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I’ve been using shadowing for about four months and it really works for me. My accent, listening, speaking abilities improved a lot. I was amazed by that.

Let me give my personal opinion about shadowing. In fact, I've been using this technique for a long time because I speak four foreign languages. But I have to say that I didn't know that somebody else also used this technique as an exercise to improve the pronunciation and the accent. It really works for me because I use it to improve my listening comprehension, and, most of all, to improve the ability of my brain to process simultaneously the informations I listen to. Thanks for the video!

I suggest to use the movie technique. It works better than just pure audio. That way you practice the pronunciation and also you get the context at the same time. Pick a movie that you enjoy. It really works.

This is exactly how I have been learning English, from begginner to upper intermediate. I started with very simpe and slow podcasts from ESLPOD and now I can shadow any speaker I wish.

Christian, you´re an amazing teacher! But with all due respect, let me tell you that shodowing was one of the best things I used to improve my English pronunciation.I want to encourage people to practice this wonderful technique.As I was watching this video, I was shadowing your accent, and since I have practiced doing this for a long time, it was really easy.I asked a native English speaker to tell me if I was getting closer to your accent, and he said that I did a wonderful job.I even recorded my voice doing this, and I think I could not notice the difference between your accent and mine.Remember,Practice makes perfect.If you do it just once, you might get frustrated, but if you keep practicing, you are definitely going to succeed.

Thank you, Christian, I personally enjoy shadowing. I've been doing it even before knowing it was a technique; I started by myself. It was a way to know how a teacher was linking words and pronouncing them, and to know if I could reproduce the same sentences, sometimes, I used to pause and repeat after him but after a while, when I was able to catch most of the sentences I started to do shadowing, like trying to sing a song. I notice that it helped me to move the muscles of my mouth and tongue. If not my accent, at least I think I have improved my pronunciation and intonation. I love English, so everything I do, I do because I enjoy it. I really don't care what the expert or teacher or university research says. BTW I was shadowing YOU in this video (haha), although I couldn't shadow the part of your friend because the audio of the podcast and the voice of your friend where in different time.

I like doing shadowing and I like your videos as well. While you are speaking i am doing shadowing and this is amazing! I think that it is not so important to concentrate on my accent but I noticed that it's getting better after a while, because I started to practise shadowing long time ago intuitively. Now I just compete with myself how much time I can keep shadowing, trying to do this longer every time. And thank you for all your videos - I am your fan))

Conversation is the best way. Many thanks CHRISTIAN. Greetings from Chile 🇨🇱

I strongly disagree with this video. In the end of the day, immitation is how we all learned our native language. I don't see anything wrong with absorbing somebody's accent, if I know that they are good communicators - because that's what I want to be. I would rather copy many different people and have a choice and decide how I want and need to sound to be understood, than stick to my limited and incorrect repertoire. Copying somebody speaking is quite easy - which is what James has actually successfully demonstrated. Yes, you need to be already reasonably fluent, and you have to choose a model who is speaking slowly enough. This technique has some limitations: it's good for learning intonation and ryhtm, but not so good for learning how to pronounce individual sounds and words. The advanced techniques which you demonstrated in this video are for training simultaneous interpreters and have no relevance for anybody else. The fact that they are difficult does not prove your point that shadowing is "not so good for accent and pronunciation".

Thanks for thoughtfully questioning this method and reminding people that it is absolutely okay to sound like yourself! I'm often asked if shadowing is effective, but I've never used it myself so I can't really recommend it. I find that "listen and repeat" methods are only effective with short phrases when you're actually analyzing what's going on (facial expressions, vowel length, stress, tone, and more). But like you said, you have to know what you're listening for, it's a lot of work, and you'll still need some sort of feedback. It is much more important to communicate clearly than to sound just like a native speaker.

Thank you very much master, I really really like watching your clips. I’m a self taught, I learn by many materials through internet spontaneously and since the first time I watched you on KZfaq I had already thought that you are one of the best English teachers I’ve ever seen before. The way you teach is very understandable, helpful, direct, lively, relaxed,... You instruct us very heartedly and I really appropriate your being sincere. Thank you so much!

