Language Shadowing: A Superior Learning Method

I can’t disagree more with you Mr Cornelius. I’m an English learner and shadowing has helped me get to understand how native people think when they speak. I can also notice my pronunciation mistakes much more easily, And if you focus on practicing a portion of a conversation and repeat it a couple of times you can also learn grammatical structures that otherwise would be more difficult to understand with a teacher or book explanation. Some of them that are not even taught in any type of English courses. Shadowing brings your focus to the way a language is actually spoken. Not what you think it should sound. Just think of an English learner learn and practice the question “what do you want?”. They can practice and make it sound great, even with perfect articulation. But what happens when that same learner listents to a native person ask the same question like “whatyewan?” (or whatever you write it like). If all they did was practicing in a beautiful articulated way, they won’t be prepared to understand someone talking fast like native speakers often do. And shadowing is great help for noticing how natives actually pronounce each word. I suggest you try it not as a teacher but as a student and you may understand what I mean.

Shadowing is a great way of wasting a lot of time while conning yourself into thinking that you are learning a language. It feels like you are learning a language, but you still can’t communicate in that language. Learning a language is about communication, not parroting.

”It’s basically learning another language in a way that’s similar to how you learned your first language – repeating sounds exactly as you hear them. “
This is not how you learned your first language. 30 years of research into first language learning has buried this fallacy. And in any case, learning a second language is not the same as learning a first language.

As a language teacher, I’m furious when I read this kind of nonsense. If people want to waste their time doing shadowing, or audiolingualism, or any of the other crackpot theories out there, fine, but sometimes it creeps into classrooms: I actually found this article because a Chinese-based school is using this ridiculous approach in their classrooms.

I think that is important to assess that shadowing -and also scriptorium- isn’t the only technique adopted by Alexander Arguelles.
I read his autobiography http://www.foreignlanguageexpertise.com/about.html#lb and he never claims that shadowing is the only one thing it is needed to learn a language.

From what I have understood shadowing is a technique to self detect the difference of pronunciation among the recorded voice and the your pronunciation output. Then you improve by correcting yourself. It is not a mere parrotting.
In this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsaOL7DGO7M he explains also how shadowing is used to acquire confidence with a book in a foreign language -like the example of the book
Maybe shadowing is crackpot... I read an article in which Stuart Jay Raj claimed to use also this technique in his daily routine.

@Mr Cornelius. You wrote “This is not how you learned your first language. 30 years of research into first language learning has buried this fallacy.”

Please can you share with us the your list of academic references from which you claim that ‘30 years of research into first language research into first language learning has buried this fallacy’. Which research? Which academics and which peer-reviewed linguistic journals published that shadowing is a fallacy?

You are a language teacher who uses emotional language. You’re not an academic. I’m an academic. I’m also a certified professional language teacher and a scientist. I’m intrigued as to which academic references you refer to. I believe you have these references and the linguistic journals they were published in. Please kindly post them here. If you are unable to for whatever reason then I presume your comment has no linguistic basis or authority.

@Mr Cornelius,

You have stated that shadowing is ‘nonsense, crackpot, waste of time, ridiculous.’ You have no evidence to back up your statements.

As the adage states, if you repeat an untruth often enough, people will believe it. The sad thing is you’ve come to believe your own incorrect baseless statements on shadowing. Please think before you post nonsense comments on the internet.

I asked you for peer-reviewed academic evidence of your statements and you have failed to provide any.

So, here are peer-reviewed academic papers testifying to the benefits of shadowing:

REFERENCES

1. Zakeri, E. (2014). Post method era: Amalgamation of methods: A real example. International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World, 5(2), 523-529.

2. Willardson, D. (2014). The effectiveness of computer-enhanced shadowing and tracking pronunciation exercises for intermediate level foreign language learners. Master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, US

3. Tanaka, M. (2002). Modern interpreting: Where English education and interpreter training intersect. Tsuyaku-Honyaku Journal

4. Tamai, K. (2005b). References on the Effects of Using Shadowing as a Method of Teaching Listening. Tokyo: Kazama Shobo

5. Shiota, K. (2012). The effectiveness of shadowing on students’ psychology in language learning. Journal of Accents

6. Mochizuki, M. (2006). Exploring the application of shadowing to Japanese education. Shicho kaku kyoiku [Audio-Visual Education] 6, 37-53.

