SPEECH SHADOWING TECHNIQUE

Have you ever heard of the Speech Shadowing technique? 

It involves repeating a piece of English audio word-for-word as you listen.You may also shadow when you sing along to your favorite English songs. 
Have a look at this webpage to learn how to apply this technique to help you practise the pronunciation of individual words and phrases. Shadowing gets your mouth muscles moving as you train on language that you know is correct.
The pronunciation practice aspect includes connected speech. That’s how – in the flow of real speech – individual words are compressed or merge into words that come before or after.
Besides, Shadowing is said to help with the melody of phrases. If you shadow well, you’re not only pronouncing the words correctly. You’re also using native intonation.This is important because intonation patterns differ between languages. It’s not just what you say, but the music with which you say that makes for (mis)communication in your target language.
Shadowing could also help you reinforce vocabulary, collocations and structures that you already know, when used as part of a wider study routine.
In conclusion, it'll help you to improve your pronunciation, boosting your confidence when speaking English. 

Have a look at this webpage to learn how to use the technique.
And you can practise this technique with some videos in this webpage. 

Here you have an example

You can also use https://www.naturalreaders.com/online/ which converts any written text into spoken words, so it’s useful for you to practise not only pronunciation, but also  grammar and vocabulary.
You have to open the document containing a text, or type one and then you can listen to it and read along to train your connected speech.

STUDENT'S BOOK UNIT 7A

Here you are what you have to work on for next Thursday's virtual lesson.

UNIT 7A: 

4.-Reading and Listening. Click here to get the audio.

5.- Vocabulary: Describing life in cities.

6.- Listening. Click here for the audio.

STUDENT'S BOOK: UNIT 6B ANSWERS.

UNIT 6B:

1. READING AND LISTENING:

b. 1. "Small languages", such as tribal languages in North Australia.

    2. An area where there are many languages, but they're spoken by very few people.
 
            Answers to the test: 1.b, 2.c, 3.c,  4.b,  5.b

2. VOCABULARY: Describing change.

 a. 1. preserve   2. be lost, die out, disappear
      3. increase   4.decrease, decline 
      5. revive   6. deteriorate

b. 1. increasing   2. decreasing/ declining
   3. being lost / dying out/ disappearing
   4. revive

c. The verbs have the stress on the second syllable; the nouns have the stress on the first syllable.

e.  1. disappearance   2. deterioration
     3. revival   4. preservation

3. READING:

a. The languages are similar in that they are very old and are/were spoken by a very small group of people. They are different in that one language has died out, one is likely to die out soon, but the other is being spoken by an increasing number of people.

b. Suggested answers: 
     
 NUMBER OF SPEAKERS     INCREASING/DECREASING     OTHER IMPORTANT FACTORS

BO             0              lost                      65,000-year link to one of the  world's oldest   cultures; been spoken since pre-neolithic times.                                                                                 
NJU          8                              decreasing            During aparthheid, peope were discouraged from speaking Nju

WAMPANOAG  about 50          increasing             Jessie Little Doe and her husband are raising their three-year-old daughter in the language;
they organise a "language camp" every summer

4. GRAMMAR: The Passive.
a. 1. c  2. g   3. f   4. h   5. a   6. e   7. b   8. d

b. a

c. One which is being brought back ( present continous passive)
   Nju is now only spoken( present simple passive)
   were discouraged ( past simple passive)
   which is attended ( present simple passive)
   is spoken ( present simple passive)
   has been revived (present perfect passive)

e. The Nju language is in serious danger because it is only spoken in a few small villages. In the past, it was spoken in a large region of South africa and Namibia. It has now been recorded and written down and it is being taught to children in schools by teachers who have learnt the language themselves.

GRAMMAR FOCUS 6B:

a. 2. was sent   3. is used   4. will be informed   5. hasn't been caught   6. had already been taken/ were already taken

b. 2. were told about this restaurant by my sister 
    3. can only be dreamt of
    4. had already been built 1,000 years ago
    5. can't always be depended of
   6. will be looked after well

c. 2. from   3. by   4. with   5.of     6.from    7. by

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH.

DESIGNED BY ELENA GARCÍA MORENO.

HOMEWORK

For those of you who couldn’t attend today’s lesson, here you are the homework for next Tuesday.

- Prepare a there-minute oral presentation about BOOKS AND FILMS following the instructions on FROM BOOK TO FILM worksheet. Write an outline and record yourself to rehearse your presentation.

- Do GRAMMAR BANK 7B in your Student’s Book.

- Do exercises 2 and 3 in MUSIC worksheet, which you can download here.

Have a nice weekend and  immerse yourself in a good read!!!

WRITTEN INTRALINGUISTIC MEDIATION.

CONTEXTUALISATION: You're really conscious of environmental problems and want to learn about the so called Sustainable Development Goals. As you are a student, you're especially interested in SDG number 5, which is about Quality Education. You find a video on the Internet about that goal.


TASK: Watch the video below, taking notes of the main points, to write a summary of about 125 words to send to your friend Jim, who is a teacher and who is also conscious of enviromentally related issues.


You should hand in  the summary by January, 16th.

HOMEWORK

For those of you who couldn't attend today's lesson: we had a look at Unit 5A and we worked on the questionnaire on page 56 and the Vocabulary Focus on page 158.

 For homework you have to read the text on pages 56-57 and do exercises d and e.

HOMEWORK

 As I told you in class, I'd like you to work on an oral presentation about a person you admire. I recommend that you talk about somebody you know very well, since you have to give details about him or her.

 You can use the worksheet A PERSON I ADMIRE to plan and organise what you're going to tell your partner next Tuesday.

It shouldn't be longer than 3 minutes, and please, don't write a composition, just take notes to help you remember all the points you want to mention.
Rehearse your presentation and record yourself, so you can check you sound fine;)

WHAT ARE YOU LIKE?

 CHARACTER AND PERSONALITY WORKSHEET.
 PERSONALITY ADJECTIVES WITH SOUND.
 PRONUNCIATION OF PERSONALITY ADJECTIVES.