The Effectiveness of Shadow-Reading With and Without Written Script on Pronunciation of Iranian Intermediate EFL Students

Journal of Teaching English Lnaguage Studies

مقاله 4، دوره 4، شماره 3، اردیبهشت 2016، صفحه 41-48   

نویسندگان

Meisam Shafiei¹؛ Ramin Rahmany²

¹MA, Islamic Azad University-Takestan Branch

²PhD Islamic Azad University-Takestan Branch

چکیده

Pronunciation is essential to appropriate communication because the incorrect use of
pronunciation inevitably leads to the message being misunderstood by the receptor. In spite of its
importance, L2 learners often regard pronunciation as the most difficult language skill to learn.
In this study, shadowing as an act or task in pronunciation, in which the learner tracks the target
speech and repeats it immediately as exactly as possible, is recommended to enhance the
students’ pronunciation. More specifically, this study aimed at investigating the effect of
shadowing with and without written script on the Iranian EFL students’ pronunciation. 77
participants out of a population of 99 students were randomly picked through the administration
of Preliminary English Test (PET). The participants were three groups of intermediate level. The
First group, containing 27 students, did shadow-reading with written script (group A); the second
group comprising 25 students, who did shadow-reading without written script (group B); and the
third, consisting of 25 learners, who acted as the control group. Each shadowing lesson was
conducted with the detailed instructions as recommended by Kadota and Tamai (2004). The data
were collected through the administration of a pre- test and a post-test. The analysis of the test
scores, using a one-way ANOVA, revealed that the experimental groups (A & B) performed
statistically better in pronunciation. It also revealed that the shadowing with written script group
performed statistically better than the without written script group. The implications of this study
are that shadowing, as a fruitful technique, can be incorporated into the teaching of the
pronunciation to the EFL students.

کلیدواژه‌ها

Shadow-Reading؛ Pronunciation؛ Written Script؛ Non-Written Script؛ Intermediate EFL Students

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