7. Bovee, N. & Stewart, J. (2009). The utility of shadowing. JALT 2008 Conference Proceedings. Tokyo: JALT.

8. Azimi Amoli, F. & Ghanbari, F. (2013). The effect of conversational shadowing on enhancing Iranian EFL learners’ oral performance based on accuracy. Journal of Advances in English Language Teaching,

9. International Journal of Research in English Education http://ijreeonline.com/article-1-98-en.html

10. Integration of Peer Assessment and Shadowing Strategies for Improving the Oral Performance of EFL Learners, Siao-Cing GUO & Ting-Chia HSU

11. Improving Students’ Listening Skill Through Shadowing, Mukminatus Zuhriyah, 2016

12. Effects of Shadowing and Tracking on Intermediate EFL Learners’ Oral Fluency, Fereshteh Yavari & Sajad Shafiee

I’ve learned 4 Scandinavian languages by shadowing audio books. I first process the audio for “speech enhancement”: 1) low pass filter below 400 Hz and boost 2-6KHz 2) Compand - compress and expand or normalize - to boost the rapid transitions of consonants. Relative to the overwhelmingly loud vowels of syllable peaks 3) Slow to 70-80% speed with a high quality slow downer (or better yet, use scripts to find silent pauses and lengthen them) After 3 years, I no longer need to slow it down, but it really improves pronunciation and intonation. Otherwise the brain perceives foreign sound patterns as your native phonemes, and therefore poor accent.
I’ve repeated nearly 50 mysteries and classics while walking, mowing or driving. I hardly look up words - they mean the intersection of the dozens or hundreds of sentences I’ve repeated them in. And I usually guess who dunnit. Now when I speak, I do have some delays in word finding but tend to use well worn expressions, like anybody else would.

Ok, now go to Sweden and have a chat with someone.

Hi Doug,

I want to try out your way of “speech enhancement” but have no idea what it means. I was able to google what “low pass filter” means, but couldn’t for the others “boost 2-6KHz” and “Compand – compress and expand or normalize”. Could you give me some details? Thanks a lot!

just watched the 1st video... and his mandarin sounds terrible!.....

He says in the second video that some accents are not his strong suit so I wonder how effective this is for that aspect of language learning, especially for a tonal language.

I tried using this method for French and Cantonese, for French it is ok but for Cantonese it really sucks. Well that was my experience.

I don’t think it has improved my french accent but it has made a difference to how fluidly I can speak without stumbling over words.

It is really nice to hear that this is a common practice. I have been doing something similar to this in my learning of French because I noticed that it would keep me from getting lazy and not paying attention to the words that I was hearing. Sometimes, I noticed that I would actually understand a word only after it came out of my mouth and not when I heard it the first time. Unlike you, I started with different methods and only started shadowing later. It still has been very useful.

There are quite a lot of ready-made conversational English dialogues on a multitude of topics with authentic natural wording with useful content (vocabulary) at all levels of difficulty from basic to advanced levels. It’s hard and time-consuming for learners to create such dialogues on their own as this would require a lot of imagination about potential content of conversations in various situations and issues of discussions.

Therefore it is a good idea for learners to select ready-made dialogues with the most practical helpful content at all levels of difficulty and with the best wording in terms of vocabulary. So learners can select a number of ready-made dialogues at their own discretion on each real life topic. On the basis of those ready-made dialogues learners can create their own dialogues taking into account their potential needs, preferences, circumstances and personal situation.

After listening to and reading dialogues learners can write key words and phrases, or main ideas as a plan, or questions on each dialogue that require long answers to make easier for them to imitate (reproduce, act out/role play) each dialogue to practise speaking in English.

When practising speaking using ready-made dialogues on one’s own it is a good idea to record one’s speech on audio and to compare it with the original text or audio recording.

My ideas below are suitable for practising listening comprehension and speaking (through self-check) when learning any language.
In order to have good skills in listening comprehension in English and to speak it fluently, a learner should practise listening to audio and video aids in English (dialogues, thematic texts and narrative stories) with subsequent speaking. It is preferable to have English transcripts of audio and video material. I suggest that learners practise listening comprehension with subsequent speaking on a variety of topics and with materials for all levels on a regular long-term basis in the following sequence:

1. Listen to each sentence several times. Alongside listening see and read each sentence in the transcript.

2. Make sure you understand everything clearly in each sentence in terms of pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar.

3. Without looking into the transcript, try to repeat each sentence (say it aloud) exactly as you have heard it. Being able to repeat a sentence means that a learner has remembered its content.

4. Listen to that particular conversation or text (story) in short paragraphs or chunks, say each paragraph aloud, and compare to the transcript.

5. Listen to the whole conversation or story without interruption several times, and try to tell the content of the whole conversation or text (story) you’ve heard. You can write key words and phrases, or main ideas as a plan, or questions on that particular dialogue or text to make easier for you to convey the content in English. It is important to compare what you’ve said to the transcript.

It is a good idea to record one’s speech on audio aid to compare it with the original audio/video recording.
I believe that for practising listening comprehension and speaking in English it is a good idea to include various practical topics for potential needs of learners with comprehensive vocabulary on each topic. As you know the content of materials matters a great deal.
Ready-made thematic dialogues, questions and answers on conversation topics, thematic texts (informative texts and narrative stories), grammatical usage sentences (in the form of dialogues and texts), and sentences with difficult vocabulary on various topics, especially with fixed phrases and idioms can be used in practising listening comprehension in English.
It’s possible and effective to practise listening comprehension and speaking in English on one’s own this way through self-check using transcripts, books, audio and video aids to provide additional solid practice and to accelerate mastering of English.

Hey Donovan

Just out of interest - how did the technique go for you? Was it effective?

Rob