Using shadowing with mobile technology to

improve L2 pronunciation

Jennifer A. Foote and Kim McDonough

University of Alberta / Concordia University

Shadowing has been demonstrated to improve various aspects of second

language learners’ pronunciation but few studies have investigated whether
these changes impact untrained listeners’ perceptions. In the present study,
sixteen participants used iPods to practice shadowing short dialogues for eight
weeks. The participants practiced at least four times per week for a minimum
of 10 minutes each time, and recorded themselves while shadowing. Two tasks
(a shadowing task and an extemporaneous speaking task) were administered
as pre-, mid-, and post-tests, and were rated by 22 speakers of English. The
shadowing task was rated for learners’ ability to imitate a speech model and the
extemporaneous speaking task was rated for comprehensibility, accentedness,
and fluency. Interview data were also collected during the study to gauge partici-
pants’ opinions of the activities. Results indicated that the participants improved
significantly on all speaking measures apart from accentedness and were largely
positive about the activities.

1. Introduction

Second language pronunciation has traditionally received less attention from sec-
ond language acquisition (SLA) researchers than other aspects of language such as
grammar and vocabulary. However, as has been noted in a recent review of studies
in this area (Thomson & Derwing, 2014), the past several years have seen an ex-
plosion of interest in pronunciation. Yet there is still much that remains unknown
about how to best help language learners improve their pronunciation in ways that
will help them be more easily understood. As Thomson and Derwing (2014) note,
there is a need for more pronunciation studies that use comprehensibility ratings
as part of the criteria for determining whether or not a technique or intervention
is worth using, since improvements in comprehensibility indicate that pronuncia-
tion changes are both noticeable to human listeners and helpful in making speech

Journal of Second Language Pronunciation 3:1 (2017), 34–56. doi 10.1075/jslp.3.1.02foo

issn 2215–1931 / e-issn 2215–194X © John Benjamins Publishing Company
 Using shadowing with mobile technology to improve L2 pronunciation 35

easier to understand. Further, it is important that these changes can transfer from
controlled practice activities to extemporaneous speech.
Comprehensibility is defined here as a subjective measure of how easy or dif-
ficult to understand a listener perceives speech to be. It is contrasted with intelligi-
bility, which refers to objective measures of whether speech is actually understood,
and accentedness which can be defined as how much a speaker’s phonology differs
from that of a first language (L1) speaker of that language (Munro & Derwing,
1995). Another construct often measured alongside comprehensibility and accent-
edness is fluency because interventions designed primarily to impact pronuncia-
tion may also provide additional benefits to speakers by improving fluency (e.g.,
Derwing, Munro, & Wiebe, 1998) although this is not always the case (Derwing,
Munro, Foote, Waugh, & Fleming, 2014). While increased fluency is not the pri-
mary focus of most pronunciation studies and teaching methods, a pronunciation
technique that also improves learners’ fluency provides benefits by helping learn-
ers communicate successfully in their second language (L2).
The challenges learners face in terms of their comprehensibility will vary based
both on L1 influence and learners’ individual differences. One partial solution to
this problem is to find activities and techniques that can give learners opportuni-
ties to notice the gaps between their own pronunciation and that of their target
language without limiting learners to a specific feature. One technique that shows
promise in this area is shadowing, a technique that has been common in pronun-
ciation teaching manuals and classrooms for many years, but has only recently
received much attention from L2 researchers. Shadowing offers learners a way to
practice their pronunciation (thus potentially improving comprehensibility) with-
out the need for explicit instruction.
Shadowing is an activity where learners imitate a presented speech stimulus
“as closely and quickly as possible” (Luo, Shimomura, Minematsu, Yamauchi,
& Hirose, 2008, p. 4) though the repetition can be near simultaneous or have a
small delay (e.g., Goldinger, 1998; Hiramatsu, 2000; Schweda-Nicholson, 1990).
While shadowing has existed for decades, its roots are not in language instruction.
Shadowing has been used in cognitive psychology for testing selective attention
(Bovee & Stewart, 2009) and as a language therapy to help treat stuttering (Li-
Chi, 2009). In Japan, it is a popular, though somewhat controversial, technique for
training simultaneous interpreters (Bovee & Stewart, 2009). In fact, searches for
recent research on shadowing yield more articles on Japanese interpreter train-
ing than L2 language training; however, in Japan it has spread from interpreter
training to become a popular and common classroom activity (Hiramatsu, 2000;
Saito, Nagasawa, & Ishikawa, 2011). While shadowing (which can also be referred
to as mirroring and tracking) may not have originated in the language classroom,
it has had a place in language training for many years and is included in popular
36 Jennifer A. Foote and Kim McDonough

