Look into language learning strategies that use speech shadowing to help you improve your German.
What is the shadowing technique?
Speech shadowing is a fascinating teaching strategy.
The following actions are involved:
- observing a speaker of the language, you’re learning;
- speaking exactly what they said;
- using the same grammar and language;
- replicating the pronunciation and intonation.
As you can see, there isn’t much active labor involved. It’s a passive skill, listening. Your brain has to work hard to process this information when you practice speech shadowing, though. It takes in new vocabulary, sounds, and grammatical rules.
It all boils down to acting quickly and wisely. You can simply take a stroll while listening to an audio recording in the language you wish to learn if you want to make it more active.
Walking in this scenario helps to maintain mental clarity and ensures that you pay great attention to the words you’re hearing.
Do I need to have an advanced level to practice speech shadowing?
You can practice speaking in the shadows at any level. Beginners will benefit greatly from using this tactic. Think about infants and young kids. How do they learn?
When they are young, it is obvious that they cannot understand a word that is being said; however, with time and gradual learning, they end up becoming native speakers who speak fluently. People first experience difficulties when they immigrate to a new country and cannot speak the language.
But eventually, they pick up the language. As a result, you might not understand everything the first time you practice speech shadowing, but your listening abilities will undoubtedly advance after a few months.
How can I practice speech shadowing?
The best way to put the speech shadowing technique into practice is to listen to reliable sources.
If you’re practicing German, you may want to listen to the following sources:
- Podcasts
- Audio courses
- Songs
- TV shows
- Movies
- Documentaries
We heartily endorse this audio course. If you want to start studying German, you should enroll in this course. You’ll rapidly come across many unfamiliar words and phrases and unintentionally pick up the language.
A crucial piece of advice is to listen to the audio often before checking the grammar or the meaning of the words you heard. You are not required to comprehend the entire audio.
That you can understand some of it is fantastic! You will be able to comprehend more with effort, patience, practice, and time.
Does language shadowing work?
Language shadowing is useful. Of course, using this approach alone is insufficient. If learning or developing your German is your goal, you should focus on more than just grammar and vocabulary.
The practice of language shadowing should be included in the curriculum. However, language shadowing is beneficial since it simultaneously improves your speaking and listening skills.
To discriminate between, understand, and imitate the sounds you are actively listening to, your brain exerts a great deal of effort. That your brain can multitask is demonstrated by this. So, well done!
What are the benefits of the speech shadowing technique?
You can develop your listening abilities by speech-shadowing. However obvious it may seem, listening clearly shows that you are improving your listening skills. But to do this, a lot of steps must be taken, such as deepening comprehension, picking up new vocabulary, and using proper syntax.
Speaking skill development is aided by speech shadowing. In order to shadow a speaker, you must first listen. To improve your speaking abilities, you should try to mimic what you hear. We advise reading our post on speaking drills if you wish to improve your speaking.
Speech shadowing aids with pronunciation improvement. When you practice speech shadowing, for instance, you put more emphasis on listening to the language than, say, reading it.
When you listen to a word instead of reading its spelling, you invariably end up enhancing your pronunciation. You can also understand the accent and intonation of the language.
Speech shadowing helps you improve your vocabulary
Take into account that a speech lasts for about 1,300 words in ten minutes. Imagine all you could learn in just ten minutes! What if you routinely conducted speech shadowing to find out what would occur? List the phrases you liked or found most helpful to make it even more powerful.
Speech shadowing helps you become more fluent
You’ll surely increase your fluency because you’re essentially copying a native speaker’s natural rhythm of speech. Learning to mimic a native speaker’s speech will be your first step. Nevertheless, with a little bit of practice, you’ll be able to speak normally in scenarios that arise every day.
Speech shadowing helps you pick up grammar rules
When we hear oral language often, our minds start to process all the syntax and sentence structure. We unintentionally start structuring the phrases similarly as a result.
Imagine that you are a young person studying a foreign language. To form your sentences, you’ll use the sentence structures you’re used to hearing in theirs.
Please be aware that, regardless of who the sentence’s subject is, speech shadowing refers to the act of repeating what you hear. That’s not the same speech that was reportedly given.
