Shadowing practice: 15 Phrasal verbs to impress your IELTS examiner

This clip is an IELTS speaking lesson filmed as a straight to camera talk. Keith, from the Keith Speaking Academy, explains what phrasal verbs are, why examiners react well to them, and works through a sponsor mention before he gets to his list of fifteen. That shape matters for practice: you get a real British speaker walking through an idea in full sentences rather than a scripted exchange, so the rhythm is close to how a tutor actually talks during ielts speaking practice.

The pace sits at 127 words per minute, slower than most of the recordings in this catalogue, which makes the clip a reasonable place to start english speaking practice if fast native speech usually loses you. The level is B1, so the vocabulary stays within reach, and the topic itself, scoring higher on IELTS speaking, is exactly what a learner preparing for the test wants to hear explained aloud.

Keith's opening lines carry the whole pitch of the video, and they are worth slowing down for before you copy his list of verbs.

• "Today I've got 15 phrasal verbs that will impress your IELTS examiner and if you're thinking, whoa great Keith, what are phrasal verbs then you really need to watch this." One long sentence with no full stop in the middle, useful for practising how a fluent speaker keeps stress moving across clauses instead of resetting at every comma.
• "Hello again this is Keith from the Keith Speaking Academy here to help you speak better English, give better answers and get a higher score on IELTS speaking." Three parallel goals stacked in a row, each carrying its own stress, a good pattern to copy when you need to list reasons in a speaking answer.
• "As with most things in English like idioms, phrasal verbs, you need to study them, you need to repeat them but you also need to practice using them in conversations," The repeated "you need to" is the kind of natural repetition a native speaker leans on for emphasis rather than variety, worth matching word for word when you shadow this line.

Work the opening minute of the video in this order before you move further into the list of verbs.

• Start with line 1, the pitch sentence. Read it once at your own pace, then play it back and repeat it at Keith's speed, since it sets the stress pattern for the rest of the video.
• Move to line 2, Keith's greeting and channel introduction, and repeat the three parallel goals, speak better English, give better answers, get a higher score, as one breath group, the way he says them.
• Take line 9, the sentence about studying, repeating and practising phrasal verbs, and shadow it twice: once for the words, once for how he pronounces each verb without dropping the ending.
• Once lines 1, 2 and 9 feel steady, keep going through the rest of the video at the same pace, 127 words per minute, before you try to speak faster than the clip does.