Free Sample – Shadowing with Shayna

Hello and welcome to Shadowing with Shayna! I’m so glad you’re here.

In this introduction video, I’m going to explain how the course works, and give you some tips for how to get the most out of each lesson.

HOW SHADOWING CAN HELP

First, let me remind you what shadowing is and how it helps you improve your English. Shadowing is simply listening to short phrases and repeating them immediately after the speaker, trying to imitate the pronunciation, stress and rhythm as closely as possible.

This will help you learn to “copy” a native English speaker’s pronunciation. Sometimes when you’re studying English by yourself and you’re not surrounded by native speakers… or when you’re studying mainly by reading English lessons instead of listening and speaking and getting feedback… you might get into the habit of pronouncing words differently than a native speaker would.

These differences are what give you an accent and make it obvious that you’re not a native English speaker. Now this is normal and it’s part of the learning process – so it’s nothing to be ashamed of. And actually you can be fluent in English with an accent – as long as your pronunciation is clear.

But if you want to reduce your accent and talk more like a native English speaker, shadowing will help you get closer to that goal. When you shadow, you’re practicing every part of pronunciation – the individual sounds, how those sounds connect together, and the natural stress and intonation of the phrase. This is how native-speaking children learn, right? By hearing their parents talk and trying to imitate them.

So let’s talk about the lessons in this course. They are simply articles on a variety of topics, which I read out loud with a pause after each phrase so that you can repeat it. These lessons require your active participation, you need to speak out loud, you need to repeat after me – that’s where all the training and improvement will happen!

TIP #1 – REPEAT IMMEDIATELY (DON’T WAIT)

I have two tips that you can follow to get the biggest benefits from this course. The first one is really important – it’s to start repeating as soon as I finish the phrase. Don’t wait! Immediately after I finish talking, you need to start talking.

There are two reasons for this – one is because the pause between the phrases isn’t very long, so it only allows you time to repeat immediately.

And the other reason is even more important – I want you to repeat immediately because I don’t want you to think about the phrase too much or overanalyze the words. Try to repeat what you’ve heard without thinking or worrying or trying to read everything on the slide. Just do your best! Remember, it’s OK to make mistakes.

TIP #2 – DO EACH LESSON IN THREE STEPS

The second tip, if you do it, will help you improve twice as much. I suggest doing each lesson in three steps:

1) Watch the video and practice repeating each phrase with the words on the screen

2) Read the text in the PDF. You can look up any words you don’t know. I’ve included definitions for a few words and expressions in the text to help you.

3) Now that you’re more familiar with the article, try doing the shadowing again using ONLY THE AUDIO (without looking at the text). This will really help you listen and repeat using only your ears and your voice, without getting confused or delayed by the written words. This is more challenging, but it’s a REALLY good way to practice, so I highly recommend it as the 3rd step.

Finally, I’d like to say one more time that it’s OK to make mistakes. Most students will have a bit of difficulty speaking fast and getting all the words right.

One thing you can do, if it’s really hard, is practice using the same lesson two or three days in a row before continuing to the next lesson. Try to see it like a game with the goal of improving and making fewer mistakes each time you go through the lesson.

As you finish each lesson, make sure to click the “Mark Complete” button to check it off:

The last thing I want to tell you is congratulations for focusing on your pronunciation. A lot of English students don’t take the time to work on pronunciation specifically, but if you do, it can really make your English sound more fluent. So remember that you’re doing a very smart thing by practicing shadowing. Now you can go ahead and start Lesson 1!