Active listening
Writing a sentence down makes you catch every word, not just the gist. Short sentences keep each dictation exercise quick.
YouTube dictation and shadowing practice
Turn any captioned YouTube video in desktop Chrome into a sentence-by-sentence listening or speaking exercise beside the player.
Free Chrome extension. Works on YouTube videos with captions, including auto-generated ones.
The transcript and dictation are free with no account; translations use credits or your own API key.
What dictation and shadowing need
- Requires desktop Chrome with the LangBox extension and a non-live YouTube video that has captions.
- Dictation works without signing in; shadowing requires a microphone, a signed-in account, and tokens for speech transcription.
- Shadowing checks how many spoken words match the caption text; it is word recognition, not pronunciation or intonation scoring.
Video · 20 seconds
Shadowing and dictation, on any YouTube video
Two subtitle lines, a transcript, then practise sentence by sentence.
How it works
Listen, write, check, repeat.
Bilingual dictation turns the video you are already watching into a dictation exercise. Nothing to upload, no separate app.
Open the transcript
On any YouTube watch page, click Dictation next to the Like button. The video moves to the left and its transcript appears on the right, one sentence per line.
Read along
The current sentence is highlighted and the transcript scrolls with the video. Click any sentence to jump to it, or turn on Translation to see your language under each line.
Switch on dictation
Press D. Every sentence turns into blanks the length of its words, and the video pauses by itself when a sentence ends.
Write and check
Type what you heard and press Enter. Correct words turn green; misheard, missing and extra words are marked. Press Enter again for the next sentence.
Keyboard shortcuts
Your hands stay on the keyboard.
Typing in the answer box never triggers YouTube's own hotkeys, so letters like K, F or J go into your answer, not the player.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Tab | Next blank (Space works too) |
| ShiftTab | Previous blank |
| Enter | Check the answer; press again for the next sentence |
| Ctrl | Tap to replay the current sentence (F2 works too; on a Mac it needs Fn) |
| ↑↓ | Previous or next sentence |
| ShiftEnter | Show the current word; you still type it, and it counts as missed |
| Esc | Leave the answer box |
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Play or pause |
| ←→ | Previous or next sentence |
| R | Replay the current sentence |
| D | Turn dictation on or off |
| S | Turn shadowing on or off |
| P | Play back your shadowing recording |
| [] | Slower or faster, from 0.5× to 1.5× |
| Esc | Exit bilingual dictation |
Shadowing
Say each sentence after the video, and see which words it heard.
Shadowing is in the same panel. The video plays one sentence and pauses, you say it, and LangBox checks your words against the captions.
Press S
In the Bilingual dictation panel, press S or click Shadowing. The video pauses at the end of each sentence.
Record
Press Space and say the sentence. Press Space again to stop. A recording stops by itself after 30 seconds.
See your score
LangBox writes down what it heard and marks each word that matches the caption, for example 5/6 words matched.
Listen and repeat
Press P to play your recording, R to hear the sentence again, or ↓ for the next sentence.
Shadowing needs a microphone and a LangBox sign-in, and each recording uses your model allowance. The recording is sent only to be transcribed; LangBox does not store it.
Why dictation practice
Dictation that finds the words you actually miss.
Precise feedback
Word-by-word checking shows exactly what you misheard. Case, punctuation and curly apostrophes are ignored, so only listening mistakes count.
Your own material
Practise dictation with the talks, lessons and channels you already like, at the speed you need, instead of a fixed textbook recording.
Good to know
What dual subtitles and dictation need
- Desktop Chrome with the LangBox extension, on youtube.com watch pages.
- The video needs captions. Human captions in the spoken language are used first; otherwise the auto-generated ones.
- The transcript and dictation work without signing in. Translation uses LangBox translation, like the rest of the extension.
- Sound tags such as (Laughter) or [Music] stay visible but are never scored, and the video does not stop for them.
- Chinese, Japanese and Korean answers are compared character by character.
- Live streams are not supported yet.
Free quota and limits
Without sign-in
- The transcript, dictation, word-by-word checking and the keyboard shortcuts work without an account.
- A translation under each line uses the extension's guest trial of 2,000,000 tokens.
- Shadowing needs a sign-in and a microphone.
With a free account
- 10,000,000 tokens every 30 days, free, for translation and for shadowing transcription.
- Shadowing: record each sentence, up to 30 seconds, and see which words matched the caption.
- The same account works in the LangBox web app for PDFs, EPUBs and podcasts.
FAQ
Questions about YouTube dual subtitles and dictation
How do I get dual subtitles on a YouTube video?
Install LangBox and turn on its translation control in the YouTube player. The video then shows the original caption line with a translation in your language under it. This works on any video with captions and does not need the dictation panel.
Is this a YouTube transcript extension?
LangBox shows the transcript beside the video, one sentence per line, with a translation under each line when Translation is on, and it follows playback. To keep it, click Download subtitles next to Like, or the download arrow at the top of the panel: copy the text, or save it as a text, SRT or WebVTT file, or as a bilingual SRT with the translation under each line.
Does dictation work on videos with only auto-generated captions?
Yes. If there are no human captions in the spoken language, bilingual dictation uses YouTube's automatic captions. They can contain recognition mistakes, so a word marked wrong is occasionally the caption's error rather than yours.
Do I need a LangBox account?
No. The transcript, dictation, checking and shortcuts all work without signing in. You only need LangBox translation if you want to see a translation under each sentence.
Can the subtitles on the video give the answer away?
No. While bilingual dictation is open, the transcript lives in the side panel, so both YouTube's captions and the LangBox subtitle overlay are turned off on the video. In dictation the transcript also shows blanks until you check your answer.
Can I slow the video down?
Yes. Press [ to slow down and ] to speed up, from 0.5× to 1.5×. A tap on Ctrl, F2 or R replays the current sentence as many times as you like.
Which languages can I practise?
Any language the video has captions in. LangBox picks the captions for the language actually spoken in the video, even if your YouTube account shows another language by default.
What does it cost?
The extension is free. The transcript, dictation and checking use no allowance at all. Translation and shadowing use the LangBox model allowance: a guest trial of 2,000,000 tokens, or 10,000,000 tokens every 30 days with a free account. There is no card and no payment step.
What leaves my browser?
Dictation is checked inside the extension, so your typed answers are not sent anywhere. When Translation is on, the caption text is sent to LangBox to be translated. In shadowing, your recording is sent only to be transcribed; LangBox does not store it.
Keep going
More ways to learn from real content
Dictation covers listening. LangBox also translates web pages and PDFs, looks up words on double-click, and brings them back for review.