WHAT IS SHADOWING? The shadowing technique is very simple. In fact, it is almost too simple. Shadowing means to copy something. In English this means to listen to someone speaking and then try to copy the sounds they made. Some people will call it the listen and repeat method, but it is basically the same thing. You listen to the audio, then you repeat what you heard. This has a lot of benefits that we will talk about a little later. WHY IS SHADOWING GOOD? People often think that such a basic technique can’t really help them. Those people are wrong. There are a lot of benefits with the shadowing technique. MUSCLE MEMORY: In English, there are probably some sounds that don’t exist in your native language. That means you need to move your face, lips and tongue in different ways to make this new sounds. The best way to do this is to practice moving the muscles in the correct way. The more you do it, the easier it gets. This is exactly the same for when you want to make new sounds when speaking. If you want to make the sounds correctly, you need to practice moving your face, lips and tongue in the correct way. This will take time, but shadowing is perfect for practicing these skills!