HIROHISA SEKIYAMA (KWANSEI GAKUIN UNIVERSITY)

HOW SHADOWING DEVELOPS ENGLISH LISTENING ABILITY: CONNECTING THEORY AND PRACTICE : METHODOLOGIES AND TEACHING APPROACHES

Shadowing is a technique in which learners immediately repeat utterances in a spoken language. Such an approach is strongly favored in Japanese English language education and is commonly introduced within the Asian TEFL community, as its effect on the development of English listening ability has been verified. This study aims to reveal how shadowing should be practiced in lessons by empirically examining the reasons for its effectiveness in enhancing English listening skills. This study focuses on a prevalent hypothesis that, contrary to ordinary listening, learners pay more attention to the sound itself than meaning while shadowing. However, no Asian study has tested this hypothesis using objective data. To address this limitation, the author conducted a quantitative study targeting Japanese learners of English. The experiment set two conditions, wherein participants shadowed or listened to English passages and then answered the sound-perception and listening comprehension tests for each passage. The results indicated no statistically significant differences between the scores of the two conditions in either test. There was also a lack of correlation between attention to sound and comprehension in the shadowing condition. These findings contradict the aforementioned hypotheses regarding the effectiveness of shadowing in improving listening ability. This means that shadowers do not need to exclusively focus on sounds per se to develop their English listening abilities. Therefore, this study pedagogically recommends a type of shadowing in which learners direct their attention to meaning, because language acquisition involves linking form and meaning.

Hirohisa Sekiyama is a Ph.D. student at Kwansei Gakuin University’s Graduate School of Language, Communication, and Culture. His current interests fall under the umbrella of second language listening instruction, such as shadowing.