech - things that we don't think about, but we

feel and hear when other people speak.

And this is why imitation exercises are really, really cool.

Also, it's something that you can do on the go while you're driving or

doing the dishes or walking your dog.

So it's a very efficient exercise that you can leverage, basically, any

situation when you're doing something and you don't have a lot of people

around you into a practice opportunity.

Which is also a plus.

Now, before we talk about the biggest mistakes learners make when doing

these shadowing exercises, I want to talk about how to do it, okay?

And I want to give you a few tips on how to do it.

So, the first is to just play the audio and then echo the person

you're listening to, or shadow the person you're listening to.

Right?

So basically, you're not pausing, you're not doing anything, you're just

repeating it a split second after them.

Now at the end, I'm also going to give you a few tips on how to

optimize this exercise, but for now I want you to know that this is the

first option that you have, right?

And this is something that you can do on the go, as you're driving

your car or doing the dishes.

"Because I have worked.

A working class job.

I've waited tables in restaurants.

I have ridden the subway.

I have walked the streets.

In New York city."

The second option is when you are more concentrated, seated

at your desk or on your couch.

And ideally, you might want to have the script of the

speech that you are shadowing.

And what you want to do is to play a line, pause, and repeat.

Okay?

So basically, you play a line, then you pause and don't wait till the end.

Like you can take a short chunk and then pause, and then repeat.

"I started doing this because..."

I started doing this.

I started doing this because.

I started doing this because.

"I was having."

I was having.

I was having.

"This incredible..."

This incredible.

"Response."

Response.

Now, the advantage of this exercise is that you can go deeper, you can

pay attention to more things because you're more focused and concentrated.

You have more time to listen to things to repeat it.

So, this is a great way to go deeper, but the advantage of the

first option is that you can do it any time and pretty much anywhere.

Well, not really anywhere because if you do it while you're at the

dentist or just at the bank, that would be a little weird, or in the

middle of a very important meeting.

So maybe then you shouldn't be doing the shadowing exercise.

I mean, you know, it's just a suggestion.

Now, the biggest mistake you might be making when doing a shadowing

exercise is that you do not set an intention as to what you're paying

attention to and trying to improve.

The idea of the shadowing exercise is not just a copy-paste or

become a parrot of someone else.

Okay?

No.

The idea is to try to follow someone else's speech pattern, voice,

intonation, rhythm, melody, and sounds.

Yes, great.

But also you want to improve specific things and you

want to pay attention to it.

The brain filters out a lot of information as you're listening to

other people and as you're speaking.

When you're just repeating someone on autopilot, you're missing out a lot

of information when your brain is not paying attention to specific things.

So, you know, you're just repeating it, but you might not be repeating some of

the key sounds that are important to you.

Or maybe you're not paying attention to that intonation shift that could

be beneficial for you to use more.

Right?

Because you filtered it out, you did not listen to it.

Because you're listening to other things, you're very focused

on getting the words right.

Right?

Or you're, you know, thinking of vocabulary or maybe something else.

Or maybe you're doing other things and you're really not concentrated,

and you have no intention as to what you're trying to improve.

So, my biggest piece of advice would be to always set an intention as to what

it is that you're trying to improve in addition to doing the shadowing

exercise and all the benefits that I've discussed at the beginning.

And to that we'll add, you know, vocabulary and flow and connected

speech and all of these great things that, you know, are added value when

you're doing these shadowing exercises.

But you want to set an intention, you want to know what you're listening

to and what you are trying to change.

So for example, if you're working on distinguishing between the

'sheep-ship' vowel pair, then when you're listening to someone else

during those imitation exercises, you want to detect every time they use

either the tents 'ee' or the lax 'I'.

Or especially, when they're using tricky words, that could be, you know, either-or,

like 'cheap-chip' or 'least-list', right?

Minimal pairs.

So you want to be mindful of that.

Because when you're mindful of that, so for example, you say, "I'm going

to listen closely to these two vowel sounds", then you will notice it.

All right?

When, usually, if you're not setting an intention, you're

less likely to notice it.

And then when you notice it, you're more likely to do it.

And when you're focused on getting it right, that's when you start

to change things, that's when you start to rewire your brain.

That's how you start to get rid of old pronunciation habits or speaking habits,

and you start to acquire new ones.

