The BEST Technique to Improve Your Spoken English
No one likes listening to boring or awkward speech, right? Speaking with proper rhythm is VITAL to good communication. Remember the movie scene from Zootopia of the sloth at the bank? I’m sure you don’t want your English to sound like that. It’s probably not that bad, but you still want to be clearer. What is the best technique to improve your spoken English and sound more natural? SHADOWING. Do you know what that means or how to do it? Let’s jump in…
Shadowing
In simple English, the word ‘shadow’ means the exact reflection of something. Imagine standing near a big tree on a sunny day. When you look at the ground you’ll most likely see a black silhouette of yourself and the tree.
For accent training, shadowing basically means finding an audio of a native speaker, using a transcript or subtitles, and trying to match their speed and rhythm.
Shadowing is different from repeating after native speakers.
Repetition is an excellent tool to learn pronunciation, while shadowing is the best tool to focus on intonation, stress, and rhythm.
Don’t try to focus on pronunciation and rhythm at the SAME time at first. Just choose one skill so you can nail it.
Watch how it’s done:
How to do shadow to improve your English pronunciation and American accent:
Choose an audio that you like.
. Choose a 30-second increment that you like
Put the transcript of the audio in a document
Practice reading the words to make sure you can pronounce them correctly
Then go back to the video and listen to the first 10 seconds
Play it again at .5 speed and speak along with the speaker, matching their rhythm and intonation
Play it again at .75 speed and shadow.
Play it again at normal speed and shadow. You might feel out of breath or awkward. That’s normal. Don’t expect it to be perfect the first time.
Follow those simple steps for each 10-second interval of the clip.
Once you feel comfortable with each small interval, then try to shadow the entire 30 seconds.
Repeat this process for other sources; dialogues, movie clips, podcasts, etc.
Trying to do all of the steps in one session may feel overwhelming, so I suggest doing a little each day and gradually building up to the full shadow. This is important when you are first becoming familiar with this technique.
Warning: it’s important to learn pronunciation FIRST before attempting to learn rhythm. This is because if you shadow without knowing the correct pronunciation of important sounds, you could train your brain to speak incorrectly. That’s why in Yax Accent’s courses we focus on learning sounds first then gradually move to natural speech and rhythm.
Have you tried shadowing before? Let us know in the comments. Get started by practicing with this post.