pronunciation teaching guides and handbooks (e.g., Avery & Ehlrich, 1992; Celce-
Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin, 2010). Further, for over thirty years, articles pro-
moting shadowing for pronunciation instruction and offering suggestions on how
to use it in the classroom have been published in journals and presented at confer-
ences (e.g., Acton, 1984; Hardison & Songchaeng, 2005; Monk & Meyers, 2004;
Rosse, 1999: Zielinski, Meyers, McGregor, & Reed, 2015). A search of “pronuncia-
tion shadowing” on Google® will reveal a multitude of instructor- and learner-ori-
ented websites promoting shadowing for language development. With advances
in mobile technology, shadowing is an activity that can easily be completed by
learners outside of a classroom setting and at minimal cost, making it potentially
useful for learners who do not have access to formal pronunciation instruction.
Despite the use of shadowing in many classrooms, the actual research that has
been conducted on shadowing as a language-learning tool is limited. This may be
partially because it is reminiscent of the much-maligned audiolingual approach
to language teaching, leading detractors to argue that it is “just vocalized repeti-
tions and only results in meaningless parrot-like practice” (Bovee & Stewart, 2009,
p. 20). However, anecdotal experiences of instructors as well as research that has
been done on shadowing to date, have shown the technique, when used well, is
promising for pronunciation improvement. Our own interest in this subject stems
from conversations with highly successful language learners who have revealed
repeatedly that shadowing dialogues from TV shows or movies had been a large
part of their language practice activities at home. Case studies of highly successful
language learners have reported similar findings with successful learners often at-
tributing their success in part to substantial amounts of time practicing imitating
voices from speech models (Ding, 2007). Martinsen, Alvord, and Tanner (2014)
investigated the role of motivation, instruction, cultural sensitivity, and time study-
ing abroad on accentedness ratings of 102 learners of Spanish. They found that:
surprisingly, the highest rated learner in the study did not have extensive ex-
perience abroad… However, beginning as much as six months prior to study-
ing abroad, she developed a plan to improve her pronunciation. Three to four
days each week, she spent a minimum of 15 minutes listening to Spanish news-
casts or other online media and imitating as closely as possible the speaker’s
words and phrases (p. 74).

Of course, these individual cases of successful language learning are not sufficient
evidence of the efficacy of shadowing. However, the studies that have been done
indicate that shadowing is an effective technique for improving various aspects of
L2 language development.
Many of the studies that have investigated the efficacy of shadowing have been
primarily interested in the role of shadowing in listening comprehension. Overall,
 Using shadowing with mobile technology to improve L2 pronunciation 37

these studies have found shadowing to be effective for this language skill (see Bovee
& Stewart, 2009, and Hamada, 2014, for overviews). There has also been some
interest in the effects of shadowing on general measures of speaking proficiency
(e.g., Li-Chi, 2009). However, studies have also investigated the efficacy of shad-
owing for pronunciation improvement (e.g., Bovee & Stewart, 2009; Hsieh, Dong,
& Wang, 2013; Mori, 2011; Rongna & Hayashi, 2012). All of these studies found
some improvements in the speech measures they used for analysis. However, these
studies have not assessed whether shadowing can lead to changes in comprehen-
sibility, nor have they investigated whether changes can be perceived in extem-
poraneous speech. The speech samples used for analysis came from participants
completing either a shadowing task or read aloud tasks. The measurements were
most often made by computers or, in one case, a combination of computer-based
acoustic analysis and one expert rater (Rongna & Hayashi, 2012). Only one of the
studies used multiple human raters to gauge improvement. In that study (Bovee
& Stewart, 2009), eight L1 speakers of English rated randomizations of pre- and
post-test shadowing samples. However, the raters were asked to judge the speech
samples “on the basis of overall quality (i.e., closeness to native-like pronuncia-
tion)” (p. 892). The other studies measured discrete features including pitch ac-
cent, intonation, final lengthening, and pronunciation of words, though one study
(Hsieh et al., 2013) also included a computer analysis of “overall pronunciation”
(p. 51). For this reason, all of these studies add to the evidence that shadowing
can improve pronunciation; however, they do not indicate whether shadowing can
help learners be better understood when speaking freely.
Due to the increase of portable technologies such as smart phones, tablets,
and digital music players, shadowing is an activity that is now easy to implement
as a homework activity. This is particularly true as an increasing number of apps
are being produced which allow users to layer recorded tracks on top of one an-
other. Further, for learners who are not enrolled in a pronunciation class, shadow-
ing offers a cost-effective way of practicing pronunciation independently. This is
especially important given that pronunciation does not always get much atten-
tion in language classes (Foote, Trofimovich, Collins, & Soler-Urzúa, 2016). While
much of the research on computer-assisted pronunciation instruction has focused
on using desktop or laptop computers, the consumer demand for pronunciation
materials on mobile technology platforms has led to a wide range of commercial
pronunciation and accent reduction apps appearing on the market in the past few
years (Foote & Smith, 2013). However, in order for shadowing to be effective when
used independently with mobile devices, learners need to see its value and choose
to use it rather than seeing it as the “meaningless parrot-like practice” it has been
accused of being (Bovee & Stewart, 2009, p. 20).
38 Jennifer A. Foote and Kim McDonough