I think it is as good as any method. It doesn't matter if there isn't any research attesting its effectiveness. It's good work for the brain, and, as long as you are aware of your English level, you will probably learn a lot.

I think that this technique helps to move your mouth and tongue correctly when you're going to speak. it's like a training to your Muscles of the face. But you are right accent is your Thing and "I don't want to Miss a Thing"

I always practice shadowing with you, everyday...Because i can understand you. I think that my results are improving, because at same time that i speaking, i'm listening and thinking about what you are speaking and i understanding it. I don't care about pronunciation (following your recomendation), i think shadowing able me to understand and practice the speaking even i've been alone. In 2 ou 3 months that i've seen your videos, i've improved a lot. Anyway, your video give me a new vision about this technique, and show me how to aplly shadowing with more inteligence and take more results with it

Hello Christian! I'm using the shadowing technique for more than one year. I believe it has helped me a lot, letting me more confident to speak! It helps with my fluency and intonation, making me feel less robotic on speaking. I also added a feedback to this technic, using a dictation software to verify if my pronunciation is being recognized by the computer. But I agree with you. It's not easy and takes a lot of time to adapt. The key is to find audios at a lower speed with transcriptions.

Hi christian, always nice to hear your voice, as a learner who struggling to be better in my english speaking skill , i do whatever it takes including shadowing and after that i will summarize it with my own thought And as for me my self shadowing worked only to gain style of speaking but not for automatic conversation skill. Thank u so much for all of insight u brought to me and iam looking foward for another from you.

I have been listening to your videos for 2 days and I've found that just keep listening to your video for 30 days continuously every people will improve their English. I love your beautiful accent. Keep making beautiful videos.

I shadowed you all the video long! Your voice, timing, intonation, rythm and gestures are excellent for me. Thanks a lot!!

If the shadowing is not efficient for pronunciation, what I have to do to work my pronunciation? Please answer me, and congratulations for your good job Christian!

I use showing and imitation to practice and to spot changes in pronunciations such as contractions, pronunciation of function words, cluster of sounds, etc. I think it would be extremely beneficial for the learner to have someone educated in phonetics not only in English but also in the learner's language. Here a non-native English teacher can help.

I love shadowing because I am going to study to become a community interpreter. It is difficult but eventually you are going to listen and translate at the same time English-Spanish and Spanish-English. Thank you teacher.

For me, I never thought of shadowing as a tool to improve accent, but as a method to test and improve the speed and completeness of listening comprehension, together with improving general speaking speed (to get a sense of the words flowing in the mouth). Because if you can say every word and you're not getting tongue tied or missing words, your understanding ought to be pretty good! It's a good warmup exercise before diving into study and definitely more active than just listening on your morning walk for instance. If you can do it easily, it's a sign you need to step up to a more difficult podcast with new vocabulary and faster speaking speed.

I agree with you 80%. As an English Learner I have engaged in a lot of conversations with other English Learners, and some of them were using the shadowing technique, and it seemed to have worked with them very well. Some of them I couldn't even tell that they weren't native speakers.

If humans were machines, the same kind of technique would work for all. The technique works for everyone is the effort, practice makes perfect.

Perhaps more convenient shadowing is like a sentence by a sentence. You are listening to one sentence, then stopping a record, repeating it out loud. After that we are listening next peace of a record. Your way of shadowing is really difficult. Anyway thanks for that episode.

I totally burst into laugher seeing you guys do the shadowing. Thanks for the funny and interesting demonstration :D

well, when I was in high school, around 20 years ago, I shadowed my history teacher, who was canadian, I think it helped me with pronunication, stressing the words correctly, I think also helped me getting the grammar in more natural way, I don´t think I got her accent, but it helped me to improve.

Thank you for being such an incredible teacher, not only in linguistic terms but also psychological ones. Personally I didn't know the shadowing technique and I feel I'm learning something new every day.

Excellent! I totally agree with everything you said! Christian.

