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 practice 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 ca

n 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 learned if you'd like to download that just click on the link in the description box you enter your name and your email address the PDF will arrive directly in your inbox after that you will automatically receive my free weekly lesson PDFs plus all of my news course updates and offers it's a free server service you can unsubscribe at any time also yo

u'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 one-on-one tutor you can find your perfect one-on-one English tutor take a free trial with them and get ten dollars in lesson credit for free language talk is a company that I think is so awesome I decided to become a part of it so technically I'm sponsoring myself here it's an online tutor platform with incredibly high quality teachers they only accept around 10

of applicants across the board much less than that for English I'm using it to learn Italian my husband is using it to learn Spanish we're taking two lessons a week at the moment it's amazing I'll give you ten dollars 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 ten dollars towards lessons by messaging their support team with the code speaking at 10 and this this is valid for anyone signing up from today on

wards 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 to 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 fe

els a bit weird at first but once you understand and know the technique you can use literally any audio you want to practice 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 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 pronuncia

tion of the speaker first just listen to me then we'll talk about the pronunciation then you can practice 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 alighted or dropped the D sound in and will an eye not will and I will a

nd I I also used a weak form of were what and the article 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 practice 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 concatenation 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 living an old it's almost like old starts with N an old liv

e in an old let's practice 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 did

n'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 there are also examples of intrusion in the text I am my yams to investigate between I am and my arms I inserted a yeah sound and between two and investigate to investigate there was a sound now let's practice toget

her 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 had 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 had fallen tennis balls had fallen bullzid had a weak form instead of saying balls had balls it okay do it with me let's do your final shadowing practice moments later Diego came bounding d

own the stairs with a tennis ball in his mouth what do you know a bunch of tennis balls had 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 practice lots of different features of pronunciation and to try to sound a bit more like a native speaker if that's what you're loo

king 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 ten dollars of language talk 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 don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media I've got my Facebook and my Insta

gram and we have finally released our B1 B2 and C1 beautiful British English programs they are 12 week three month programs and they are getting the most amazing results from our students just visit English with lucy.com if you want to learn more and enroll in one of my English courses with me I will see you soon for another lesson [Music] foreign [Music]