There is some research to draw on when looking at learners’ attitudes towards

shadowing. Some of the studies that have examined the impact of shadowing on
pronunciation have also included surveys asking for learners’ opinions of the ac-
tivities. Li-Chi’s (2009) study had 25 eighth grade students in Taiwan take part in
shadowing activities for 15 hours over five weeks. Questionnaires and semi-struc-
tured interviews with the participants revealed that, overall, participants felt more
confident about their speaking abilities after completing the shadowing project.
Some participants also noted that they thought shadowing was good for studying
outside of class, and that the use of recorders enabled them to find and correct
their own errors. However, over a quarter of the participants reported that they
found shadowing difficult and some noted that they found the activities overly
repetitive and boring.
Only one study has asked learners about their opinions of shadowing activities
conducted outside of class time. Bovee and Stewart (2009) had learners engage in
shadowing activities as homework assignments completed using computers. They
found that 67% of respondents thought their pronunciation of individual words
had improved, 73% thought intonation improved, and 80% thought the activity
had educational value. The participants were also given the option of writing com-
ments about shadowing, with 64% classified as positive comments and 34% classi-
fied as negative. Of the negative comments, 30% related to technical and logistical
issues, 20% were about the difficulty of the task, 20% found it too time consuming,
and the remaining comments related to the conditions of the computer labs at the
university where the study took place. These surveys suggest that students’ experi-
ences with shadowing have been generally, but not entirely, positive.
In sum, a number of studies have demonstrated that shadowing is a potentially
useful activity for learners who want to improve their pronunciation. With the
ubiquity of mobile technology, it is easy and affordable to implement shadowing
in or outside of a classroom setting. However, there is little research addressing
whether shadowing can lead to improvement that can be perceived by non-ex-
pert human raters. Further, if learners are able to improve through their ability to
shadow enough to be detectable by human raters, will those changes also manifest
in improved ratings for accentedness, comprehensibility, and fluency in extem-
poraneous speech? In addition, in order for shadowing to be recommended for
learning outside of a classroom or lab setting, it is important to understand how
learners perceive the activities.
In light of the issues and previous studies reviewed above, the research ques-
tions were as follows:
 Using shadowing with mobile technology to improve L2 pronunciation 39

1) Can regular individual practice using shadowing with mobile technology in

an ESL context improve ratings of advanced L2 English speakers’ (a) ability to
imitate a speech model and (b) comprehensibility, accentedness, and fluency
in extemporaneous speech?
2) How do advanced L2 learners feel about doing shadowing activities with mo-
bile technology in their own time to improve their pronunciation and other
language skills in an ESL context?

2. Method

2.1 Participants

Twenty-two L2 speakers of English were recruited from an English-medium

university in Montreal, Canada. Of the original 22, 16 (male = 7, female = 9) re-
mained for the duration of the study. Their ages ranged from 18 to 38 (M = 25.55,
SD = 7.13), and they came from five different L1 backgrounds (Chinese = 10,
French = 3, Arabic = 1, Bengali = 1, Russian = 1). All of the participants had a
high enough level of English to gain admittance to credit programs at the univer-
sity. Their time in Canada ranged from one month to 60 months, with the excep-
tion of one Francophone speaker who was born and raised in Montreal but spoke
English as a second language. Many of the participants were enrolled in academic
ESL credit classes at the university. Some of these courses focused primarily on
reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary in academic settings. Others were en-
rolled in academic oral skills classes. Overall, the participants reported spending
25–60% (M = 53.44, SD = 13.90) of their time in Montreal using English as op-
posed to another language. Table 1 summarizes the background information of
the L2 speaking participants.
Twenty-two native English listeners (male = 6, female = 16) were recruited
from a Canadian university in Alberta, Canada to act as raters. Their ages ranged
from 20 to 41 years of age (M = 25.60, SD = 6.05). All reported having normal hear-
ing. Of the twenty-two speakers, six reported speaking an L2 fluently (French = 3,
Chinese = 1, Japanese = 1, French and Chinese = 1). Two of the speakers had tak-
en linguistics classes. All participants in this study were paid for their participa-
tion. This study received approval from the ethics board of the institution where
the study took place, and all participants gave informed consent.
40 Jennifer A. Foote and Kim McDonough

Table 1. The L2 speakers’ background characteristics

Participant L1 Age Gender Months in Enrolled in Use of
Canada ESL Classa English (%)
1 French 28 F 11 Oral 60
2 French 34 M whole life Oral 25
3 Chinese 20 F 4 Writ 70
4 Chinese 19 M 4 Writ 50
5 Chinese 30 M 12 Oral 50
6 French 22 F 23 Oral 60
7 Bengali 38 M 25 Writ 70
8 Chinese 20 M 4 Both 50
9 Chinese 21 F 1 Writ 40
10 Russian 32 F 17 Oral 50
11 Arabic 38 F 60 None 30
12 Chinese 23 M 40 Writ 75
13 Chinese 19 F 4 Writ 60
14 Chinese 19 F 5 Both 50
15 Chinese 18 F 4 None 65
16 Chinese 20 M 1 Writ 50
a. Oral indicates that the participant was enrolled in an academic oral skills ESL class at the time of the
study, while “Writ” indicates that the participant was enrolled in an academic ESL class that did not focus
on oral skills.

2.2 Materials for shadowing

An iPod with a wall charger and headphones was set up for each L2 speaker in
the study. The iPods were loaded with eight audio dialogues, one for each week
of the study. The dialogues were taken from popular television sitcoms including
Friends, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Raising Hope, and New Girl.
Each of the dialogues had only two speakers, and all were close to one minute in
length. Each clip contained a small but cohesive scene within the larger context of
the show (See Appendix A for all of the clips used). All of the videos were avail-
able to watch on YouTube®, so that participants would have the option of viewing
the scenes as well as listening to them. The iPods had a free app installed on them
called Multi Track Song Recorder1 and e-mail accounts set up on the iPods that
the participants could use for the duration of the study. This app was originally

1. A full description of the app can be found at [Link]

song-recorder/id390599090?mt=8
 Using shadowing with mobile technology to improve L2 pronunciation 41

designed for musicians, but it allowed the participants to easily load dialogues
from the iTunes library onto the app, and enabled learners to listen to the record-
ings using ear buds while simultaneously recording themselves shadowing the
dialogue. This gave users the ability to listen to their recordings being played over
the original speakers, or in isolation. The app allowed for easy saving and emailing
of recordings.
A booklet was also created for each participant, which included all instruc-
tions and information needed to complete the study, including clear instructions
on how to use the app. The scripts were included for each dialogue as well as a URL
for each of the corresponding YouTube® videos. The participants received both
paper and electronic versions of the booklet.

