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"Shadowing," which means repeating
what a speaker says, may be well known as an exercise for simultaneous interpreting, but
this technique is also an excellent way of teaching English.
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According to Murphey (1995), there are varieties
of shadowing. For example, lecture shadowing is when listeners shadow a speaker
silently in their head when hearing a lecture. In reading shadowing , one person
reads a passage while his/her partner shadows. Conversational shadowing is in
conversation where listeners shadow each other out loud. Complete shadowing
indicates shadowing every word a speaker utters. Selective shadowing refers to
shadowing only parts of what a speaker says. Finally, interactive shadowing
includes selective shadowing and adds questions or comments, like a natural conversation.
Except for lecture shadowing, shadowing can be either silent or aloud.
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The biggest advantage of shadowing is students'
involvement in the activity. As they work in pairs, they have more chances to speak and so
take on more responsibility for the activity. Although the class becomes somewhat noisy
through interacting with each other, the students can participate in the class in a
natural and relaxed way.
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I chose to do "reading shadowing"
because of its suitability for my reading material, and I followed with "Friendly
Shadowing" as Fujita (1994) described. I asked one student in each pair to read the
text phrase by phrase and made the other student repeat the same phrase without looking at
the textbook. Most students were willing to participate in the activity, but a few were
not.
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However, there are several reasons why some
students are not willing to do shadowing. First, if they don't know how to pronounce a
word, they cannot read it. For example, when I forced one student to read the sentence,
"Earth, you are lucky!" he read, "Each, you are rocky!" In a sense
this was good, because then both he and I understood how much he knew about pronunciation.
If I made students repeat after me in choral reading, they would just utter sounds without
realizing where particular problems lay.
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A second reason for avoiding shadowing is due to
the classroom atmosphere. For example, as it was early in the year, the students were not
yet accustomed to each other and were reluctant to form pairs with a student whom they
didn't know well. But, the activity of shadowing helped students get along well with each
other. The next time I would try putting on some soft background music so students might
relax more without the impression that everyone is listening to them.
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In the second attempt, I dealt with a list of
words so that students could pronounce them more easily. I usually listed new words on the
blackboard at the beginning of each lesson and made students pronounce them after me. I
wrote down their pronunciation in Katakana under each word and had students shadow them in
pairs.
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This time the ratio of the students who engaged
in the activity increased. This might be because words not sentences were easier for them
to pronounce. In addition, as this was the second time they had participated in shadowing,
the students knew how to do it already and could start it more easily with a partner.
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Shadowing is one way of increasing interaction
with others, which is important and essential for learning a language. Repeating what a
speaker says can help establish "rapport" and create a better atmosphere for
learning in the whole classroom between speakers and listeners (see Footnote
1 ).
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In conclusion, when using this technique in the
classroom, it is important to get students accustomed to the entire shadowing process.
Choosing suitable materials and techniques for students will go a long way towards
ensuring success. There are many variations and you can arrange shadowing in such ways as
to fit your own situation, and surely it will stimulate your class(see Footnote 2 ).
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Keiko
Adachi teaches English at Aichi Prefectural Miyoshi High School. She is attending
the graduate school of English Education at Nanzan University. |
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Return
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- Fujita, T. 1994. A magic tool in the classroom: Pair work. English Teaching Forum, 32,
3, pp. 47.
- Murphey, T. 1995. Conversational shadowing for rapport and interactional language
acquisition proceedings. Proceedings: The 6th International University of Japan Conference
on SLR in Japan International University Publication, pp. 42-65.
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Footnote 1
| 1. Conversational shadowing reminds me of the
counseling lecture I once listened to. Counselor (teachers) shadowing patients (student)
is one way of counseling, because patients can feel that counselors listen to them
carefully and understand them. It creates "rapport" between patients and
counselors. I use this technique with good results when counseling my homeroom students. |
Footnote 2
| 2. I would like to thank Katsumi Murakami and
Machiko Koide for commenting on earlier drafts of this paper. |
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