Lesson Summary
Practice speaking English #withme !!! AMAZING opportunity to improve your pronunciation and natural speaking skills 🏅🏆💫⚡️PLUS… mmmEnglish Lockdown Speaking Challenge! Details below ⬇️
Your chance to win personalised feedback from Emma!!! Practice with the whole mmmEnglish community this week, improve your English pronunciation and expression, then upload your video to be featured on this channel!!
#mmmEnglishChallenge
Step 1: Practice with this lesson 😲
Step 2: Record Yourself on Video! 🎥😲
Step 3: Upload the video by Sunday 19th April. ⬆️ Make sure you use #mmmEnglishChallenge in the title of your video
Subscribe to mmmEnglish here 👉 http://bit.ly/Subscribe2mmmEnglish
Note: By using the hashtag you are giving mmmEnglish permission to publish your recording on the mmmEnglish YouTube Channel.
Competition Winners!
We will announce the winners in the mmmEnglish YouTube Community Tab, on the mmmEnglish Facebook page and we will tag winners in the comments below THEIR videos.
CLICK HERE to read the full lesson transcript.
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Video Transcript
Section 1
Hey there I'm Emma from mmmEnglish. Even though we're apart, there are people watching and learning English with us right now all around the world which is very cool to think about. So I wanted to do something special to bring us all together and I'm really excited to share this idea with you. I hope you're up for the challenge!
Quite a few years ago, I ran a competition with my mmmEnglish students to practise with my imitation lessons and improve pronunciation and their English expression. In fact, let me know if you joined that challenge way back then. Let me know in the comments below.
Now there were quite a few imitation lessons on my channel so I picked one and I asked my students to practise with it, to practise several times and then record themselves performing it and then they sent it to me.
And I was blown away because they had been practising so much that it literally sounded like me, like I was listening to myself. They used the same intonation, the same tone their pronunciation was much clearer because they've been practising and imitating me as I spoke. Some people even sent me videos where they copied my facial expression and the gestures that I was using. It was like looking in a mirror.
So I want to do it all again and I have this idea to share your amazing work with the whole mmmEnglish community right here on YouTube. Think of it as a bit of a project for all of us to work on over the next couple of weeks. Are you up for it?
Four things that you need to know about this challenge are it involves practising with this lesson and then recording yourself on video and uploading it to your YouTube channel. So I'll be watching your videos and selecting some to feature on the mmmEnglish channel.
Plus I'm gonna choose five to give personalised pronunciation feedback on. I'll give all the specific details about at the end of this video, alright? So excited about this!
If you're a regular mmmEnglish student, well you probably already know how my imitation lessons work. So feel free to skip ahead to step number one, it starts right there (04:29).
Now if you're new to the imitation technique, you might be wondering what is it? And how does it work? So it's a technique that is super effective when it comes to improving your spoken English. It teaches you to listen to the patterns and the rhythm of English and trains you to produce the English sounds that you need really naturally just through repetition and practice.
Now if you haven't done a lesson like this before, don't worry. There are just three steps that you need to follow.
The first step is you just need to listen to what I say and read the words on the screen as I say them so you're just getting familiar with the story.
In the next step, you're gonna be listening to what I say but then there's gonna be a pause afterwards so that you can repeat exactly what I said exactly as you hear me. And this is a step that you can repeat over and over again until you think that you're starting to sound very similar to me, the way that I'm pronouncing and expressing myself.
You can even slow down the speed of the video if you want to practise more slowly and then return it to a regular pace when you're ready and you'll need to practise a few times because step number three is a bit of a challenge even for a native speaker because you're going to be listening to me and saying what I'm saying at the same time so you'll have me in your headphones or your ear pods and you'll be speaking as you hear me speak.
It's gonna be tricky and you're probably gonna make lots of mistakes until you get it right but it's gonna be a lot of fun too.
So you're ready to practise now. I'm gonna be talking about current affairs. My take on what's going on around us at the moment so this is what we're going to use to practise with. so this is what we're going to use to practise with. Let's get started.
Step one's easy. You're just listening and reading.
Let’s take a quick break from the fear and chaos around us at the moment, and talk about how awesome humans are. We just can’t help but be around each other! Even in lockdown, we are finding ways to be social! Communities are dancing and singing on their balconies and collectively applauding all of the health workers for everything that they are doing and sacrificing for us.
Countries are offering to take sick people from their neighbours, to care for them. People are donating not just money, but time and energy as well! Buying groceries for others, making face masks, running free online meditation classes. Some local restaurants are offering free meals to medical staff. It is incredible to see how we can all come together!
And at the same time, the entire world is taking a huge collective breath and slowing down. But to be honest… That part was forced on us! But, perhaps it is something we needed. Not forever, just as a way to reset, you know? To prioritise what is really important.
