The effects of embodied shadowing accuracy during embodied shadowing training on L2 English pronunciation

Yao, Ting

The effects of embodied shadowing accuracy during embodied shadowing training on L2 English pronunciation

License

Citation

Yao, T. The effects of embodied shadowing accuracy during embodied shadowing training on L2 English pronunciation. 2022. handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10230/54068

This citation was generated automatically.

Abstract

Recent evidence suggests that the shadowing technique (i.e., the immediate vocalization of speech stimuli) may be an effective tool to improve L2 English learners’ pronunciation. However, little is known about the effectiveness of embodied shadowing (i.e., the immediate vocalization and physical reproduction of multimodal stimuli) and the role of the individual (embodied) shadowing accuracy during training (i.e., the time-lapse or latency between the target L2 speech/gesture and the learners’ (embodied) repetition). This training study first investigates the impacts of embodiment during shadowing on improving L2 English pronunciation, and secondly, it assesses the potential effects of the learners’ embodied shadowing accuracy during pronunciation training on comprehensibility, accentedness, and fluency gains. The present MA Thesis used the audio-visual corpus obtained by Tamburini (2020), in which fifty-four learners of English were trained during six sessions in two shadowing conditions, namely Non-Embodied Shadowing and Embodied Shadowing. An analysis was performed on embodied shadowing accuracy during pronunciation training. A reassessment of pronunciation scores in pre-test and post-test reading tasks revealed a significant improvement in speech fluency in the Non-Embodied Shadowing group, but no significant improvement in comprehensibility, accentedness, or fluency in the Embodied Shadowing condition. Interestingly, it was demonstrated that shorter speech and gesture latencies significantly predicted better comprehensibility and fluency scores at the post-test, suggesting that shadowing latency is a key variable when performing embodied shadowing. This study highlights the positive effects of using non-embodied shadowing techniques to improve L2 speech fluency and encourages instructors using the shadowing technique to pay attention to the shadowing accuracy of their students by training them on shortening their latency times.