Using Shadowing Technique to Measure B1 Level Learners’ Attitudes towards their Speaking Skills

Abstract

Speaking has been stated as being one of the most challenging skills by EFL learners in Turkey. A combination of psychological factors such as anxiety or fear of being criticized and linguistic incompetence has led to this problem. Although initially emerged as a tool to assist learners in listening skills, shadowing technique has also proven to be useful in improving learners’ speaking skills as well. The aim of the present study was to see if shadowing technique was efficient enough to help B1 level EFL learners develop positive attitudes towards their speaking skills. Furthermore, the study set out to see if learners get rid of their speaking anxiety and could take active part in communicative activities in the future classes. For this ultimate purpose, a Likert scale consisting of seven questions and interview questions were used. After taking the required permission from the ethics committee, the study was conducted for four weeks, in which participants listened to and repeated the tracks from the podcasts chosen in accordance with their language levels. 31 participants took part in the study. The participants were asked to carefully watch the recordings by paying attention to the pronunciation, stress and intonation. The results from the study were analysed through content analysis and a descriptive research design was used. According to the results, it was observed that the majority of the participants developed positive attitudes towards speaking skills and felt more willing to express themselves in communicative activities. Further studies with more participants are recommended to see if shadowing technique is also applicable in different contexts and groups.