G'day mate, how're things going? Going great so far? Today, I'm going to be discussing why I think you should stop shadowing if you want to improve your listening skills. Without further ado, let's dive into it.

First and foremost, "Shadowing" is for those wishing to be a consecutive, whisper or simultaneous interpreter. To become one of these professions, you've got to practise shadowing. But, otherwise, shadowing has an adverse effect on English learners. Shadowing is intended for English learners at least proficient but ideally superior in advanced English skills including nearly impeccable pronunciation, grammar, a wide range of vocabulary, etc. If you lack one of these skills, then you'd better stop doing shadowing as your daily practice. Then, what should we practise instead?

In the first place, the most fundamental element that has to be mastered is pronunciation, followed by grammar and vocabulary. There's a plethora of learning materials available out there, I mean, you just google it, and then download some of your preferable free materials. It's been extremely handy for those learning English even if you're not living outside Japan. You can technically learn English wherever, right? So, no excuse lad! Of course, if you find it so difficult to fix your pronunciation, then you can come to me like joining my ZOOM Group Lesson, which will have been running til the end of Jan 2022. At the moment, I'm teaching English Grammar. If you're keen to be able to master English grammar or review it thoroughly, then please join us.

Next up, grammar. Grammar is not that hard, nor will it be a long journey for most of the normal learners being equipped with the basic grammar knowledge already. Unless vocabulary, grammar consists of such a limited boundary. So, please don't spend too much time on it. But nonetheless, please make sure you fully understand most of the essential grammar rules. The key thing is to make sure you can use them for talking to yourself, which is the most important aspect upon which I have to put an emphasis.

Finally, vocabulary. You will never end this, simply because there are astronomical number of vocabularies out there. So, don't worry about it too much. Once you've completed the first two elements (Pronunciation and Grammar), there'll be tonnes of vocabularies that you are interested in, and you gradually pick them up and will be capable of using them in four skills - Speaking, Writing, Reading and Listening. The extent of how easily you can get used to new words hinges heavily or entirely upon how accurate your pronunciation and grammar are. In other words, if you are good at both, then you can easily memorise new words and will be able to utilise them in a more practical sense.

In a nutshell, sorry to digress a bit from what I was mentioning right from the very beginning, but shadowing is the enemy of beginner to intermediate English learners. Please stop doing it, and do review all the key basic elements to see whether you need to improve and master one of these, instead. You will see a completely and amazingly different world once you've cracked/nailed/smashed/achieved the mastery of pronunciation and grammar. And, it is highly anticipated that you will recognise the relative unimportance of "shadowing" as a means of improving listening everlastingly.

Thanks for reading my blog. See you soon.