2.3 Testing instruments

2.3.1 Language assessments

Two different language tests were given at each testing time. One was a picture
narrative task, commonly referred to as The Suitcase Story. For this task, the par-
ticipants were asked to look at a series of pictures, and when they were comfort-
able and familiar with the story they were asked to tell the story in the pictures.
This task (available in IRIS at [Link]/) was developed by Derwing,
Munro, Thomson, and Rossiter (2009) and is commonly used in pronunciation re-
search (e.g., Derwing et al., 2014; Isaacs & Trofimovich, 2012). The second task was
a shadowing dialogue similar to the types of dialogues used for practice through-
out the study. For the shadowing test, the participants were given an iPod with
the dialogue loaded onto it and were also given a laptop with the YouTube® video
loaded and ready to play if they wished to watch it. Each participant was given 10
minutes to practice the dialogue, during which time, the researcher left the room.
They were instructed to only shadow one of the speakers in the dialogue. After 10
minutes, the researcher returned and the participants were audio-recorded doing
the shadowing dialogue they had just practiced.

2.3.2 Interviews
In-person interviews were conducted at each testing point. The interviews includ-
ed Likert-scale and open-ended questions. The first interview included questions
about the participants’ language use and views on pronunciation. The second and
third interviews asked for the participants’ opinions about the shadowing activi-
ties and also asked for suggestions for improvements. The third interview was of
primary interest, as the participants participated in this interview after completing
all of the shadowing activities. The questions used in this interview can be found
in Appendix B.
42 Jennifer A. Foote and Kim McDonough

2.4 Procedure

2.4.1 L2 speakers
The L2 participants met with the researcher individually three times (at the start
and end of the study and during week six). The first sessions lasted for about an
hour each, though some were longer if the participants had difficulty with the
iPods or gave longer than usual responses during their interviews. At the first ses-
sion, participants were given training on how to use their iPod and clear instruc-
tions about what was expected of them throughout the course of the study. They
practiced shadowing and using the app to e-mail recordings of the practice at-
tempts. They then completed their first interview and the two pretests.
Every week for eight weeks, the participants practiced shadowing using the
dialogue assigned for that week. As part of joining the study, they were asked to
commit to practicing at least four times per week, for at least 10 minutes each time,
though more practice was allowed and encouraged. To ensure that participants
practiced at least four times per week, they were asked to submit a sample record-
ing via email each time they practiced. They were also required to email a report
each week outlining how long they practiced at each session. Each new practice
week started on a Monday and if no audio files had been e-mailed by the following
Friday, the participants were e-mailed a reminder. They also received a reminder
if their weekly reports were not submitted by Tuesday morning of the following
week. In order to be invited to the second and third sessions, the participants had
to keep up with sending in their audio files and reports (though small lapses such
as missing one audio file in a week, were overlooked). Each Tuesday, the partici-
pants would either receive an e-mail thanking them for sending everything in, or
an e-mail reminding them of what they were missing. If a technical problem arose
that could not be solved via e-mail, the researcher would meet with the participant
as soon as possible and either fix the problem or issue the participant a new iPod.
The participants were not given strict rules about how to practice shadowing
apart from having shadowing explained and demonstrated for them and being
told they must spend at least some of the practice time shadowing, and some of
the time listening to their own recordings. This choice to have a less rigid practice
structure was made in order to uncover how learners like to practice when they
aren’t being given strict instructions. This also simulates more accurately how this
activity would be used outside of a research study. Along with the language assess-
ments and interviews, numerous tests of individual differences were also adminis-
tered both at the second and third sessions, but these are not reported in this pa-
per. In the second session, the participants also completed a language background
questionnaire. At each session participants were paid for their time.
 Using shadowing with mobile technology to improve L2 pronunciation 43

2.4.2 Native English-speaking raters

The raters scheduled 90-minute individual appointments with the researcher.
Language background questionnaires were administered. Then suitcase stories
from all three sessions were played on a computer using a computer-based rat-
ing program, created in MATLAB, developed by Saito, Trofimovich, and Isaacs
(2015). Following the conventions of previous studies (e.g., Derwing & Munro,
2013; Derwing et al., 2008) the first 20 seconds of the narratives were extracted for
the ratings, and initial dysfluencies were removed. The MATLAB program uses
a sliding scale for the ratings and the placement of the slider results in a score
between 1 and 1000. The raters then listened to each speech sample, and rated it
for accentedness, comprehensibility, and fluency. They were given explanations
of the meaning of all three constructs. When these ratings were completed, they
were asked to rate the shadowing dialogues from all three times with instructions
to rate how well the L2 speakers were able to imitate the speech model. To ensure
that the raters were very familiar with the speech sample, and to give them a sense
of the difficulty of the task, they were trained on the iPods, and given eight minutes
to practice the test dialogue before they began rating. In both The Suitcase Story
rating task and the shadowing rating task, every rater heard a different randomiza-
tion of the files, and the raters were not aware of which testing time each speech
sample was taken from. The participants listened to each speech sample one time
only before making their ratings. Intraclass correlation coefficients were used to
calculate the inter-rater reliability of the raters. A high degree of agreement was
found for all four measures: shadowing (α = .86), accentedness (α = .91), compre-
hensibility (α = .89), and fluency (α = .93).

