How to prepare for IELTS Speaking: can shadowing help?

What the Speaking test is

According to IELTS, the test is a recorded interview with an examiner, 11 to 14 minutes long:

• Part 1, introduction and interview (4 to 5 minutes). General questions on familiar topics: home, family, work, studies, interests.
• Part 2, long turn (3 to 4 minutes). A task card, one minute to prepare, then about two minutes of talking.
• Part 3, discussion (4 to 5 minutes). More abstract questions linked to the Part 2 topic: explaining, comparing, speculating.

The four criteria are Fluency and coherence, Lexical resource, Grammatical range and accuracy, and Pronunciation.

What the descriptors actually reward

The public band descriptors are worth reading line by line, because several of them describe exactly what shadowing trains.

• Fluency. Band 7 says the speaker is "able to keep going and readily produce long turns without noticeable effort". Band 5 describes hesitations "often associated with mid-sentence searches for fairly basic lexis and grammar".
• Pronunciation. Band 6 notes that "rhythm may be affected by a lack of stress-timing and/or a rapid speech rate". Band 8 asks for "appropriate rhythm" and "flexible use of stress and intonation across long utterances".
• Accent. At band 9, "accent has no effect on intelligibility". You do not need to sound like any particular country. You need to be easy to understand.

Where shadowing fits, and where it does not

Shadowing is copying. It is good for the things you can copy: stress-timed rhythm, sentence stress, intonation, linking, and a stock of natural phrases for opening, holding and closing a turn (that's a tricky one, it depends on, on the other hand). It does not produce your ideas, organise a Part 2 talk or fix grammar you have not learned. Do not memorise whole answers either: Part 1 questions vary, and a recited answer sounds recited.

A week of IELTS speaking practice

1. Days 1 to 3: shadow a clip. Two to three minutes of someone speaking on a Part 3 sort of topic: work, cities, technology. Ten minutes a day, phrase by phrase, then along with the speaker.
2. Day 2 onward: collect turn phrases. Ten phrases for starting, linking and finishing an answer. Drill them until they come out without thinking.
3. Day 4: Part 2 under time. One cue card, one minute of notes, two minutes on the record button. Do it three times on the same card, faster each time: the 4/3/2 idea from Nation (1989), shortened.
4. Day 5: compare. Play your best take next to a native speaker on a similar topic. Note one rhythm problem and one phrase you lacked.
5. Days 6 and 7: fix those two things, then a full mock with a partner or teacher.

What the research says

A systematic review of 44 studies (Whitworth and Rose, 2025) found shadowing can improve comprehensibility, intelligibility and accentedness, along with fluency and prosody, while the evidence on individual sounds was inconclusive. In Foote and McDonough (2017), learners who shadowed short dialogues on a phone for eight weeks were rated more comprehensible and more fluent in free speech; their accentedness did not change significantly. Wood (2006) found that ready-made word combinations helped learners speak in longer runs with fewer pauses. None of these studies measured IELTS bands, so take them as evidence for the skills, not for a score.

How to do it in Shadow

1. Generate exam-style material. Give a topic like "working from home" and Shadow writes a natural monologue or a two-person discussion and voices it in a British or American accent.
2. Paste your own answers. Write a Part 2 answer, put it under "Your text", and hear it read naturally, with the stress in the right places.
3. Drill phrase by phrase. Repeats, pauses, and speed from 0.2x to 2x. Hands-free, so it runs on the commute.
4. Practice mode. Record each phrase after the original and hear the two back to back. The pitch lines show where your intonation stays flat while the speaker's rises and falls.
5. Record with camera. Film a full two-minute answer with the teleprompter, then watch it as an examiner would.
6. Quiz and Learned. Say your turn phrases with the hardest words hidden. They reach Learned after practice on three different days.

Working with a teacher or IELTS coach

Shadow does not replace a teacher. It gives your teacher better material. Record yourself in Practice mode, or film a full run with Record with camera, and play it next to the original. Note the gaps you can hear yourself: the phrase you rush, the word that comes out flat, the sentence where your voice drops too early. Then send the take to your teacher, so they correct the exact sound or stress instead of guessing what you do between lessons. For IELTS, a coach who knows the descriptors can also tell you which criterion is holding your score back. Shadow cannot do that, and does not score you.

One concrete case. Photograph is stressed on the first syllable, PHOtograph. Photography moves the stress to the second, phoTOgraphy, and the first vowel shrinks. British and American dictionaries agree on both (photograph, photography in the Cambridge Dictionary). Plenty of learners carry the first pattern into the second word and never notice. A teacher hears it in two seconds, tells you which syllable to move, and you drill that one phrase until it comes out right.

Frequently asked

Can shadowing raise my IELTS Speaking band?

It can improve the skills that two of the criteria describe, fluency and pronunciation, but no method guarantees a band. Your score depends on all four criteria on the day.

Do I need a British accent for IELTS?

No. The band 9 pronunciation descriptor says accent has no effect on intelligibility. Shadow whichever accent you like, British or American, and aim to be easy to understand.

Should I memorise answers for IELTS Speaking?

Memorise phrases, not answers. Phrases for opening, linking and finishing a turn help everywhere; a whole memorised answer breaks the moment the question is worded differently.

How long should I practise each day?

Ten to fifteen minutes of shadowing a day, plus a few timed answers a week, is a realistic routine alongside the rest of your preparation.

Does Shadow give an IELTS score?

No. Shadow plays your take next to the original and shows both pitch lines; it does not grade you. For band estimates, work with a teacher who knows the descriptors.

Sources

• Whitworth, B. & Rose, H. (2025). A Systematic Review of Research on the use of Shadowing for Second Language Pronunciation Teaching. Research Synthesis in Applied Linguistics, 1(2), 239-269. DOI
• Foote, J. A. & McDonough, K. (2017). Using shadowing with mobile technology to improve L2 pronunciation. Journal of Second Language Pronunciation, 3(1), 34-56. DOI
• Wood, D. (2006). Uses and functions of formulaic sequences in second language speech: An exploration of the foundations of fluency. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 63(1), 13-33. DOI
• Nation, P. (1989). Improving speaking fluency. System, 17(3), 377-384. DOI
• IELTS. Academic test format: Speaking. ielts.org
• IELTS. Speaking Band Descriptors (public version). ielts.org