I mean, without thousands of planes flying and millions of cars on the road, the air is getting cleaner. We’re not rushing from place to place like we used to. We are finding beauty in the littlest things – the things that we never noticed before. And no rush-hour commute means more time spent with kids, or taking care of ourselves. A little extra sleep; a little more exercise; a good book; wholesome, home-cooked meals; and great conversation. I’m really grateful for the chance to live a little less hectically for a while. We’ll get through this together. We will come out the other side. And as SOON as lockdown is over, I’m going to…
Step two is listen and repeat. It's as simple as it sounds but make sure you slow it down if you need to.
[REPEATED SCRIPT]
So you want to try and shadow me now? It is definitely gonna take a few goes of this to start feeling like you've actually got it right? But imagine that you're learning to sing a song, you've got to learn the words but you've also got to learn the rhythm right and the expression?
So the imitation technique is very much like learning to sing your favourite song, right? You've just got to practise a few times before you can really get your voice behind it.
[REPEATED SCRIPT]
And that's it! So the idea here is to practise this again and again. So the idea here is to practise this again and again. but believe that you will get better as you practise and you become more familiar with the meaning and the tone.
This is an awesome opportunity to work on your pronunciation with me and to get into the habit of natural rhythm and gestures as well. natural rhythm and gestures as well.
But let's talk about how the mmmEnglish community video will work because this is a chance for you to be featured on the mmmEnglish Channel along with a whole bunch of other mmmEnglish students from around the world.
So it's going to be a mash-up of all of us together which is super cool. Plus, I'll be choosing five videos to give pronunciation feedback for so for those students, I'll make a personalised video for you to help you with your pronunciation and to help you improve it further.
Once you've practised this lesson, the imitation technique, as many times as you want to then you'll need to record yourself. So you can do it on a phone or on your computer but just make sure that you're filming in landscape not portrait mode.
If you mess up or you get tongue-tied, don't worry just start the recording again. That's the beauty of a recording, right? You can redo it until you're satisfied.
Once you're happy with it, upload the video to your YouTube account. It can't be private, otherwise, I can't see it so make sure it's public or unlisted.
Upload the video by Sunday the 19th of April and make sure you use our hashtag in the title of the video, alright? That's going to help me to find it.
If you upload the video and use the hashtag #mmmEnglishChallenge, then I'll assume that you're okay with me sharing it on the YouTube channel. If you're not comfortable with me sharing your video then don't do it, don't do the challenge.
The last step is just to make sure you're a subscriber of mmmEnglish.
So I'm really, really excited about this, it's never been done before on my channel. I'm really looking forward to seeing your recordings and also to making this community mashup video and getting everyone together.
Make sure you like this video, you subscribe if you haven't already. Take good care of yourselves and I will see you very soon.
mmmEnglish Video Lessons are a series of video lessons created to build confidence in English learners and focus on English in daily life. Download them and watch them anywhere! Subscribe to my YouTube Channel to be the first to get my new videos, and come and say hi on my Facebook page!!
Dear Emma, on February 16th, 2017 you have sent me your feedback on my pronunciation of the then imitation lesson. I’m 77 years old now and I’m very pleased about getting a new one. I still ever watch your videos every week and I hope I have made some improvement since then. I’m trying to upload my video on the you-tube channel. I hope it works. Many thanks and lots of love, Toni Arnold
Hello Emma, I have been learning yr online courses such as 10 grammar mistakes and storytelling that is like challenge lesson right now. I accepted yr challenge to upload youtube channel as you did. I am hoping for your feedback, Emma.
Fabulous! Can't wait to watch your video Rachel 🙂
vishalpbh8485@gmail.com
Thank you Emma. You are really the best and your YouTube channel is a real treasure house for English learners.
Thank you for your kind words, Anu!
Recently, I have got your channel and then subscripted. I am actually proud the way you teach English. I am ready to challenge 10 English mistakes and I am now begin to improve these areas.
I am among those who did mistake for the above 10
Thank you for ur fascinating lesson
Many, many thanks for this lesson. I've repeated it twice, and now my mouth hurts. But nothing wrong happens for (according to your previous lessons) the muscles of your face must get used to the strange and difficult position needed while speaking English. Musculus must be trained, that's it. I've recorded this video in great hope to find time to come back to it in the near future. All in all, love your lessons and look forward to more of that kind. Still deeply in love with you (not a joke, a real truth!). Keep yourself healthy. By!
Your video is really helpful .
But I want to ask you that whenever I am trying to speak at that point of time ,I speak minimum 2,and maximum 4 line not more then that because I don't have words to speak further as well..
Am very week student please help me am live in Bangalore
Hello best Teacher mmm English yes am fine good online curses bay you I am have need to learing English bay you but me Grammar no sow good but is okay
am love to online buy you?
am form afcria but now i lives and EU can you have free time send to me in E-mail Addresse courses just in weeken I am have free time on sounday i happy to you so mucnh and see you soon and happy birthday
Ahmed