English Speaking Practice - Speak with me! (Shadowing Method)

Hello, lovely students, and welcome back to English with Lucy.

I have a very special lesson for you today that's going to help you

practise your speaking and pronunciation skills in English.

Today, we're going to do some shadowing.

You are going to become my shadow.

Shadowing is a repetition technique that can help improve

your pronunciation and aid you to sound more natural in English.

In addition to the amazing

speaking practice you're getting in today 's lesson,

I've also created a free PDF that you can download.

It has the full transcription plus some new vocabulary, some more

information on how to shadow effectively, and a quiz to test

what you've learnt.

If you'd like to download that,

just click on the link in the description box.

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The PDF will arrive directly in

your inbox.

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It's a free service.

You can unsubscribe at any time.

Also, you're here because you want

to improve your English speaking.

We both know that the absolute

best way to make progress fast is to have a 1-on-1 tutor.

You can find your perfect

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take a free trial with them and get $10 in lesson

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LanguaTalk is a company that I

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So technically, I'm sponsoring myself here.

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We're taking two lessons a week at the moment.

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I'll give you $10 in lesson credit

if you sign up after watching this video.

So as well as being able to book

in a 30-minute trial session, you can claim $10 towards lessons by

messaging their support team with the code SPEAKING10, and this is

valid for anyone signing up from today onwards.

The link is in the description box.

Okay, before we begin your

speaking practice, I want to explain what shadowing is and what

I'm going to ask you to do in this video.

When shadowing, you repeat what

someone is saying with as little delay as possible.

It's not repeat after me,

it's speak along with me.

So while I speak, you speak too,

trying to match my speech patterns, my intonation and pronunciation.

This is a great way to improve your speaking, especially if you

don't have anyone to speak with.

It feels a bit weird at first, but

once you understand and know the technique, you can use literally

any audio you want to practise more.

Just choose

a person who you want to sound like and go for it.

Okay, I'm going to tell you a story about something slightly

embarrassing that happened to Will and me last week.

Some of the vocabulary might be new for you.

Don't worry, I've put a full list of vocab in the PDF.

When shadowing, the primary focus is not on the grammar or the vocabulary.

It's on mimicking the pronunciation of the speaker.

First, just listen to me, then we'll talk about the

pronunciation, then you can practise.

The other night, Will and I were

sitting down to dinner when we heard a thump above our heads.

That's our first sentence.

Did you notice anything about my pronunciation?

I want to point out a couple of features that will help you sound

more natural when you're shadowing me.

Firstly, I used a ‘schwa’ when

saying Will and I, and I elided or dropped the ‘d’ sound in 'and'.

Will and I, not Will and I, Will and I. I also used a weak

form of were, were, to, to, and the article a, a. That was just

before thump, a thump.

And did you hear which word was

most stressed in that sentence?

Thump.

That was the most interesting and surprising information.

Okay, let's practise together now. Speak along with me.

The other night, Will and I were sitting down to dinner when we

heard a thump above our heads.

Good.

If you want more practice, just pause the

video, replay that part.

Here's the next part of the story.

Listen first.

We live in an old house, so we

just shrugged it off and started eating.

There was another louder thud and

then what sounded like footsteps! Creepy, right?

So before you speak along with me, I want to point out one feature of

connected speech in that sentence. Catenation, which is when a

consonant sound at the end of one word joins with a vowel sound at

the beginning of the next.

You saw this in live in an old,

live in an old and shrugged it off, shrugged it off.

Live in an old.

It's almost like old starts with

‘n’. An old, live in an old.

Let's practise again.

Now say it with me out loud.

We live in an old house, so we

just shrugged it off and started eating.

There was another louder thud and

then what sounded like footsteps!

Okay.

The next part.

Just listen.

I am not joking when I tell you the hairs on my arms stood on end.

Even Will looked a bit shaken, which is not like him at all.

He called our dog, Diego, for company and went upstairs to investigate.

Okay.

A few things to point out here

before we try this together.

Firstly, I didn't use a contraction with I am.

I am.

You probably know that we almost

always use contractions rather than full forms when we're

speaking, especially in informal situations.

But here I chose to use the full

form for emphasis.

I also stressed not.

You also heard assimilation with the words on my.

The /n/ in on became /m/ on my. There were also examples of

intrusion in the text.

I am, my arms, to investigate.

Between I am and my arms, I inserted a /j/ sound.

And between to and investigate, to investigate, there was a /w/ sound.

Now let's practise together.

I am not joking when I tell you

the hairs on my arms stood on end.

Even Will looked a bit shaken,

which is not like him at all.

He called our dog, Diego, for

company and went upstairs to investigate. Great.

Okay.

Here's the final part of my story

and your shadowing exercise.

Listen first.

Moments later, Diego came bounding down the stairs with a tennis ball

in his mouth.

What do you know?

A bunch of tennis balls’d fallen off the top of the wardrobe and

rolled down the landing.

And there you have it.

Will and I felt a bit silly, but Diego was really happy.

All right, before you do your final shadowing, there are just

a few things to point out.

One, notice how I said, what do

you know? What do you know?

This is an informal contraction and these are really common in speech.

And the final thing is that I said tennis balls’d fallen.

Tennis balls’d fallen.

Balls’d had a weak form.

Instead of saying balls had, balls’d.

Okay.

Do it with me.

Let's your do final shadowing practice.

Moments later, Diego came bounding down the stairs with a tennis ball

in his mouth.

What do you know?

A bunch of tennis balls’d fallen off the top of the wardrobe and

rolled down the landing.

Okay.

How did you do?

Were you able to speak along with me?

If not, don't worry.

Shadowing is quite an advanced

technique, and it takes time and practice and

a bit of humility to master, but it's a really valuable way to

practise lots of different features of pronunciation and to

try to sound a bit more like a native speaker if that's what

you're looking to achieve.

Let me know if you enjoyed this lesson, and if you'd like to do

some more shadowing lessons, I'd love to make them for you.

Don't forget to download the free PDF.

The link is in the description box,

and you can claim your $10 of LanguaTalk lesson credit

by messaging the support team with

the code SPEAKING10 after your first lesson purchase.

The link for that is also in the description.

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I will see you soon for another lesson.