Shadowing Technique: Practice speaking English effectively without having to go to the center

About the author : The article is translated from sharing by author Ivan Ottinger - who speak English fluently by applying Shadowing technique.

Before I start talking about pronunciation and speaking English, I have a question for you: How do you see English when you first hear someone speaking in this language? Does it sound like alien sounds? Personally, I feel it is meaningless. Like a child, what everyone said, it was very strange to him and could not be understood. However, the more you live in that environment, the more familiar you are with the tone, the sound, the words, then remember, imitate and start babbling "dad", "mother" . Learn English As a child and Shadowing is the technique that will help you do that.

Shadowing is a technique not many people know but very effective if you want to practice the intonation, rhythm and pronunciation of indigenous people. Shadowing differs from listening and repetition techniques, meaning that you won't wait to hear the whole sentence and then repeat what Speaker said. Instead, you and the speaker will almost say at the same time, specifically, you mimic their intonation, their way of punctuation, their attachment .

Video tutorial on how to practice speaking English with Shadowing technique

How to practice English Speaking using Shadowing techniques

Step 1: Select an English audio / video you like. Note that selecting videos with subtitles or audio with transcript.

Ideally, watching movies with subtitles, word-of-interest music videos, accompanied audio eBooks, talk shows, sitcoms or cartoons. If you are just starting out, you should select the audio files that have read speeds that match your current level.

Some useful websites:

1. http://www.ted.com/
2. https://librivox.org/
3. http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/listen-and-watch
4. http://www.bedtimestoriescollection.com/
5. http://learningenglish.voanews.com/

Step 2: Listen to audio / video at least once to capture basic intonation and understand context. According to AJHoge , you should listen 5 to 7 times before starting the Shadowing technique.

Step 3: Shadowing

Reopen the audio and video files and try to imitate the intonation, how to break the words, phrases, sentences . of the speaker:

1. While listening and looking at the subtitles / transcript and reading.Practice until it feels good.
2. Turn off the audio or turn the video volume to 0, then read the subtitle / transcript and record your voice again.
3. Listen to the audio file again and compare it with the voice of the speaker.If not satisfied, practice until you feel the best.

As soon as you practice, you will feel impatient, depressed and difficult to follow. Don't rush to give up, try to maintain your practice routine every day. For inspiration, you should choose comedy videos or movies you love.

Good luck.