2.5 Analysis

2.5.1 Speech measures

The ratings from the L2 listeners for the pre-, mid-, and post-tests were all ana-
lyzed using a one way repeated-measures ANOVA. In cases where the ANOVA
was significant, post hoc tests were run.

2.5.2 Interview data

Responses from the interview data were analyzed based on the nature of the ques-
tions. Likert-scale questions were asked at the midpoint and again at the end, ask-
ing participants to rate on a 9-point scale, how much they enjoyed the shadowing
activities and how much they thought the activities helped improve their pro-
nunciation. Ranges and average scores were calculated for these questions. Other
questions had short answers, and for these, results were analyzed based on re-
44 Jennifer A. Foote and Kim McDonough

sponses. Questions with longer detailed responses were analyzed using emergent
coding and illustrative quotes were extracted.

3. Results

3.1 Speech measures

The first research question asked whether the shadowing activity would improve
learners’ ability to imitate a speech model, and further, whether it could improve
accentedness, comprehensibility, and fluency in extemporaneous speaking tasks.
The means and standard deviations of the ratings of the L2 participants can
be seen in Table 2.

Table 2. Means and standard deviations for the four tasks at Time 1, Time 2, and Time 3
Measure Time 1 Time 2 Time 3
M SD M SD M SD
Shadowing 439.47 132.66 494.79 140.20 488.90 132.66
Accentedness 473.75 66.36 454.10 102.29 447.13 102.26
Comprehensibility 653.05 116.71 664.62 133.22 682.69 117.67
Fluency 505.38 122.67 510.55 123.50 548.68 127.24
Note. Scores are based on 1–1000 ratings.

The speakers showed overall improvement on all measures apart from accented-
ness. In order to see whether these changes were significant, one-way repeated
measures ANOVAs were run on the each of the four variables with alpha for sig-
nificance testing set at .0125 due to the large number of tests run (see Table 3).
None of the variables violated Mauchly’s test so the results assume sphericity.
Overall, the participants showed significant improvement on all measures apart
from accentedness, where the scores were slightly lower, albeit non-significantly.

Table 3. One-way way repeated-measures ANOVAs for the four tasks

Measure df F Sig. partial η2
Shadowing 2 14.26 .0001* .501
Accentedness 2 3.30 .05 .136
Comprehensibility 2 5.00 .01* .192
Fluency 2 8.42 .0001* .286
* p < .0125
 Using shadowing with mobile technology to improve L2 pronunciation 45

Because the ANOVAs for shadowing, comprehensibility, and fluency were signifi-
cant, post hoc tests were conducted with a Bonferroni adjustment. For shadowing
there was a significant improvement from Time 1 to Time 2 (p < .001; d = .41) and
Time 1 to Time 3 (p < .002; d = .36) but there was not a significant change from
Time 2 to Time 3 (p < 1; d = −.04). Post hoc comparisons of the comprehensibility
scores showed significant improvement from Time 1 to Time 3 (p < .002; d = .25)
but not from Time 1 to Time 2 (p < .934; d = .09), or Time 2 to Time 3 (p < .197;
d = .14). Fluency scores showed significant improvement from Time 1 to Time 3
(p < .006; d = .35) and Time 2 to Time 3 (p < .013; d = .30) but not for Time 1 to
Time 2 (p < 1; d = .04).

3.2 Interviews

3.2.1 Overall opinions

In order to get an overall sense of how the participants felt about the shadow-
ing activities, at the Time 2 and Time 3 interviews the participants were asked
to rate their overall enjoyment of the activities and their perceptions about the
effectiveness of these activities. These ratings were completed using 9-point Likert
scales, with 1 being the lowest, and 9 being the highest rating. The results can
be seen in Table 4.

Table 4. Overall opinions about shadowing activities on 9 point likert-scale

Questions Time 2 Time 3
How much do you like the shadowing activity? 7.50 (4–9)* 7.63 (6–9)
How much do you think it is helping your pronunciation? 6.81 (4–9) 7.5 (6–9)
* figures in parentheses connote range

Similar open-ended questions were also asked to get a more nuanced sense of
participants’ opinions about shadowing. These responses are taken from the third
interview, when participants had completed all of the required activities. When
asked, “How did you find the shadowing project overall?” all but one of the com-
ments were generally positive. The negative comment indicated that the activity
could be tedious.
If I could do it with somebody for me it would be more, how do we say it, more
interesting… yeah it was not bad. We had the challenge of, you know, doing this
four times. Sometimes I don’t feel like doing it, I say, okay, I’ve got to do it.
 (Part 2)

There was also one participant who noted that at the start of the project she didn’t
believe the activities worked, but as time passed she felt they were improving
46 Jennifer A. Foote and Kim McDonough

her fluency. One other indicated that although the activities were helpful, he still
needed more practice. Participants gave several reasons as to why they felt posi-
tive about the shadowing activities. Some participants liked the obligatory nature
of the practice activities because it pushed them to improve. This can be seen in
the comment below:
I think it’s useful… we have to you know, it’s like a job. When you accept a task it’s
like a job and it force you to practice it like every week so it will keep you on the,
uh, it’s like accent. You can perfect your accent and sound and like the speed and
you can also learn some interesting story from the dialogue so, yes, I find it’s good.
 (Part 3)