Christian, I've been folowing you since two months ago and I really love your pronuntiation and teaching method. I'm glad that you've becomed on my best english teacher ever Regards from Mexico!

I know a German guy how speaks English very well. One thing he recommended was shadowing or mimicking. It helped him a lot. There are other people who confirm that it helped them also. Of course we don't get feedback, but we have ears and therefore we can compare our recordings to the speaker we chose to imitate. That should work (if our ears work properly and if we pay close attention)- It is probably easier to imitate sentence after sentence (or imitating thought groups)

hi , ı really recommend that you have to hear one sentence 2 or three times by focusing on pronunciation with subtitles and repeat that the fact that what you hear exactly. that really helped me to improve my american english pronunciation. you have to understand where they dont read where they jump what words they miss on purpose. thats the shadowing , and thank you canguro for teaching us that shadow technique is not helpful to us by repeating what we hear simultaneously .by the way ı learned that word from you 'simultaneously'

I just tried shadowing and imitating a week ago, I believe it will help me get better pronunciations and speaking with more conviction. It’s not easy, Imagine for those people who needs translate Simultaneously. I believe they need a lot practice. What I do to be more efficient for me... first, I listen and read to understand everything. Than I listen and record my speaking on my iPhone with headphones, making like a studio. For last I listen my voice recorded and try to find mistakes. In my opinion it’s good to unroll my tongue and learning speaking more clear. I would love to hear if you have better idea to unroll my tongue and learn how to speak with conviction. Thank you for making this video.

Your demonstration was hilarious. No one can shadow a fast speaker at the very first try like a pro. He didn't even try and you interrupted. You just wanted to prove your point. You will never shadow Rhod Gilbert but try a slow clear accent like Christian's. Now I follow Keith speaking, Oli in oxford online, Lucy Bella, Emma in mmm English. It helps a lot to fine-tune your rhythm of speaking English.

I love your english session. glad to meet u again on youtube.

Shadowing helped me. I have been learning English for many years. Finally, I was able to read, listen and understand most speakers very clearly but I was struggling to speak because I couldn't get the rhythm of speaking English. I couldn't speak in a flow. Then I tried shadowing. At first, it was very difficult to catch up with the speaker but gradually I got it. Now I can follow them very smoothly and my speaking fluency is also developed to a higher standard. It helps to train the tongue and all the other facial and vocal muscles greatly. Surely, it's not for beginners. You should select slow speakers at the beginning. You don't need to try any model. Use a range of speakers with a clear accent to your ears. It adds variety and you will not get bored. Then try fast speakers. We don't have to be native speakers but it should be a common International one. Even in England, there are lots of accents very hard to understand for some people. If everyone made their styles the main purpose of using English as a common language to communicate globally will not be achieved.

Hello Teacher! I like your classes so much. I'm a portuguese native speaker. Spanish is my second language. Shadowing helps me a lot in the University. I love so much English language, I'm studying English right now, shadowing helps me a lot. Believe in me.

I practice shadowing technique in order to notice the pronunciation rhythm and intonation. As you said I don't want to miss my accent because I'm proud of speaking Brazilian Portuguese and I love my tongue. I shadowing because it's one way to practice pronunciation available because the most of people including me don't have money enough to hire a teacher or have English native speaker friends. Anyway, study on your on is a huge challenge and speaking skill is the hardest one because you need someone to give you feedback. I like shadowing and it's helped me a lot

I totally agree with you, It is very dificulty even for a native English speaker.

You speak about very useful methods of studying English, and you do in a such understandable and funny way! Thank you from Russia!

