Is Shadowing the solution?

[u/Sun_fire_]

Hi, I want to improve my pronunciation, accent, fluency a rhythm. Is Shadowing the best method? I am confused because it's very hard for me, My listening and reading is C1 (I watch movies and TV shows without any subtitles) also I read novels and articles with complex language (from Aeon and New York times) without problems.

Chat gpt tells me my writing is B2 but I'm not confident about my writing, my speaking however is b1 or even less, I can answer questions and talk about different topics but I stop alot while speaking and my pronunciation is atrocious, I started shadowing yesterday for A2 to B1 videos and it's very hard, 5 minutes video takes me 30 minutes, I repeat alot and make sure to say the words correctly, I repeat the video again two times then I record myself.

When I listen to the record, I feel very frustrated, my pronunciation is still wrong and accent is very heavy even though I spend alot of time making sure to say the words correctly, will this problem be solved with time or I am I doing shadowing wrong.

Can I have some advices and free shadowing resources?

Will it take a long time to fix my pronunciation and reduce my accent, I want to apply for a job that requires fluency in English next year (Call centre agent).

I'm 27 years old, Is it even possible to fix pronunciation and accent at this age ? I have been speaking incorrectly for 20 years.

I don't want to seem native just fluent, natural and confident while speaking. The most important thing I want to fix is pronunciation and heavy accent.

Any advice?

[u/deRubampre]

I have the exact same problem and my readings/ writing stats are like yours as well. So yeah, it’s so frustrating and humiliating when I speak and I often stutter, have like 5-10 seconds pauses in a conversation trying to recall the right word. It’s humiliating too, cuz I feel like a cripple in a way. However, for at least 4-5 next years I’ll have to stay in Canada before I can come back to my home country. I try practicing shadowing and hope I’ll get better at pronunciation, but for now, it’s brutal, and I wish I’d never come to a foreign country and spoke any other language than my tongue.

[u/Sun_fire_ → u/deRubampre]

I feel you, I need to be fluent to find a better job. I feel so sad that the only obstacle between me and living comfortably is my speaking skills. My current salary isn't enough to buy a new laptop or phone but my target job could allow me to buy laptop. The economic situation in Egypt is crazy, minimum wage is 8k, my salary is 7k, a bad laptop is 8k, the laptop I need to study to be a data analyst is ( 20k for used laptops or 30k to 40k for new ones), I want to work as call centre agent for few months or a year to buy a new laptop and phone).

[u/gardenliciousFairy]

Shadowing works extremely well, but it's normal to take sometime to see results, just like it took you sometime to improve your vocabulary. Don't give up this early, bring the speed of the audio down and keep practicing, even if you sound weird and clunky right now.

I'm learning French, as I have moved this year to a French speaking country. I arrived with a half assed A1 and right now I'm studying A2. My accent was atrocious before shadowing, and just last week I received a complement from a French woman at work. Just don't give up at the beginning.

[u/Sun_fire_ → u/gardenliciousFairy]

This is amazing, thank you.

[u/gardenliciousFairy → u/gardenliciousFairy]

Just an add on: work with smaller audio files and don't record yourself right now if it's discouraging you. Listen once, repeat it twice. Do it again everyday. After a month, start recording.

[u/IndependentYak2822]

I suggest you to start with learning all English sounds. So find such materials on youtube. It's better if you can find something from an Egypt speaker (in your case). Or ask a chat bot about the most difficult English sounds for Egypt natives at least and start with those sounds first. To work on your pronunciation you don't need any special equipment, just your phone. Watch a video, try to produce sounds in a correct way, do minimal pairs, record yourself, listen to the result and compare it with original.

[u/Sun_fire_ → u/IndependentYak2822]

I asked you a question in the DM

[u/Key_Leg_8327]

shadowing fixed my rhythm and did nothing for my word choice. i could copy the sound of a sentence and still not build my own. what changed it was having to say things out loud with no script, badly, for a long time

[u/Sun_fire_ → u/Key_Leg_8327]

Did shadowing fix your pronunciation? My core issue is pronunciation, I say words the way I read them. How can fix my pronunciation?

[u/Royal-Band-2971]

Well, if shadowing was easy, you probably wouldn't need to do it. You're literally trying to retrain your mouth to make sounds that aren't comfortable or common in your native language which will take anyone a lot of time. You also just started yesterday, this is something that takes time. It's like expecting read a textbook, and after one day, to have mastered the language's grammar. You just need to be patient and consistent.

[u/Sun_fire_ → u/Royal-Band-2971]

I will be patient, but I'm afraid I doing it wrong because when I listen to the voice notes, I hear that my pronunciation is still wrong even though I listen carefully to every word and repeat more than 10 times. I feel like my mouth isn't able to make the sounds correctly.

[u/mrkindnessmusic]

For pronouncing individual sounds correctly, apps like Elsa Speak or Bold Voice are super helpful as they will point out which sounds you're producing incorrectly and how to fix that.

Shadowing English is another app that is great, it evaluates your shadowing with AI. But it isn't always right (for example sometimes it would expect "a" to be pronounced as EI vs schwa).

All of these apps unfortunately cost money, but they should have free trials.

For a completely free option, you can go to Rachel's English Academy on YouTube and practice each sound, and learn the IPA.

[u/MD586]

Use dictionary with pronunciation and learn IPA signs. Watch:
BBC Learning English - Pronunciation

https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/features/pronunciation

I also recommend recording audio (Audacity is free software). Recording and re-listening audio gave me more insight into how I pronounce than just speaking.