Others noted specific skills that they felt had improved, the relatively small amount
of time required to complete the activities, and having access to authentic materi-
als.
The participants were also asked “Do you think this is an effective technique
for improving pronunciation?” All participants answered positively and some of-
fered reasons for why they found instruction effective. One participant indicated
that he found the activity more useful than traditional classroom instruction.
I mean compared to the class, the classical class I’m taking, I mean the university
courses you know, always testing the rule… but it’s not the right thing to do when
you really want to change the student, the real way of speaking you know.
 (Part 5)

Others indicated that it was useful in the absence of a speaking partner. For ex-
ample, Part 10 stated, “Yes, it’s um, especially it useful when there is no one who can
shadow you. So the recording device would serve as a partner.”
When asked about whether they believed their own pronunciation had im-
proved, 10 of the participants gave positive responses. However, one did not be-
lieve he had improved:
I won’t say a lot but I think my French background will always stays. I think the
better way for me, I think to be really Anglophone Anglophone is like to leave
Quebec, live at New York for one year and be really obliged to speak English and
I cannot speak French. (Part 2)

Five others gave qualified responses. For example, Participant 14 wasn’t sure how
much she had improved: “Uh, yes it improved, but I don’t know how good I im-
prove.” Another hoped she had improved but wasn’t sure, and one thought he had
improved a little bit. Two participants indicated that they thought a large improve-
ment would take longer than the eight weeks of the project.
 Using shadowing with mobile technology to improve L2 pronunciation 47

Uh, I think so. But I want be better. Yeah sometimes still some Chinese accent so I
want like you, like the you know native speaker, but it requires a long time.
 (Part 4)

Yes, little bit but it’s not too long time so if I go on and practice I think I will im-
prove more. (Part 13)

Among the participants who felt positive about their improvement, one noted that
she felt she could better express her emotions though her pronunciation, and one
mentioned that she felt more confident talking with native speakers.
The participants were also asked if there was anything they thought would
improve the shadowing activities. The responses to this question are summarized
in Table 5.

Table 5. Suggested improvements for the shadowing activity

Improvement Frequency of comments
Technical improvements 4
Content improvements 4
Getting feedback 2
Practicing with others 2
More intensive practice 2

The most common responses related to technical improvements and content im-
provements. The technical comments included issues with glitches with e-mail
and YouTube® videos, as well as suggestions for improvements to the app such as
a pause function. The comments about content included requests for more varied
types of content (e.g., stories as well as dialogues), for participants to have a range
of materials from which to choose, for more difficult dialogues, and for dialogues
that slowly increased in difficulty as the study progressed.
Finally, the participants were asked whether they would recommend the shad-
owing activities to friends who wanted to improve their pronunciation. All of the
participants said that they would and two mentioned that they already had. One
of the participants said that she had recommended it to her friends in China, and
another said that she planned to continue with shadowing when she returned to
China and would no longer have access to L1 English-speaking interlocutors.
One question that needs to be addressed as part of the results is the six partici-
pants who were not interviewed because they did not complete the study. There
is a possibility that these participants did not complete the study because they did
not like the activity or became bored with it, which could skew the interview data.
However, it should be noted that of these six participants, four did not complete
48 Jennifer A. Foote and Kim McDonough

even the first week. Therefore, while they may not have liked shadowing, it is also
fair to say that they did not attempt it long enough for boredom to be a factor or
to really get a sense of whether or not it was helping their speech. As for the other
two, one dropped out of the study after week 3, and the other week 6. For these
two participants, it is possible that boredom and frustration with the activity was
a contributing factor to their decision to leave the study.

4. Discussion

This study investigated whether using mobile technology for individual prac-
tice with shadowing could improve advanced English learners’ ability to imitate
speech models and also improve their comprehensibility, accentedness, and flu-
ency when completing an extemporaneous speaking task. Listener judgments in-
dicated that that the participants significantly improved in their ability to imitate
a speech model, and also improved in terms of comprehensibility and fluency.
However, accentedness did not improve. The study also investigated how language
learners felt about doing shadowing activities on their own time to improve their
pronunciation. Overall, the responses indicated that participants were positive
about the shadowing activities, and saw them as an effective way to improve their
pronunciation.

4.1 Speech ratings

As was discussed earlier, when judging the utility of pronunciation training tech-
niques, it is important to know whether changes in pronunciation after an inter-
vention are such that they can actually make a difference in how a learner’s speech
is perceived by other listeners. For this reason, human raters rather than linguistic
measures were used to assess whether the participants’ ability to imitate the speech
model improved. The ratings showed that the changes in the participants’ speech
were noticeable to untrained listeners. More importantly, this improvement was
also borne out in the comprehensibility ratings of the extemporaneous speaking
task and the effect sizes for all of the significant results were large. Further, the
improvements in the participants’ fluency ratings indicate that shadowing may
carry a potential additional benefit to learners in helping them improve their flu-
ency. Combined, these results indicate that shadowing shows a great deal of prom-
ise for helping learners improve their L2 speech. The post hoc analysis revealed
that while there was overall improvement on these measures, there was not always
improvement from one testing time to the next. This suggests that there may be
minimal thresholds for noticeable improvement and possible points at which the
 Using shadowing with mobile technology to improve L2 pronunciation 49

benefits of shadowing decline. However to understand this fully, more research

would need to be done.
The one measure that did not show improvement was accentedness. This
finding reinforces the evidence demonstrating that accentedness is only partially
related to comprehensibility (Munro & Derwing, 1995) and echoes similar find-
ings from a pronunciation intervention by Derwing et al. (2014) which found that
the comprehensibility ratings of their participants improved after a pronunciation
course, but that accentedness scores actually worsened significantly when com-
pleting the same suitcase story task used in this study. However, in the Derwing
et al. study, two different extemporaneous speaking tasks were used, and accent-
edness did improve on the other task. It is well documented that listeners are ex-
tremely sensitive to accent, with Flege (1984) finding that participants were able to
detect a foreign accent in speech even when hearing only a part of one /t/ segment.
It may be that very small shifts in pronunciation during a given utterance can lead
to differences that are detectable to listeners but unimportant to having speech
that is easy to understand. Given that the participants did show improvement in
comprehensibility, a lack of improvement in accent is not of great concern.

