The shadowing technique is a great way to help you speak English more fluently
and improve your pronunciation intonation and English rhythm so watch
this video to find out how you can do it and let's go
I'm Deirdre Nicholas from palm tree teaching TV teacher speaker and your
personal English language coach the shadowing technique that I'm going to
teach you step by step today will improve your pronunciation reduce your
accent and help you sound more English improve your word stress intonation and
rhythm and train your ear into English sounds so as we say here what's not to
love so what is the shadowing technique and how can you use it
shadowing is when you listen to English and then repeat it exactly as you heard
it so first you listen to a native speaker speaking English and then you
repeat exactly what they say and how they say it after them now in this video
I'm also going to take you to the next more advanced stage where you repeat
what the speaker says at the same time as the speaker now that is brilliant for
getting native speaker pace and all the pauses that make you sound like an
English speaker shadowing is great for all levels of English learners and for
teachers to use in the classroom as well it's really good for beginners too
because it gets them into the habit of speaking English out loud and getting
their pronunciation right right at the beginning of their learning process and
best of all you don't need anyone to practice with you can do all this at
home now there are four steps so let's get started with step one and remember
doing this will really improve your pronunciation intonation and overall
English speaking skills now step 1 find native speaker audio material with a
transcript now the kind of listening material that you choose is very
important it should be spoken by a native speaking English person and as a
level that you can understand fully now it can be a little bit above your
level but shadowing is not about improving your comprehension it's about
making your sounds that the words that you say sound right and sound English so
you don't want to be worrying about what it all means now another important thing
about choosing your audio is you must have a written transcript because you're
going to need to read this and find something that you like it's very
important that you're going to enjoy what you listening to now you can find
some great materials online you can find podcasts BBC English online radio
programs and also my own videos will really help you to come out with a
really good British English accent so I've chosen an audio from the British
Council learn English website that you can access anywhere online now I've put
the link to this below this video for you so you can use that now I've chosen
the second conversation between Ravi and tests just a short part this whole
conversation is a bit longer and it's just a little part of the conversation
about that great British thing cueing so step to listen and follow the transcript
so when you've found your material find a quiet place where you won't be
disturbed and where no one will hear you now first listen to the audio and follow
the transcript so just listen at this stage and read the transcript while the
person is talking following every word as they're saying it they can repeat
this to as many times as you like of course to get more familiar with the
text and listen out for the pace and the rise and fall in the intonation as
they're speaking so I'm going to listen and follow the script as the speaker is
saying it as you will do when you do it for yourself
people say British keys are more polite than in some places like we almost enjoy
queuing my grandma does she joins a key whenever she sees one even if she
doesn't know what it's for I bet she never jumps the key though to
see you don't know my grandma so now you've listened to the audio and
you've read the script so step three you do the shadowing so listen to the audio
again but this time every ten seconds or so stop the audio pause it and repeat
exactly what the speaker has said but how do you know how close to sounding
like a native speaker you actually are record the whole process on your mobile
phone from the sound of the audio and you speaking as well so that you can
compare the two afterwards that way you will learn where you need to improve
where you're good and what you need to work on and don't worry about making
mistakes because it's important that you do make mistakes because that way you
can improve so keep repeating this exercise until you get the sounds right
you need to have the same intonation as the original speaker the same pauses the
same pace the same rise and fall in your voice
and guess what you will instantly sound like a native speaker so let me show you
how to do this okay let's go people say British keys are more polite than in
some places people say that British cues are more polite than in some places so
then just play it back and you can hear the recording of the original audio and
you so note how I was trying to sound exactly like the speaker with the same
intonation and the same pausing so easier but remember I told you they were
force didn't I so we're going to get a bit
more advanced but before I go on to step four don't forget to hit the subscribe
button and click on the bell so you don't miss any of my videos and lessons
and of course if you'd like to have me help you as your personal language coach
just email me on the email below me on this video
deirdre at palm tree teaching comm that will really really improve your
pronunciation and your English language so here's step 4
speaking at the same time as the audio okay now this is the best part watch how
it's done okay let's go ready
people say British cues are more polite than in some places like we almost enjoy
cueing my grandma does she'll cause a cue whenever she sees one even if she
doesn't know what it's for
so now you can listen to your recording and listen to it in the comfort of your
own place now you see how I was copying exactly how those people were talking
the same stands with the same pausing and the same chunking of the sentences
now you need to do the same it's as easy as that to improve your English speaking
skills now I've got lots of other videos that I've created on this channel which
you can use to practice shadowing and watch so I put some of the links below
to help and make sure you watch those after this
video so that you can improve your English fast and build your English
fluency in a fun way so I really hope you've enjoyed watching this video don't
forget to like share and subscribe to this amazing channel and enjoy your
English and I'll see you really soon bye
you