Shadowing practice: Monsters, Inc. — That Thing Is a Killing Machine!

This eight line clip from Monsters, Inc. is rated A2, so it sits near the start of what most learners can take on with confidence. Two characters trade quick, panicked lines about being caught out in the open, and the comedy comes from how fast the fear escalates, from "I bet it's just waiting for us to fall asleep" to a string of rejected escape plans.

Because the scene is a movie clip rather than a staged classroom dialogue, it doubles as a way to learn english with movies while you work on improving your english accent. The pace stays quick and conversational, and the American voice gives you a real model of how a line actually gets delivered when a character is half joking and half terrified, not a slowed down reading.

A few lines here reward a closer listen before you repeat them. Each one asks something different of your voice.

• "We're easy prey, my friend! Easy prey! We're sitting targets!" repeats "easy prey" on purpose, and each exclamation mark pushes the volume up a step further, so it is a clean drill for building intensity across a short run of words.
• "Using mainly spoons, we dig a tunnel under the city and release it into the wild!" is the longest line in the clip, one continuous plan with no pause built in, which makes it good practice for carrying a sentence to the end without running out of breath.
• "Hot air balloon? Too expensive! Giant slingshot? Too conspicuous! Enormous wooden horse? Too Greek!" stacks three question and verdict pairs back to back, so your pitch has to rise on the question and drop sharply on the two word answer, three times in a row.

Work through the eight lines in this order rather than jumping straight to a full read through.

• Say line 1, "That thing is a killing machine!" once on your own before you hear it, so you notice where your own stress lands compared to the recording.
• Shadow line 3, "We're easy prey, my friend! Easy prey! We're sitting targets!" three times in a row, matching the way the volume climbs on each repetition of "easy prey."
• Slow line 5 down, "Using mainly spoons, we dig a tunnel under the city and release it into the wild!" Shadow it in two halves first, then join them, since it is the one line here with no natural break.
• Close with line 8, "Hot air balloon? Too expensive! Giant slingshot? Too conspicuous! Enormous wooden horse? Too Greek!" and aim for a sharp drop in pitch on each two word verdict. That up and down control is exactly what makes this clip solid english speaking practice for beginners working on stress and rhythm rather than new vocabulary.