4.2 Learner opinions about shadowing

This study strove to have high ecological validity by asking learners to complete
the activities in their own time, and, for the most part, to practice how they liked.
However, the participants were held accountable for a minimum amount of prac-
tice by their weekly reports and by the four speech samples they e-mailed the re-
searcher each week. Further, the participants were paid for their participation, and
self-selected to do the study. For learners studying on their own, the only account-
ability they will have is to themselves. If learners don’t like shadowing, or don’t
believe it is effective, they are unlikely to do it for very long. Further, an instructor
asking learners to spend a significant amount of time outside of class on shadow-
ing activities would want to know that learners are likely to find these activities
reasonably enjoyable and beneficial. Overall, the participants in this study were
very positive about the shadowing activities. All of the participants believed that
it was an effective technique for improving pronunciation, though not all were
confident that they had made large amounts of improvement. While some partici-
pants mentioned that they would have found the activities more enjoyable if they
were able to work with other people, it was also noted that the activities were an
effective way to get speaking practice when speaking partners were not available.
It is also interesting that the Likert scale ratings for how much the participants
enjoyed the activity, and for how effective they thought it was, were higher at the
end of the study than they were partway through. This suggests that despite Bovee
50 Jennifer A. Foote and Kim McDonough

and Stewart’s (2009) claim that shadowing is seen as “meaningless parrot-like

practice,” learners actually tend to appreciate it more when sticking with it over a
longer period of time. This finding is echoed in Ding’s (2007) findings from inter-
views with highly successful language learners who, when talking about imitation-
based activities, noted that they “had been initially forced to use these methods
but gradually came to appreciate them” (p. 272). This is not to say the participants
initially disliked the activities, but rather that their appreciation of the activities
and their belief in their efficacy increased over time rather than waning.

4.3 Implications for instruction

Shadowing activities with mobile technology may offer a valuable tool for learners
looking for ways to improve pronunciation on their own, or for instructors hoping
to provide additional to support to language learners who struggle with pronunci-
ation. However, it should be noted that while the activities used in this study show
promise, they should not be considered as a replacement for classroom-based pro-
nunciation instruction. While shadowing may help learners become more com-
prehensible and fluent in their L2, there is not sufficient evidence to suggest that
shadowing alone can help learners improve all aspects of speech that may impact
comprehensibility.
If choosing to use shadowing activities with learners, it is important to give
careful consideration to the models used for shadowing. While many participants
liked using sitcom dialogues because of their idiomatic language, others would
have preferred different content. This study had learners use the same dialogues
in order to control content as a variable in the study. However, in practice it may
make sense to allow learners to choose their own speech models based on their
language learning goals, or to choose speech models that are appropriate for spe-
cific learner groups.

4.5 Limitations and suggestions for future research

This study had several limitations that could be addressed in future research. First,
due to participant self-selection and a lack of a control group, the results must be
interpreted with caution. Many of the learners were enrolled in ESL classes during
the course of the study, and all had exposure to English outside of class. However,
it should be noted that in a study tracking language development for L1 Mandarin
and Slavic speakers of English speakers in an ESL context, Derwing, Munro, and
Thomson (2008) found that for the Mandarin participants there was no statis-
tically significant improvement in comprehensibility or fluency after two years
and only a small improvement for the Slavic speakers. These participants had just
 Using shadowing with mobile technology to improve L2 pronunciation 51

arrived in Canada at the start of the study, spent the first year of the study in full
time ESL classes, and were assessed using The Suitcase Story that was used in the
present study. These findings do not make up for a control group, but do suggest
that attributing improvements to the shadowing activities is not unreasonable.
Another limitation is the use of self-report for tracking practice time. While
participants were asked to email in examples of their shadowing practice each
week, the amount of time learners spent practicing was emailed in weekly reports,
and as such it is not possible to be certain that all of the participants practiced
as much as they claimed. Another limitation is the possibility of a practice effect
from using the same tasks at three different times. However, given that the tests
were spaced fairly far apart, the impact of a practice effect should be limited, and
a number of other similar studies have used identical elicitation tasks for pre- and
post-tests (e.g., Derwing et al. 2008).
Future studies could investigate a wider range of learner variables. Language
background would be an interesting variable to study further as specific segmental
and suprasegmental difficulties that learners face, which are often strongly influ-
enced by the L1, may be more or less amenable to improvement through shadow-
ing activities. Context is another potentially interesting variable. This study took
place in an ESL context, where learners have more access to other types of English
input and feedback outside of class. It would be interesting to see whether the effi-
cacy of the activities, and learners’ opinions about the activities, would be different
in an EFL context. Finally, the proficiency level of the participants could moderate
the impact of shadowing activities.
The use of recorders with shadowing would also be a variable that could be ex-
plored in greater detail in future studies. Shadowing does not by definition require
audio recordings, and in practice, using recorders with shadowing is common,
but not universal. Mobile technology makes recording easy, and may help learners
notice their own errors, thus facilitating change. Using learner recordings is com-
monly advocated as a method for pronunciation instruction (e.g., Walker, 2005).
However, this study did not compare shadowing with and without recorders so
it is impossible to know how much the use of recordings impacted the efficacy of
shadowing. Repetition is another aspect of shadowing that warrants further inves-
tigation as shadowing does not require learners to repeatedly practice the same
material, and it would be helpful to know if repetition plays a facilitating role in
improvement. Finally, the amount of time learners spent practicing was only mini-
mally controlled in this study. Future studies could examine this variable further
to try to uncover how much practice is required to see improvement.
52 Jennifer A. Foote and Kim McDonough

