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Today I'm going to show you how you can practice speaking English by yourself, at home using
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only materials that you definitely have access to
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Now I bet you've heard this advice a lot.
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In order to become a good English speaker and to speak in conversation you have to speak
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English a lot.
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Preferably with native speakers.
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And yes, this is true.
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To become a good English speaker, the best and easiest way is to speak English in conversation
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a lot.
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I've given the same advice on my YouTube channel
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However unless you live in an English speaking country, or use English every day at work,
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I bet you thought to yourself
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"But I don't have any chances to speak English.
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I don't have anybody to speak English with!"
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And yes, this is a problem for a lot of people.
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others, on the other hand, have many chances to speak English.
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However they lack the confidence to make use of these chances.
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Perhaps they are shy.
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Or perhaps they learned English only from textbooks with their eyes and they feel their
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pronunciation is not good enough.
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And they don't know how to say the things that they want to say.
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Today I'm going to teach you a technique that both of these kinds of people can use to improve
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their English speaking skills and pronunciation.
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This technique is of course, shadowing.
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The idea behind shadowing is simple.
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You listen to some English, and you repeat it at the same time.
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It could be a conversation or it could be a monologue.
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It doesn't matter.
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But you're listening and you're repeating at the same time.
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Now, this does several things for you.
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The first thing that it does for you is it trains your ear to listen very very carefully
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to the way that things are said.
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To the tone and the rhythm in which phrases are said.
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And the length and the number of pauses that are used in speech.
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Because if you can't hear these things you can't copy them so in order to copy them you
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have to become very good at hearing them.
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So very quickly your ear will become very accustomed to the rhythm and the tone and
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way that people speak.
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The second thing that it will do is it will really improve your pronunciation and your
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accent.
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This is because you will get so good at listening to the way that things are said, to the pronunciation,
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that you will be able to copy it.
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It will also get your mouth muscles moving in the correct way and it will train you to
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move your mouth properly when you are speaking.
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This will help you speak more smoothly.
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Again, with improved pronunciation.
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In another video I will show you a slightly more advanced way to do shadowing which will help
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you remember massive quantities of phrases and vocabulary.
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But today I'm going to demonstrate the basic version of shadowing.
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So as I said, first you need to find some audio to use for shadowing.
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It could be a TV show or it could be a radio programme it could be a podcast or it could
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be an audiobook it could be anything like that.
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It should be to your level so if you are a beginner don't try to use something very advanced.
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Try to use something at your level.
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Maybe just a tiny bit more difficult is OK.
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But it should be fairly easy for you because the exercise is not to improve your comprehension
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the exercise is for you to improve your pronunciation and your speaking and really train your mouth
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to move as it should.
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OK, so I'm going to demonstrate today using some materials that I designed especially
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for shadowing.
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Let's go!
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So I'm going to be demonstrating shadowing today using some special materials that I
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designed just for shadowing.
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They're a kind of short story.
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and I've printed out a text here and I have an MP3 which I've recorded which is on my
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computer just behind this camera.
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I have read the text several times and I've looked up any new words in the dictionary.
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I understand it perfectly.
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I've also listened to the MP3 several times so it's kind of easy for me now.
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I understand it really well.
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So now I just want to be able to say this really easily.
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I'm going to demonstrate with this.
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I should point out that because I made these materials I'm going to be shadowing my own
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voice, which is a little bit strange to be honest.
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You should be shadowing a native speaker.
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The goal is to copy that speaker so closely that you become that speaker.
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Every single little pause and the kind of rhythm and everything you should be trying to copy those
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as closely as you can.
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So, again I've read through this and I've listened to the MP3.
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What I'm going to do now, is I'm going to shadow just one time was reading the text. Which
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is quite easy to do.
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Focus here, and I'm going to hit play.
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My son and I nearly came to blows over the Olympics.
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He came down to stay whilst they were on, and was not impressed with my old 20-inch
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television.
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"You're not really going to watch the Olympics on that old thing, are you?" he said to me.
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"TVs like that went out with the ark. Get yourselves something more modern!"
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"There's nothing wrong with this television," I replied, sniffily.
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"I don't live in a throw-away culture like some people."
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And then I realised it was a good excuse to upgrade, and quietly went out to buy a new,
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40-inch flat screen TV.
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Ok, so that was reading the text and that was quite easy because I can already see what's
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coming next.
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What I'm going to do now, which is a little more difficult is I'm going to get rid of
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the text and now I'm going to shadow without the text.
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here we go.
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My son and I nearly came to blows over the Olympics.
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He came down to stay whilst they were on, and was not impressed with my old 20-inch
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television.
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"You're not really going to watch the Olympics on that old thing, are you?" he said to me.
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"TVs like that went out with the ark. Get yourselves something more modern!"
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"There's nothing wrong with this television," I replied, sniffily.
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"I don't live in a throw-away culture like some people."
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And then I realised it was a good excuse to upgrade, and quietly went out to buy a new,
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40-inch flat screen TV.
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Ok so that was much more difficult, not using the text.
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I think I did most of that OK, but towards the end I didn't do so great, so I'm just
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going to do that one more time.
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Here we go.
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My son and I nearly came to blows over the Olympics.
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He came down to stay whilst they were on, and was not impressed with my old 20-inch
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television.
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"You're not really going to watch the Olympics on that old thing, are you?" he said to me.
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"TVs like that went out with the ark. Get yourselves something more modern!"
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"There's nothing wrong with this television," I replied, sniffily.
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"I don't live in a throw-away culture like some people."
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And then I realised it was a good excuse to upgrade, and quietly went out to buy a new,
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40-inch flat screen TV.
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And there we go.
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Shadowing.
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And that is basically it.
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it's that simple.
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At first you will find this quite hard.
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And it is quite hard.
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It takes time, but repetition is the key.
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I recommend that you pick some audio that you like and is good for your level and that
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you repeat the same thing again and again and again and again over the course of a whole
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week, because as I said repetition really is the key.
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You will find over the course of the week that it will become much much easier, and
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the idea is to basically keep practising until you feel like you are becoming the person.
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You can copy them so closely that it feels like you are that speaker when you're speaking.
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For more advanced learners I recommend using a TV programme or a film.
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Try finding a scene where there are two people talking and just shadow one of those two people.
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again, try to become that speaker.
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Copy them so closely that it feels like you are that speaker having that conversation,
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and keep repeating until it becomes easy.
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OK, that is it for today's lesson.
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In a future video I'm going to show you how you can make shadowing much more efficient
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using some computer software that you can download for free.
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in the meantime, try the shadowing technique and see how well it works for you.
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See how much it can improve your pronunciation and help you to speak English more smoothly
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and more naturally.
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after you've tried it, leave a comment under this video and let me know what you think
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of the shadowing technique.
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If you haven't already please also go under this video and find the subscribe button and
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subscribe to this channel.
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And you can also find a link in the description to the Doing English Facebook fan page, so
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whilst you're at it why not like that page, and keep up to date with everything that's
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going on with Doing English.
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See you in the next lesson!