I totally disagree with everything said here. I am native Spanish speaker, started learning English when I was 17 and shadowing is one of my favorite techniques because it has helped me a lot to better construct my own sentences , have the correct pronunciation of words, etc. It has helped so much that I use it to improve my other languages , in which i am an intermediate level speaker,, such as German and Russian

Clear and understandable English.. Your are fantastic

Hi Christian, thank you so much for your great question and research. Shadowing and imitating are recommended by many professionals in China.I am Chinese and I studied English as my English major.Unfortunately since there was no native English teacher at our college, shadowing and imitating with radio and audio book was the only and “best” solution. To be frank it indeed help me to have better prononciation.But it did not help too much to improve my speaking fluency, NEITHER listening and reading comprehension. After several years living in France I kind of figure out why it is inefficient. 1⃣️I focus too much on prononciation rather than communication. I ignored the context of the sentences I repeated. Therefore even I looks speaking, the language does not go to my heart. I was like a parrot who speaks artificial language. 2⃣️If I would like to do shadowing or imitating I should pick up the sentences which is exactly the things I would like to say.3⃣️The mental power is limited. I can’t shadowing a sentence and try to figure out the meaning at the same.Shadowing and imitating will come more naturally when I fully understand the meaning and context .

I've been shadowing your videos for so many times,...but obviously I'm going to stop doing it so. Thank you very much for your advice.

u know what cristian i was frustrated about my english then i decided to use imitation technique. And it helped a lot i felt like i was improving my english even though i wasnt improving my accent. So ur right. The imitation technique is not for pronunciation and accent but it is really helpful for those people who wanna improve their speaking skills. BTW thank u for ur videos, I imitate u in your every single video.))

Thanks for the video. I agree that working on our pronunciacion with the shadowing techinique the way it was demonstrated in the video doesn't work as expected, but I've been using imitation for a long time and I believe it's effective. I learned to do it usising a CD player where I can listen to what is being sad with or without headphones, then after I listen to a part of it (it may be one or two phrases) I pause it and repeat it to myself aloud, hearing my voice to compare it with the audio I just listened, if necessary, I listen to it again and repeat it untill it sounds very similar to the audio (in my opinion).

I found that shadowing (I’m shadowing you ☺️) been extremely useful. After only few weeks, I have made some significant improvements, well, and a bit English accent lol

I agree whit you Chistian, Shadowing is so great to improve the English pronunciation!

Simply brilliant! Thank you!

In this case I disagree with the teacher I think shadowing helps you perphaps not in a very high way but it helps but the best way is stop and repeat no repeat while other person speaks.Listen,stop and repeat helps you for me its clear.

Thank you Christian, you are a great teacher❤️ I love how passionate you are on teaching..can’t wait to learn more from you! But I don’t agree with the point you mentioned about the impossibility of losing one’s accent🤔

I am shadowing in your video😂. I think it has been working on me, my accent was really terrible, but I somehow recognize at least it's changing a little bit better for some degree and I believe in it. Plus, when we try to sing a song, isnt it we are imitating how it sounds like, it also follows the codes of how we started learning speaking language as babies. So it works that way ☺️

Thank you for the lesson.

I would say that this kind of technique -or- method is very useful not only for my writing skills, but also for my listening skills. I don´t know why, but I really enjoy doing it. Probably, it´s very difficult for almost everybody, but for me isn´t at all, maybe I get used to practicing it because I listen lots of English Podcast. It helps me to recognize words much better and get used to listening different accents. Of course, I´m not saying that I´m going to sound like a native speaker, what I´m trying to say is that you can understand English speaker pretty-well. If you can practice this technique regularly it´s perfect, but it takes time. My recommendation is that you should do whatever suits you but must have fun and enjoy the learning process. Thank you Christian. I always learn something different from your videos.

You're my native model, Christian!!!! Your pronunces is perfect

Christian your class is the best of the word. Thank you a lot because you help a lot of people with your work.

You are a great teacher and scientist !

I do shadowing and it helps me a lot, but not necessarily to reduce accent, but instead to get the basics of the pronunciation and especially to improve my listening. When I begun I didn't now how good it would to to my listing skills, but my compreention of spoken English can be seen as before and after I shadow. Probably because in order to try to reproduce the sound we end up paying very careful attention to what's being spoken. The pronunciation also improves from zero to something solid, but I have never tried to use it in my current level of English to see if I am able now to step up my pronunciation with this technique. I usually use movies or series, go for bits of 2 or 3 seconds of dialogs, listen a lot of times in loop and at some point I start trying to speak at the same time. It takes a lot of times to be able to complete a sentence, but eventually it happens. When I notice that to my perception me and the actor are are one single voice I go to the next bit and go through this cycle all over again. It takes hours to complete 3 bits, but after this 3 hours my compreention gets noticeably better, even in words that I didn't come across in the shadowing practice. Probably because those phrases contain a lot of the patterns that we will encounter in the language as a whole. Today I do it since the first weeks of learning any new language.

