Developing a new shadowing procedure for listening vocabulary: selective shadowing

Abstract

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners often struggle with weak bottom-up listening skills and therefore strive to improve these skills. Shadowing has served as a useful practice for helping such learners. Meanwhile, vocabulary research has shown that, while there is a strong connection between listening vocabulary and listening comprehension, listening vocabulary is weaker than written vocabulary. Learners' lack of listening vocabulary can impede successful listening comprehension even if their bottom-up listening process is enhanced; however, fewer practices for aural vocabulary learning have been developed. Thus, the purpose of the study is to propose a set of procedures for improving EFL learners' listening vocabulary using a new type of shadowing—selective shadowing. In the quasi-experimental design, 34 Japanese university students practiced selective shadowing in Study I, and 25 did it in Study II on Zoom during five classes. Productive aural vocabulary was examined in Study I, while receptive aural vocabulary was examined in Study II. The finding of the two studies is that selective shadowing effectively improved learners' aural vocabulary.