5. Conclusion

This study demonstrated that shadowing shows promise as a way to help learners
improve their pronunciation and fluency. The use of mobile technology means that
this technique may be a practical solution for learners who do not have access to
pronunciation instruction, and instructors who are looking to help students who
need extra help with pronunciation. Due to its repetitive nature, there may be a re-
luctance to recommend this activity to learners, regardless of its efficacy. However,
interviews with participants indicate that learners enjoyed shadowing and saw it
as an effective way to improve their pronunciation. The findings of this study are
in line with other studies that have investigated shadowing as a technique for pro-
nunciation improvement; this study extends these findings by demonstrating that
these improvements can be detected by untrained listeners, and lead to improved
comprehensibility of extemporaneous speech making this activity of potentially
high utility for leaners who want to communicate more effectively.

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Appendix A

Note: All transcripts are available on request from the first author.
Week 1: The Big Bang Theory
Title on YouTube®: Why can’t Sheldon lie convincingly?
URL: [Link] (Time: 0:23–1:30)
Lorre, C. & Prady, B. (Creators). (2007–). The Big Bang Theory [Television series].
Burbank, CA: Warner Bros. Television.
Week 2: How I Met Your Mother
Title on YouTube®: How I Met Your Mother – Drawing a Blank
URL: [Link] (Time 0:00–1:15)
Bays, C. &Thomas C. (Creators). (2005–2014). How I Met Your Mother [Television se-
ries]. Los Angeles, CA: 20th Century Fox Studios.
Week 3: Friends
Title on YouTube®: Lazy Chandler wins over Monica
URL: [Link] (0:00–1:01)
Crane, D. & Kauffman, M. (Creators). (1994–2004). Friends [Television series]. Burbank,
CA: Warner Bros.
Week 4: Raising Hope
Title on YouTube®: Burt Runs Out Of “Burt Bucks” from “Deja Vu Man” | RAISING HOPE
| FOX BROADCASTING
URL: [Link] (0:00–0:58)
Garica, G.T (Creator). (2010–2014). Raising Hope [Television series]. Los Angeles, CA:
20th Century Fox Studios.
Week 5: New Girl
Title on YouTube®: Confession from “Double Date” | NEW GIRL | FOX BROADCASTING
URL: [Link] (whole clip)
Meriwether, E. (Creator). (2011–). New Girl [Television series]. Los Angeles, CA: Fox.
Week 6: Friends
Title on YouTube®: Friends – The Secret Closet[Joey & Chandler]
URL: [Link] (0:00–1:12)
Crane, D. & Kauffman, M. (Creators). (1994–2004). Friends [Television series]. Burbank,
CA: Warner Bros.
 Using shadowing with mobile technology to improve L2 pronunciation 55

Week 7: The Big Bang Theory

Title on YouTube®: The Big Bang Theory – sheldon asks penny out on a date
URL: [Link] (0:07–1:13)
Lorre, C. & Prady, B. (Producer). (2007–). The Big Bang Theory [Television series].
Burbank, CA: Warner Bros. Television.
Week 8 Car: New Girl
Title on YouTube®: Jess Hits Schmidt With Her Car from “Longest Night Ever” | NEW
GIRL | FOX BROADCASTING
URL: [Link] (0:00–0:53)
Meriwether, E. (Creator). (2011–). New Girl [Television series]. Los Angeles, CA: Fox.

Appendix B

Questions from Final Interview

How did you find the shadowing project overall?
1. Did the way you used the dialogue and practiced change as the experiment went on?
2. Do you feel like being able to listen to your own recorded speech was helpful or was it un-
necessary?
3. Do you find the dialogues difficult or easy? Is one week too much, too little, or about right
for practicing?
4. What did you think of the length of the study? Do you feel like you are getting tired of the
shadowing or would you like to keep going if you could?
5. Is there anything that would improve the shadowing for you?
6. Do you think this is an effective technique for improving pronunciation?
7. Do you feel your pronunciation is improving as a result of the shadowing activities?
8. Do you feel your listening skills are improving?
9. Are there any other skills you think this type of practice is helping you with?
10. Would you recommend this technique to friends?
11. Do you feel that aside from the money, you benefitted from taking part in this project?
12. Can you think of anything else that you would like to say about this project or about the
shadowing?
Rate out of 9
How much you like the shadowing activity
I don’t like it I love it
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
How much do you think it is helping your pronunciation?
Not at all A lot
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
How much is it helping your listening skills
Not at all A lot
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
56 Jennifer A. Foote and Kim McDonough

Authors’ addresses
Jennifer A. Foote Kim McDonough
English Language School Department of Education, S-FG 6151
Faculty of Extension 1610 St. Catherine W.
10230 Jasper Avenue Montreal, QC H3H 2S2
Edmonton, AB T5J 4P6 Canada
Canada