Hey
this is Emma from mmm English! I’m super excited that you’re here and that
you’re spending some time with me today to improve your English. In this lesson
we’re going to be doing some more speaking skills practice and in particular,
we’re going to be practising with the mmm English Imitation Technique which is
one of the most effective ways to reduce your accent and to fix your
pronunciation problems so that you speak more clearly and confidently in
English. And it’s effective because it teaches you to listen to the sounds and
the patterns of English and trains you to produce those same sounds yourself
through repetition and controlled practise. You’re training your mouth with
your ears by listening to the sounds and imitating them rather than training your
mouth with your eyes by reading and guessing the pronunciation and the rhythm
of words on a page. Now if you haven’t done a lesson like this before, don’t
worry, it’s really simple and I’m going to explain each step for you so that
you know exactly what you need to do.
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You just need to get ready to speak out loud with me. If you’re new to I’ve got some courses available via the mmm English website to help you practise To practise with the Imitation Technique, there’s just three simple steps that you need to follow. The first one is, well you just need to listen to what I say and read the words on the screen as I say them. Next, you’ll be listening to what I say but then there’ll be a pause so that you can repeat what I said. You need to copy me exactly as you hear me. This step, you can do again and again and again until you sound or you think you sound exactly as I do.
. And it’s okay to practise many times before you move on to the third step. You can even slow down the speed so that you can practise a little more slowly before stepping up to regular pace because step three is a challenge, even for a native English speaker. You’re going to be listening to me and saying what I’m saying at the same time and that’s pretty much like practising along to your favourite song, right? You can’t really do it straightaway but with a little bit of practice it gets easier and you’ll start having fun. Now although this step is also the trickiest one, it’s the best way to fine-tune your natural speaking skills. You’ll get to hear what I’m saying and what you’re saying at the same time so that you can adjust the sounds and the rhythms so that you can match me. You are going to make a lot of mistakes but who cares? We’re going to have fun! Today we’re going to practise talking about a past trip. Now I’m going to be sharing a story with you about my recent trip to Portugal.
Talking about travel is a really great way to start a conversation because there is lots of opportunity to ask questions and to share your own travel experiences with someone. Keep in mind that you can easily exchange my story with your own story about traveling as well especially once you’ve been practising with me for a little while. All right? Let’s get started. Step one: listen and read. I’ve just come back from a trip to Portugal! Lisbon, actually. Was a bit of a last-minute decision. My friend was attending a conference there and she convinced me to tag along! I don’t usually make spontaneous decisions like that but it all just happened at the right time. I actually didn’t know that much about Lisbon before I went. Have you been? I had no idea what an incredible city it is.
And oh my god, the food! I ate so many pastéis de nata, I thought I was going to burst! The city is full of beautiful cobblestone streets. I spent so much time just wandering around in the sunshine, you know? Winding my way through historic neighbourhoods. Actually one of the coolest things we did was jump in a tuk-tuk with a guide. We went up this steep hill and had an amazing view over the city. You know what a tuk-tuk is, right? It’s like a little motorbike with a cabin on the back where you can sit. It was a really fun way to get around. And easier than walking because oh my god, it was so hot! And our guide, her name was Paula, she grew up in Lisbon and she was just a wealth of knowledge. She was full of stories about her childhood and about the history of the city.
She took us to cool little back streets and, you know, we explored some amazing street art. There’s just no way that we would have found all of those hidden gems ourselves. I really wish we could have stayed longer! I definitely want to go back there one day! What about you, have you got any travel plans coming up? Now you need to imitate exactly what I say and that means you’re trying to copy my pronunciation and my word stress and even the pause in my sentence. You could even try and copy my facial expressions to practise communicating with more than just words. There’s going to be a pause after each sentence so that you can practise out loud with me okay?
So just relax and go with the flow. It’s just you and me here right now, okay? So let’s just have some fun. Step two: listen and imitate. I’ve just come back from a trip to Portugal! Lisbon, actually! Was a bit of a last-minute decision. My friend was attending a conference there and she convinced me to tag along! I don’t usually make spontaneous decisions like that but it all just happened at the right time. I actually didn’t know that much about Libson before I went. Have you been? I had no idea what an incredible city it is! And oh my god, the food! I ate so many pastéis de nata, I thought I was going to burst! The city is full of beautiful cobblestone streets, I spent so much time just wandering around in the sunshine, you know? Winding my way through historic neighbourhoods. Actually, one of the coolest things we did was jump in a tuk-tuk with a guide. We went up this steep hill and had an amazing view over the city
You
know what a tuk-tuk is, right? It’s like a little motorbike with a cabin on the
back where you can sit. It was a really fun way to get around, and easier than
walking because oh my god, it was so hot! And our guide, her name was Paula,
she grew up in Lisbon, and she was just a wealth of knowledge. She was full of
stories about her childhood and about the history of the city. She took us to
cool little back streets and, you know, we explored some amazing street art.
There’s just no way that we would have found all of those hidden gems
ourselves. I really wish we could have stayed longer! Definitely want to go
back there one day. What about you, have you got any travel plans coming up?
Now we’re moving on to step three which is a little more challenging.
Don’t
forget that you can pause here right now, go back and practise section two as
many times as you need to before we keep going. This is going to take a little
bit of practice but right now you need to shadow me and that means listening
and speaking at the same time. Try to copy the rhythm and the tone that I use
even if it means you get a little tongue-tied at first. It doesn’t matter. Step
three: shadow. I’ve just come back from a trip to Portugal! Lisbon, actually!
Was a bit of a last-minute decision. My friend was attending a conference there
and she convinced me to tag along. I don’t usually make spontaneous decisions
like that but it all just happened at the right time. I actually didn’t know
that much about Lisbon before I went. Have you been? I had no idea what an
incredible city it is! And oh my god, the food! I ate so many pastéis de nata,
I thought I was gonna burst! The city is full of beautiful cobblestone streets.