This is one of the most powerful exercises you can do with podcasts, and there is a very good reason that you will find shadowing being referenced by so many polyglots:
- It’s intense
- It improves fluency and pronunciation
- It can be done in a short period of time
- It helps you with pace, word stress, sentence stress and chunking.
Shadowing refers to the technique of speaking just after someone else - like a shadow.
Here’s a video of a famous polyglot explaining it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=130bOvRpt24&t=42s&ab_channel=AlexanderArguelles
Instructions
- Choose a podcast episode (ideally one that provides a transcript). It is good to do this with a slow or medium paced speaker.
- Listen once to the entire episode without shadowing.
- Choose a short section of the episode (1-2 minutes) that you will shadow
- Press play, and speak at the same time (or very shortly after) the speaker
- If you find it difficult, use the transcript to help you.
Tip:
- To record yourself without hearing the original audio, play the audio through headphones and record yourself on a separate device.
Related activities: The DIY Recording Studio