Playback for language learning
Shadow a phrase from any YouTube video
Pick the sentence, loop it, and let Playback pause after every pass so you can say it back before it plays again.
Works with YouTube for now. More sources coming soon.
- 1
Paste a video in the language you are learning
An interview, a drama scene, a news clip, a vlog. Real speech at real speed is the point.
- 2
Mark the sentence
Set the in and out points around one phrase. Use the [ and ] keys later to tighten the loop to a few words.
- 3
Open Practice and pick Language
The loop plays, stops for as long as the phrase lasted, and plays again. Drop the speed until you can hear every syllable, then let Speed up bring it back to normal one pass at a time.
Hear it, say it, hear it again
Shadowing works because you answer the speaker straight away. The Your-turn gap does the waiting for you: set it to the loop's own length, or to a fixed one to five seconds, and keep your hands free.
Captions, when the video has them
In Language practice Playback asks YouTube to show captions from the start. Whether they exist, and in which languages, is up to the video. The CC button on the player switches between the tracks it offers.
Send the drill to a student
Copy drill link puts the loop, the speed, the gap and the number of passes in the link. A teacher sets it once; every student opens the same exercise.
Keys worth knowing
- [ ]
- Tighten the loop at the playhead
- P
- Open Practice
- ← →
- Back or forward 1 second
- Space
- Play, pause, or skip the wait
Press ? on any Playback for the full list.
Questions
- Which speeds can I use?
- The ones YouTube offers for that video, which Playback reads from the player rather than guessing. For most videos that is 0.25× to 2× in quarter steps. If YouTube rounds a speed, the control shows the speed it actually chose.
- Is it OK to use someone else's YouTube video?
- Playback never downloads, copies or re-hosts a video. The video plays from YouTube's own player, on YouTube's terms, and the creator still gets the view. What Playback saves is a pointer: the video's ID, a start and end time, a speed, and your words. If the owner removes the video from YouTube, it stops playing here too.