This podcast episode ("488. Shadowing Practice: How Tone of Voice Changes Your Message") is a practical lesson on how tone, prosody, intonation, pitch, pace, and voice quality change a listener's interpretation of the same written text. Host Hadar Shemesh (a pronunciation expert and fluency coach) reads two short narrative paragraphs twice each — first with a negative/sad interpretation, then with a positive/relieved/joyful reading — and invites listeners to shadow her to feel the differences. The episode explains specific prosodic cues (pitch range, pausing, pace, pitch drops, energy) that signal sadness vs. relief/joy, includes a second paired exercise (the "Emma" text), and ends with a call-to-action to try two more neutral texts in the description and to check Hadar's free 14-day pronunciation plan.
Questions this episode answers
Hadar Shemesh
Over 16 years
488. Shadowing Practice: How Tone of Voice Changes Your Message
A free 14-day pronunciation plan
Chapters
James stood at the edge of the pier, watching the boat fade into the mist. He pulled his coat tighter around him. A deep sigh escaped his lips as he turned and walked away, leaving everything behind.
So what have you noticed here?
Hey, you're listening to the Influency podcast. I'm Hadar, your host, a pronunciation expert, fluency coach, and a proud Nana native speaker with over 16 years of experience teaching. I am here to share with you all my secrets on how to show up in English clearly with confidence and freedom. On this podcast, I'll provide step by step strategies, lessons, stories and practical tips to keep you inspired and motivated on your English journey.
Are you ready?
Let's do it.
The perception of anything that you say or read or see really matters. Today we're going to look at a short paragraph that could be interpreted in two different ways. I'm going to give you an opportunity to see the two different interpretations and then we're going to read it according to each interpretation, using our tone of voice, intonation, pace and voice to express these two different interpretations. So it's both about reading comprehension, but also using your voice to express certain emotions, feelings and attitude. Now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to read the same text in two different ways. The first time I'm going to read it as if my interpretation of this text is of sadness and regret. And the second time I'm going to read it is with the interpretation of relief and excitement. Now what I want you to focus on, because it's going to be the.
Same text, is, is think about how.
It was different in terms of my rhythm, the quality of my voice and my intonation. So you can start assigning certain patterns, prosody patterns, with certain emotions and attitude.
James stood at the edge of the pier, watching the boat fade into the mist. He pulled his coat tighter around him. A deep sigh escaped his lips as he turned and walked away, leaving everything behind. James stood at the edge of the pier, watching the boat fade into the mist. He pulled his coat tighter around him. A deep sigh escaped his lips as he turned and walked away, leaving everything behind.
What was different in the way I was reading it? Did you feel that there was a difference between the first interpretation that in my mind was more about sadness and regret, and the other one was more about excitement and joy and relief, even about leaving something behind.
Right.
And what's interesting is that it's the same text and these are two different stories that we're telling only with our voice. So we're going to do it again. And this time, I want you to shadow me and shadow the exact intonation and voice quality and pitch changes so that you can also feel the difference in how you're expressing something. Okay, are you ready?
Let's go.
First is the negative interpretation. Sadness and heaviness and regret.
James stood at the edge of the pier, watching the boat fade into the mist. He pulled his coat tighter around him. A deep sigh escaped his lips as he turned and walked away, leaving everything behind.
So what have you noticed here? When I was listening to myself here, I noticed that my intonation was kind of flat, right. There wasn't a lot of pitch variation. My pitch was lower than usual. Right. Like adding that dramatic tone.
My pace was slow.
I took more pauses.
Right.
And it's almost like the voice was emotionless.
Or maybe it was, but it was mild.
Pitch was dropping down regularly at the.
End of each sentence.
So all of these prosody elements together were indicating my attitude or experience. And I bet that you didn't think that I was excited right? Now let's try it differently. We're going to do it with a different interpretation. Again, I want you to shadow me, and this time, again, see what's different in the voice and pitch and intonation.
James stood at the edge of the.
Pier.
Watching the boat fade into the mist. He pulled his coat tighter around him. A deep sigh escaped his lips.
As.
He turned and walked away, leaving everything behind him.
So what would you say was different here? Listening to myself reading, I can say that there was more energy, right? Like, I was speeding up a little bit. My voice was higher. The pitch range was different.
Okay.
So, like, I played with a pitch a bit more. There was more lifts in my pitch that ultimately all of these prosody elements indicated that the interpretation of it was more joyful, was more excited, was more positive. Maybe excitement is, you know, like a big word for this text. But still, there was something positive about it. Like, we were happy for the character. We weren't upset for the character.
And all that changed is my.
Was my interpretation and the way I was reading it. And again, like, I think that if you were to just read it to yourself, not read it out loud, you might have interpreted it in a certain way without even thinking about this other interpretation. Right. That's also possible. And I want to invite you, whenever you read something, especially text messages or stories, always check with yourself. Is there another way for me to read it? Right.
Maybe it's not an angry text message.
Maybe it's just a casual one. But I'm reading into it. This is my interpretation. Let's do another exercise. We'll do the same thing. Shadowing of another text that could be interpreted in two different ways. So this time you're just going to shadow me. Okay, let's start. Emma stared at the empty chair across.
From her, the coffee in her cup, long, cold. She glanced at the clock and shook her head, a soft laugh escaping her lips. Typical, she whispered, standing up to leave.
Okay, so how did you understand this text? What was going on? Was she happy? Was she amused? Was she playful? I was reading it as if she was, right. And the way I did it was with the pace, the melody, the energy of the voice, the intonation, the pitch. Okay, the pauses. So all of that led to you hearing it as if it was playful or whimsical.
Now let's read it in a different way.
Shadow me.
Emma stared at the empty chair across.
From her.
The coffee in her cup, long, cold.
She glanced at the clock and shook.
Her head, soft laugh escaping her lips. Typical, she whispered, standing up to leave.
Ooh, that feels like a much more tense situation, doesn't it? Okay, so again, the quality of the voice, the playfulness and pitch.
The pitch level, right?
This was a little lower. The sarcastic tone, typical versus typical. Can you hear the difference? And what I want to invite you to do is to start thinking about the possibilities and the variety that you have when you speak and how it might be interpreted. Okay, Sometimes when we don't think about it, we might sound too angry or sound too playful. When that is not the intention, but also when you're reading a text, always challenge the initial interpretation and ask yourself, are there more ways for me to read it? Especially in fiction or in stories where there is more room for imagination. But again, like, when it comes to speaking, and you know, I'm a big fan of prosody work, intonation, rhythm, stress, tone of voice, pitch, phrasing, like, all of these things are just. Just like incredible tools that we are born with, that we use in our first language that can allow us to bring so much life into anything that we say. We don't have to sound monotone, we don't have to sound limited, right? Like, you have these abilities, and I want to invite you to try those. So in the description below, I'm going to add two more neutral texts that could be interpreted in two different ways. And I want you to do the exact same exercise, reading it in two different ways, and practice using your voice, using your pace, using your pitch to distinguish between two different experiences. Okay, good. I hope you enjoyed it. This was a slightly different lesson, but definitely something that could level up your communication abilities and the way you express yourself and a good way to dive into prosody work. If you want to learn more about prosody work, you should check out my 14 day pronunciation plan. It's absolutely free. There are lessons about pronunciation, but also lessons about prosody like intonation and rhythm. So definitely check it out. And it's going to help you kind of like get on track with your pronunciation practice, which will ultimately help you speak English with clarity, with confidence, and with freedom. Thank you so much for joining me today. Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the day and I'll see you next week in the next video.