This guy is so funny Christian haha make more videos with him

I like the shadowing technique, although, usually, after few sentences, I'm starting to feel the "pressure" of speaking with the right accent AND follow what the speaker is saying. I really like this "game", but I can do it just for a minute or two because I need to be very concentrate on two different levels: speaking and listening. I think that for someone this technique could be useful. I think that with shadowing I improved my confidence and also my intonation in speaking English.

Shadowing has helped to pay attention to the pronunciation and learn how to pronounce correctly some words (or attempt to haha). Especially because I have to be 100% focused on the audio, I can listen to every word. When I'm only listening to it, I tend to get distracted (I know I have concentration issues lol). On the other hand, I don't think my accent has changed at all since I started using this technique. I won't lie, it is quite difficult! P.S. Bring James back!

imitation helps me a lot with my second language frensh. when I was young, unfottunatly in Morocco we study french as a second language and we use it even in administration and universitie, but we don't practice speaking it ...so the only way that I had when I was in high school and university was to watch franch tv all the time and imitate french people, and when I had a job with a french company all people told me I have a good french accent compared to the others moroccan people, not perfect but better than them and nearly like french people...I didn't know about that is a technich I use it spontaneously or maybe instinctly to learn pronounciation, so I think it could help.

When i watched your vedio, I try my best to shadowing you. It can improve my english.

The shadowing technique works with KZfaq subtitles using the pauses, that way it works, imitating the native's accent (althought the imitation dont be perfect) the other way only hearing without subtitles and pauses that is very difficult even for a native as you well show us. Thanks for your videos Christ.

Shadowing is the best technique ever!

I found very helpful to shadow TED talks. Thanks Christian!

I love it, well done James 🙌

Thank you sir so useful video...I don't try shadowing exercise anymore...

Thanks for this video. Interesting explanations. For me the best way to improve my pronunciation was listening to English songs and singing at the same time😅

It's amazing. Thanks!

I think you don't demonstrate Shadowing correctly. The shadowing used simultaneous translators training is not the same purpose as the foreign language learner. . Using British speaker for Australian English is not the same as using non English speaker for shadowing. You should have find non English speaker. You are keep laughing while James is trying to do the shadowing. You are teacher you should not laugh even if it's funny. Anyway important thing is first you don't need to understand the meaning of the word. Just concentrate imitating the word and the pronunciation. Think about meaning later.

Amazing video Christian!.Thanks a lot for your classes. I have learned a lot with you.🙂

Hey Christian I'd like to say that your lessons is very easy for the English student even the beginners coz your method is understood .. Keep going thx.

Very good job......I loved this class about shadowing.....

Very useful. I am a second year graduate student in Taiwan. My interest is also in Pronunciation.

Amazing always

shadowing is definitely something I don't want to do, listen and read, then practice it out loud with the transcripts if something more the kind of me, that suits me better.

Christian, you´re an amazing teacher! But with all due respect, let me tell you that for me shadowing was the best way to learn English especially it was perfect for my speaking, with this technique step by step I started communication with other people. I think that this technique helps to move your mouth and tongue correctly when you're going to speak. thanks

i didn't use this technique before cause at the first time i used to it . i'm felt like it so hard for me that's so quickly to imitation and these things really instantly pop up on screen by subtitle that make me stuck and sense boring so that's why i'm stoped using it. for me the best tool is listening youtuber like you are my teacher and go outdoor where foreigners are tourist out there then approach them to make conversation. it's my opinion as well !

hi Christian, excellent video, I guess this technique is very useful to people who don't have any other to practice with, also I was shadowing when you were speaking...It's very good to try and develop the speed to move your tongue and try it again, understanding very fast, very good technique, I don't focus on the perfect accent, I'm spanish native language, so it's great to practice a lot...kisses, I'm another of your fans club LOL

I shadowed you and it was nice.

