In this fluent speaking practice, you can shadow a short conversation about holiday plans.

Text:

Hi, how're you?

I'm fine, thanks, how're YOU doing?

Doing well. How were your holidays? Did you go anywhere?

They were great, thanks. We stayed in town. We had some family visiting for a few days.

That's always nice.

Yes, we hadn't seen my sister for a few months, and she has a new baby. Her older kids were really excited to see their cousins!

Sounds like a lot of fun.

What about you, did you go visit your parents again this year?

We actually went to Europe! Our oldest is studying in France, so we visited her and spent a week traveling.

Wow, that's so great! I didn't realize she was studying abroad. Good for her.

Yes, it was just for a semester. She really enjoyed it, and we were happy to have the opportunity to travel with her.

Yes, very cool. What are your plans for New Year's Eve?

We're staying in. I'm still a bit jet-lagged since we just got back yesterday.

Oh, I bet. Well, nice seeing you!

You too! Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

In the fluent speaking shadowing practice, we work on naturally linking and reducing phrases with "and" and "or."

In this shadowing practice, we work on fluent speaking for phrases with was and wasn't, as well as reduced her your their my and our.

In this listen and repeat shadowing practice, we use common phrases with should have (should've), would have (would've) and could have (could've), as well as the negatives shouldn't have (shouldn't've), couldn't have (couldn't've) and wouldn't have (wouldn't've). Practice integrating these contractions into fluent speech in short phrases.

In fluent speech, we can sometimes reduce "his" to "iz." In this listen and repeat shadowing practice, we use common phrases to practice reduced "his" to increase your fluency and speak English like a native speaker.

In fluent speech, we can sometimes reduce "her" to "er." In this listen and repeat practice, we use common phrases to practice reduced "her" to increase your fluency and speak English like a native speaker.

You Tube Video: https://youtu.be/yIhgpWA8yok

One of the error patterns which is common for non-native speakers of English is to say an extra syllable in certain words. This usually occurs because the spelled word looks like it should have additional sounds/syllables, or the root word has a different syllable pattern.

Here are some words to work on, written so you can see the syllables:

Different DIF rint

Difference DIF rinss

General GEN rul

Groceries GROS(H) reez

Vegetables VEG tuh blz

Several SEV rul

Interest IN trist

Interested IN tris tid

Interesting IN tris ting

Preferable PREF ruh bl

Specifically spuh SIF ick lee

Basically BAY sick lee

Actually ACK shuh lee

Practice these repeated phrases:

I need a different ____.
How may different ___-s do we have?
It makes a difference to ___.
It doesn't make any difference for the ___.
A general ___.
In general, they ___.
A vegetable ___.
We have vegetables ____.
We need several ___-s.
There are several different ___-s.
I have an interest in ____.
We're interested in ___.
It's an interesting ___.
___ would be preferable to ____.
She specifically said ___.
I think it's basically about ___.
We actually want ___.

In this lesson, we learn how to use Backwards Chaining to practice intonation. Listen and shadow to get natural sounding rhythm in fluent speech.