Is the Shadowing Technique Really Effective for Improving EFL Learners’ Listening Comprehension Skills?
(Paper) Prof Chiyo Myojin More and more Japanese teachers of English point out recently that a “Shadowing” technique is quite effective for improving Japanese EFL learners’ listening comprehension skills. The Shadowing technique refers to training Japanese learners to repeat English utterances with a couple of seconds delay, as they hear them ,without looking at their transcription. Although this technique was originally adopted as a method of training Japanese professional simultaneous interpreters of English, more and more Japanese school teachers have started paying attention to the technique and have become interested in actually adopting it in their EFL classes. However, only a few researchers have examined how effective Shadowing is for improving Japanese students’ listening comprehension skills. Therefore, this study explains in what ways and why Shadowing is effective, and also how to introduce it effectively in EFL classrooms. This study also investigates how much effect Shado
