Shadowing and listening practice for B1 learners

B1 shadowing practice uses speech that you can understand while giving you a manageable challenge in pace. Treat the page’s level labels as clip-selection guidance, not as a test or certificate of your English level.

Try one line nowListen to one short line, record your take, then play it beside the original. Free, with no account.

What B1 shadowing should feel like

You should understand most of a line after hearing it twice. If you need to read every line to follow it, go back to the beginners’ videos; if you can say a line along with the speaker on the first try, move up to B2. The talks are sorted from slowest to fastest speaker, so start at the top.

The talks, slowest to fastest

Talk	Level	Length	Speed	Try a line
Carol Dweck The Power of Believing That You Can Improve	B1	10 min	105 wpm	I heard about a high school in Chicago where students had to pass a certain number of courses to graduate,
Oprah Winfrey Harvard Commencement Address (2013)	B1–B2	29 min	133 wpm	To President Faust, my fellow honorands, Carl,
Robert Waldinger What Makes a Good Life?	B1	13 min	138 wpm	What keeps us healthy and happy as we go through life?
Matt Walker Sleep Is Your Superpower	B1–B2	19 min	139 wpm	Well, I would like to start with testicles.
Graham Shaw Why People Believe They Can’t Draw	B1	15 min	140 wpm	I've got a question for you: how many people here would say they can draw?
Josh Kaufman The First 20 Hours — How to Learn Anything	B1	19 min	142 wpm	Two year ago, my life changed forever.
Kelly McGonigal How to Make Stress Your Friend	B1–B2	14 min	143 wpm	But first, I want you to make a little confession to me.
Bill Gates We Can Make COVID-19 the Last Pandemic	B1–B2	15 min	143 wpm	In the year 6 CE, a fire devastated Rome.
Sir Ken Robinson How to Escape Education’s Death Valley	B1	19 min	144 wpm	I moved to America 12 years ago with my wife Terry and our two kids.
Mel Robbins How to Stop Screwing Yourself Over	B1	22 min	146 wpm	TEDx – oh my God, blinding light!
Rita Pierson Every Kid Needs a Champion	B1	8 min	147 wpm	either at the schoolhouse, on the way to the schoolhouse,
Denzel Washington Penn Commencement Address (2011)	B1	23 min	147 wpm	Please join me in welcoming Denzel Washington.
Oprah Winfrey Stanford Commencement Address (2008)	B1	30 min	147 wpm	Well, thank you, President Hennessy, and to the trustees and the faculty,
Angela Lee Duckworth Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance	B1	6 min	148 wpm	I left a very demanding job in management consulting for a job that was even more demanding: teaching.
Robert Waldinger The Secret to a Happy Life — Lessons from 8 Decades of Research	B1–B2	29 min	148 wpm	I am delighted to be here and grateful to all of you for joining us for this discussion.
Jill Bolte Taylor My Stroke of Insight	B1–B2	20 min	149 wpm	I grew up to study the brain because I have a brother who has been diagnosed with a brain disorder, schizophrenia.
Sir Ken Robinson Bring on the Learning Revolution!	B1	18 min	149 wpm	I was here four years ago, and I remember, at the time, that the talks weren't put online.
Bill Gates The Next Outbreak? We’re Not Ready	B1	9 min	150 wpm	When I was a kid, the disaster we worried about most was a nuclear war.
Bill Gates Teachers Need Real Feedback	B1	10 min	151 wpm	It doesn't matter whether you're a basketball player,
Arthur Benjamin Lightning Calculation and Other “Mathemagic”	B1–B2	15 min	155 wpm	My name is Art Benjamin, and I am a "mathemagician."
Matt Cutts Try Something New for 30 Days	B1	3 min	159 wpm	a few years ago I felt like I was stuck in a rut
Bill Gates Innovating to Zero!	B1–B2	30 min	163 wpm	I'm going to talk today about energy and climate.
Tim Urban Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator	B1–B2	14 min	164 wpm	So in college, I was a government major, which means I had to write a lot of papers.
Adam Grant The Surprising Habits of Original Thinkers	B1–B2	15 min	165 wpm	Seven years ago, a student came to me and asked me to invest in his company.
Derek Sivers The “Good Enough” Life Choice	B1–B2	19 min	166 wpm	I'm so excited to be in Taiwan. I've always wanted to come to Taiwan.
Chris Lonsdale How to Learn Any Language in Six Months	B1	18 min	168 wpm	The people in the back, can you hear me clearly?
Malcolm Gladwell The Tipping Point I Got Wrong	B1–B2	17 min	168 wpm	I want to tell you a story about when I moved to New York City in 1993.
Simon Sinek Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe	B1–B2	12 min	169 wpm	There's a man by the name of Captain William Swenson who recently was awarded the congressional Medal of Honor
Andy Puddicombe All It Takes Is 10 Mindful Minutes	B1–B2	9 min	171 wpm	We live in an incredibly busy world.
Julian Treasure How to Speak So That People Want to Listen	B1–B2	10 min	173 wpm	The human voice: It's the instrument we all play.
Celeste Headlee 10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation	B1	12 min	174 wpm	All right, I want to see a show of hands:
Derek Sivers How to Start a Movement	B1	6 min	182 wpm	Ladies and gentlemen, at TED we talk a lot about leadership and how to make a movement.
Cameron Russell Looks Aren’t Everything. Believe Me, I’m a Model.	B1	10 min	184 wpm	and for the last little while, I've been a model.
Derek Sivers Keep Your Goals to Yourself	B1–B2	4 min	185 wpm	Everyone, please think of your biggest personal goal.
Daniel Levitin How to Stay Calm When You Know You’ll Be Stressed	B1	12 min	186 wpm	A few years ago, I broke into my own house.
Ivan Joseph The Skill of Self Confidence	B1	13 min	186 wpm	In my past life as a soccer coach,

Levels are our own estimate from vocabulary, sentence length and speed, not an official CEFR rating. Speed is measured across the talk’s full captions.

Find your level

Beginners: short captioned lines you understand, repeated after the speaker.
B1 (this page): 36 talks with clear speakers and everyday words, slowest first.
B2: 43 talks at natural speed, with longer sentences and humour.
Advanced C1: the C1 talks and every talk at 180 words a minute or faster.

A daily routine for B1

First week in Repeat mode at 0.75×: hear the whole line, then say it after it ends.
When most words turn green, go back to normal speed, then try Shadow mode and speak with the speaker.
Stay with one talk for a whole week. The same speaker every day teaches you their rhythm faster than a new video every day.

Practise one line, step by step

Open an exercise from this guide. Choose a captioned video for this guide’s topic and a line whose meaning you understand.
Listen and read the caption, then say the line after the speaker in Repeat mode.
Try saying the line with the speaker in Shadow mode, following the rhythm and pauses.
Record a take, then open Compare and play your recording and the original. Review words and timing; Sada does not grade individual sounds.
Repeat the line while focusing on one difference you heard, then move to another line.

Questions people ask

Is shadowing good for B1 level?

Yes. B1 is where shadowing starts to pay off most: you understand enough to copy the rhythm instead of decoding every word. Choose a calm, clear speaker and start in Repeat mode.

What should B1 learners listen to?

Real talks with clear speakers on everyday topics, like the ones on this page. Short talks, under ten minutes, can be finished in a week.

When am I ready for B2 material?

When you can shadow a talk from the bottom of this table at normal speed with most of your words turning green.

Start practising