I think you have an interesting point of view on this topic, however I (as many other people that left their comments below) used this technique without knowing that it is a technique that has its name 😃 I assume that you didn't see how helpful it is just because you are a native speaker =) As for me and my polyglot friends it is a wonderful technique that I use with all the languages I learn 🌿 Thank you for creating an opportunity to share our experience by making this video! ♥️

Great work. Well researched. Christian. Yeah shadowing is difficult

You have the best accent I ever heard...And I'd like to know how Is your effort to speak so slowly and clearly because I don't think you do this always ,everyday. Greetings from Italy. Ciao

Let me disagree with your comments. I studied French at an institute. We worked on the communicative method, and we also had to practice the shadowing method with contextualized conversations as part of our learning process. It helped me a lot!!

Very useful video but l missed your enthusiastic gesture with a big smile on your face in the beginning and in the ending.😃😃😃

Hi Christian I´m studying for to be a teacher of English, once I had to prepare a shadowing for a phonetics class and it didin´t helped me with my proninciation in stead I learned a lot of vocabulary. I remember that I was very nervous and I didn´t obtained a very good mark. It was very frustrating.

Yes sir, it is extremely interesting, especially since he is a native of English, and it is still easier for him than for a B2 level of proficiency in the English language, isn't it? You do know, of course, that's is something important to consider. Try the experience with one of your students and it will be much worse, and should I say, impossible. It makes me want to try to imitate you to learn to laugh at myself. I have learnt the UK English on my own device on a nice website. at the expatriates club I am used to speaking to American members. The club heads are Australians. We often listen to you. Wow! Which accent will I end up having? Regards to all of you.

I think I will start shadowing you. I hope this technique will help . I will keep you undated on my results after trying this

Ahahahaha... OMG!!!! I really enjoyed it. The guy is so funny and you are best teacher ever...

Nice video. Keep it up Sir.

Shadowing technic is popular in Japan , I think. But it is so difficult to do. And I didn't know there isn't many paper about shadowing.

thank you!

Christian, I really hope like student, that this enhace your sensitive, and the others teachers too. I mean, if it's was difficult for him (a native english speaker). Hey! Do not get me wrong, Please! I think, trying to learn a new language is like a disease. You need to apply different method and technique, and sometimes, do it at the same time... if I were a teacher, I took all my techniques (including shadowing) and put it "in a lógica order" and teach! Based on student's evidence, I would add or remove some techniques; because the student's performance talk by itself. For me Is like a Chess match; you play with all your pieces, and the moment, or strategies, show you, which one you must move. I haven't seen all yours videos BUT, based on the content, for me, this's one of the best. From Dominican Republic. Greetings!

This video demonstrates how not to introduce a new practice technique to a student. There was no modelling of the technique and no scaffolding to help the learner figure out what he was supposed to do. For research on the benefits of shadowing, I suggest looking into the work of Shuhei Kadota and Yo Hamada.

Thanks my dear friend Christian

I think that shadowing its a great tecnifico experience, sometimes you cannot be based in what scientific papers say. could be effective or could not. some people can reach an excelent AM-UK accent practising shadowing or imitating natives. In my view, it works but all persons would enjoy this. its like songs everybody can sing well'¿. it is worthy for gaining fluency skills and mastering in speaking is also provably a way to learn among a hundreds possibilities.

As everyone comments here, i also belive the technique 'shadowing' is extremly beneficial to those learning new language. It's because the continous practice on shadowing has made my mouth gotten accustomed to moving and easier to speak English usuing a collocation learned throughout the shadowing! Although the effort of imitating isn't proved, I belive in my methods haha;)

I do believe that Shadowing helps as it provides exposure to the language, the repetition needed to master vocabulary as well as great listening practice. However, students really need to get familiar with the script before attempting it. Otherwise it can be quite frustrating.