Shadowing for Speaking Based on the Cognitive Brain System

The Center for International Foreign Language Teacher Education (CIFLTE) is hosting a talk with Professor Yuka Muraoka on the topic Shadowing for Speaking Based on the Cognitive Brain System.

The session will be held Wednesday, Nov. 6th, from 11 AM - 1:00 PM ET in Horace Mann 431, Teachers College. 

Register for the session here. All are welcome to join!

This presentation may be of particular interest to those who are interested in the following
questions:
(1) How can L2 speaking skills be improved even in the EFL context?
(2) What cognitive processes are involved in L2 production?

In this presentation, I will introduce the results of the 2023 Japanese National Assessment of Academic Progress, which revealed that the speaking test scores of Japanese junior high school students were very poor. Then I will explain how shadowing helps to improve speaking skills. Shadowing is an oral practice method that involves listening and speaking. The learner tracks and repeats the spoken word as accurately as possible while listening attentively to the incoming information.

Levelt's model of language production suggests that three cognitive processes (the conceptualizer, the formulator, and the articulator) are involved in production. The formulator and articulator are automatized and require no conscious effort for native speakers. However, L2 learners with limited proficiency may have to pay conscious attention to all three processes, making their speaking disfluent and inefficient. Shadowing can help to automatize the formulator and the articulator. I will explain in detail how shadowing training can improve these processes from a theoretical perspective.

Then, I present a summary of the up-to-date studies investigating the effects of shadowing practice on listening and speaking. Finally, I introduce the shadowing training method for improving L2 speaking proficiency. This training method is based on the three-stage model of language acquisition proposed by Kadota (2015, 2018) and involves seven steps of practice.

Key Words for This Lecture: L2 Production, L2 Fluency, Shadowing

Contact: ZZ (Zhizi) Chen