Using the shadowing technique in teaching phonetics to linguistics students: challenges and potential solutions

Abstract

The paper describes the use of the shadowing technique, which entails learners of the foreign language reading an authentic text together with the speaker in order to copy the rhythm and tempo, and connected speech peculiarities, thereby, improving their articulation, phonetic, lexical, grammatical, translation and other skills in the foreign language. According to the observations of other researchers, this method helps students improve articulation and intonation characteristics, and speech fluency; however, there is no comprehensive description of the issues discovered by the authors while using this method with the students of linguistic specialties in phonetics course. Based on the observations of 96 first-year students who study Linguistics and Pedagogy with the B1+ level according to the CEFR, the researchers have identified a number of challenges in using this method to teach students of the linguistic faculties. The students may face the following issues: 1) difficulties with making their own markings especially in the beginning of their studies; 2) skeptical attitude towards the changes made, trouble identifying the right tone; 3) reluctance of a particular percentage of students to spend enough time on self-study which this technique is predicated upon (in the current study, this was around a quarter of the students); 4) particular sound articulation challenges, difficulty copying English tones, as well as pronouncing long thought groups; 5) psychological barriers. The authors suggest potential solutions, such as using Praat software to analyze speech, measuring pitch and intensity to resolve markup disputes; emphasizing and illustrating the importance of studying the phonetic aspects of the language to achieve successful communication; targeted work with the articulation of sounds that are absent or different from Russian ones.