THE USE OF SHADOWING TO TEACH ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION IN AN ONLINE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

Shadowing is a technique in which language learners repeat aural stimuli in a foreign language without a delay. Even though this approach has been used extensively in interpreter training programmes and language classes in Japan, it is still relatively unknown in the West. This technique has proven to be particularly beneficial in terms of pronunciation development: it was reported to lead to the improvement of articulation speed, word accent, pitch accent, intonation, comprehensibility, and imitation skills. In this study, the main focus was directed towards the acquisition of English pronunciation via shadowing by 29 Mexican learners in an online environment. The learners carried out two tasks (reading aloud and shadowing a fable by Aesop) at the beginning and at the end of a pronunciation course, following the pretest-posttest experimental design. This investigation may be particularly valuable since it was conducted in an exclusively virtual environment and combines the latest trends of information and communications technology and applied linguistics. In spite of the fact that the study is still in progress, the preliminary analyses of the audios and of the learners’ questionnaires suggest that shadowing appears to be highly valuable in terms of comprehensibility development as it facilitates the acquisition of such prosodic features as sentence stress, rhythm, and intonation. Accentedness showed less improvement in most English learners for various reasons. Regarding the learners’ attitude towards shadowing, the results of the final questionnaire indicate that this technique positively affects learners’ motivation. The preliminary findings obtained in this investigation are reported in light of the past-to-present literature in the sphere of shadowing, Troubetzkoy’s phonological sieve theory and the current models of language acquisition: Long’s sensitive periods theory and Flege’s Speech Learning Model.