Not that there's anything wrong about how you used the say it, but if it affects

your clarity, and you're self-conscious about that pronunciation, then you can

shift only with intention and repetition.

So, paying attention to those things and making sure that you're saying

them is going to significantly improve the quality of your practice.

Now, it's not just about sounds, it could also be intonation patterns.

So, let's say you want to improve or vary your intonation

patterns when speaking English.

So maybe you might want to pay attention to how this person ends their sentences

- whether it's going up or going down.

You want to pay attention to the stressed words only and see how they're being

stressed, whether they're prolonged, or maybe that person raises their pitch.

Right?

And then you want to imitate just that.

Now, of course, you're imitating a whole lot of other things, you know - new

words, connected speech, different sounds.

But you're paying attention to stressed words.

You're paying attention to the intonation pattern at the end of sentences.

This is gold.

Because when you do, you might actually make a change in how you say things.

And that change will stick if you say it enough times.

Now, before we wrap up, I want to give you a few more tips on how you

can optimize your shadowing practice.

First, it's very important that you select a person that speaks in a voice

that you like and even love, that resonates with you, that you want to

master a sound similar to their sound.

Why?

Because if it's someone that has a voice that you don't like or that

doesn't give you all these great feelings and emotions, then you might be

practicing it with a slight resistance.

And that is not very effective or practical.

So, you definitely want to find someone that you love their voice.

Second, remember that you can slow down the pace.

If it's really fast, or if you're not paying attention to all the things,

then slow it down and play it at half the speed or 75% of the speed.

You can do that with podcasts, you can do it with YouTube videos.

It's super easy.

You just go to the settings at the bottom and then change the

speed of the video or audio.

And it allows you to pay attention to more things.

"And I have encountered this type of harassment, right in

the subway in New York city."

Another thing, and I've mentioned it, is to make sure

that you have the script ready.

So you can see the words in front of you.

You can even put it on a Google doc and then edit it, right?

Maybe highlight words that are stressed or divide the sentences

based on thought groups.

So, you can do a lot of things with the text: you can underline words that

are more challenging, you can highlight sounds that are more challenging for

you so you can pay attention to it.

So, working with a script is great if you have the time.

If you're not driving, because, you know, don't work with a script when

you're driving, it's not very safe.

Now, one more thing you can do to optimize your practice is to record

yourself shadowing the person.

So for example, you play the audio, you pause, you repeat,

and you record the whole thing.

And then you listen to the recording.

I know it sounds like a lot, but again, if you do that, you will gain so much more

out of it that you would actually need to practice less to get the same results.

Listen to me, I know.

So you play it, you repeat it, you record the whole thing, and then you listen

to it and you look for the differences.

Because a lot of times when you listen to something from the

outside, when it's not inside your head, you notice a lot more things.

Okay?

So, recording yourself would be the last thing.

And again, I want to repeat how important it is to set an intention.

You can even write it down or put it on a post-it: R's, word endings,

stressed words, reductions, right?

All of that good stuff that you want to pay attention to.

Now, the last thing I want to add is don't be afraid of repeating the same

phrase or paragraph or part of the video.

You don't have to do the entire video or the entire podcast episode.

No, you can take one paragraph and do it again and again, and again.

Now, don't try to do a lot.

You can do less, but be very thorough.

So you can take one paragraph and just listen to it and shadow it

again and again and again, and again.

Quality, not quantity, my friends.

Quality, not quantity.

Okay.

That's it.

My question to you is, Do you like to do the shadowing practice?

And do you do it?

Is that a part of your English practice routine?

Let me know in the comments.

And if you haven't yet, I invite you to join the InFluency community,

where we practice together on video.

And we do a lot of shadowing techniques there.

There's been a thing recently, where community members have

been shadowing my videos.

And it's the best thing I've ever seen in my life.

Because it's like me speaking with so many different other amazing voices,

and they're doing an incredible job.

So, a shout-out to all the InFluency community members for your amazing

job doing the shadowing practice.

And if you're not a part of the InFluency community, then what are you waiting for?

Join us.

I'm going to post the link to it in the description below.

All right, that's it.

Thank you so much for watching.

Don't forget to connect with me on Instagram at @hadar.accentsway.

And subscribe to my channel if you haven't yet.

Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the day.

And I'll see you next week in the next video.

Bye.