What is the Shadowing Technique and Is It Any Good?

We all want to be able to communicate confidently in English. However, out of the 4 main English skills (you know; listening, reading, writing, and speaking) the one that most people struggle to improve is speaking.

How Can I Improve My English Speaking Skills?

Speaking English is difficult for a whole bunch of reasons, but one of the main problems is being able to practice. The other skills are much easier to practice, even if you are on your own.

If you want to practice reading, you can find plenty of articles and books online to use. If you want to practice writing, all you need to do is grab a pen and paper and get to it.

Listening is also pretty easy because there are so many podcasts out there. However, speaking is a bit more tricky to practice.

So that leads to the question… “how can I practice my English speaking skills?” 

Well today, I want to show you a really useful technique.

Watch the video:

What is the shadowing technique?

Shadowing is a pretty easy technique that lots of English language learners use to improve things like intonation, pronunciation, and word stress. It will also help you recognise correct sentence structure and grammar usage.

The other main reason that it is popular is because it is very easy to do, it’s basically free, and you can do it from anywhere.

There are 2 main ways that the shadowing technique works.

Method 1: Sentence by Sentence

This is the most detailed approach where you will practice one sentence at a time. You just need to follow these simple steps:

• Find a video or some audio of a native speaker talking (Ideally with a script you can read)
• Listen to a sentence and then pause the video.
• Repeat what they said – try to copy the intonation, pronunciation and word stress as much as you can.
• Do this until you get to the end of the video.

This technique is really simple, but very powerful. The only real problem comes in trying to find great materials to use for shadowing practice. I would always advise to practice using content made by native speakers, especially those with the accent you are trying to learn.

Method 2: Echo the whole thing

This is a bit harder to do but takes up less time. The idea is basically the same as before, but instead of stopping at the end of each line, you are going to repeat what the speaker is saying just after they have said it, creating an echo. 

This is much harder and will take a while to get used to. One thing you can do to build up to this is to listen the the whole text a few times first before you try to echo what the speaker is saying.

I would also recommend choosing audio that is between 30 seconds and 2 minutes so you don't get overwhelmed. If you are finding it too fast, you can slow the audio down to 0.75 and it might be a bit more manageable for you.

Will The Shadowing Technique Really Improve My Speaking Skills?

Yes. But only if you use it in the right way. Just repeating what someone says and how they say it will just turn you into a parrot rather than a confident speaker of English. You need to be intentional with your reason for practicing.

Think about what you are trying to achieve. Are you trying to practice a certain pronunciation technique? Are you trying to learn a specific accent? Do you want to improve your intonation? These are important questions to ask yourself.

Rather than just trying to copy someone perfectly, focus on one specific thing that you want to improve and work on that. Don't worry about all the other things that are going on. For example, if you want to improve your intonation, just follow the rise and fall of the speaker, rather than how they pronounce the vowel sounds.

Where can I find Shadowing practice material?

The internet is full of material you can use for shadowing. YouTube is a great place to start - try searching for people with the accent you want to learn and use videos or audio of them speaking. Ideally you will find content that includes a script or subtitles so you can read along.

I would also recommend things like podcasts and TED talks as they are widely available for free and will make great practice materials for you. I also have some more tips in my free speaking practice planner!