The perception of first year english majors at hanoi pedagogical univerity 2 towards the effectiveness of shadowing technique as a method of improving speaking skills

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2 FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES NGUYEN THI TRA GIANG THE PERCEPTION OF FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2 TOWARDS THE USE OF THE SHA

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2 FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

NGUYEN THI TRA GIANG

THE PERCEPTION OF FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2 TOWARDS THE USE OF THE SHADOWING TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS

SUPERVISOR: DO THI HUONG, M A

HANOI, 2019

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2 FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

NGUYEN THI TRA GIANG

THE PERCEPTION OF FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2 TOWARDS THE USE OF THE SHADOWING TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE SPEAKING SKILLS

SUPERVISOR

DO THI HUONG, M A

HANOI, 2019

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DECLARATION

I certify that this minor thesis entitled “The perception of first-year English majors at Hanoi Pedagogical Univerity 2 towards the effectiveness of shadowing technique as a method of improving speaking skills” is the study of

my own research and the substance of this research has not been submitted for a degree to any other university or institution

Hanoi, 2019

Nguyen Thi Tra Giang

Secondly, I am greatly indebted to the Faculty of Foreign Language (FFL), Hanoi Pedagogical University 2 (HPU2), for giving me the honor of writing this research I also sincerely thank all the lecturers and staffs of the faculty for their valuable lessons and precious help

Moreover, I am thankful to my family and friends from the bottom of my heart I could not go through the hardship to complete this study without their support and encouragement

Last but not least, my sincere thanks also go to all the participants for their willingness and honest to join in this study, especially ten students in the focused group for taking part in my project

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ABSTRACT

The majority of language learners encounters difficulties when speaking in the target language For the first-year English majors at HPU2, there still have some common problems regarding speaking practice, such as lack of vocabulary, poor pronunciation, etc So, it is essential that different speaking techniques should be taken into consideration to enhance students‟ speaking skills Meanwhile, shadowing is a technique that has been widely used around the world, especially Japan, to practice speaking and listening for many years Many studies have shown that shadowing helps to raise awareness of the target language sounds as well as developing proficiency in speaking mainly in university students (e.g., Hamada, 2011a, 2012; Kato, 2009; Kuramoto & Matsuura, 2002) However, in the context of Vietnam, it is still a new method that only a few colleges have applied it to train students oral abilities Especially in the Faculty of Foreign Languages (FFL) at HPU2, majority of students have not known this method to practice speaking Therefore, it needs investigation As a result, this study was set out to explore first-year English majors‟ primary speaking problems, and their perspective of the use of shadowing technique and their difficulties when applying it to practice speaking The research utilized questionnaires and interviews to collect data on self-evaluation of two groups, one group conducted of 50 students about their speaking mistakes, and the target group consisted of 10 students, who came from the first group, about the effectiveness of shadowing and the difficulties when applying it

As can be seen from the qualitative and quantitative data, the results illustrate that students‟ opinions about the use of shadowing technique in the improvements of speaking abilities are positive It proves that the use of the shadowing technique can improve students‟ speaking abilities Some solutions are also provided in this study

to help students have appropriate ways when using shadowing to enhance speaking skills

Keywords: shadowing technique, shadowing, first-year English majors, speaking problems

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

FFL: Faculty of Foreign Languages

HPU2: Hanoi Pedagogical University 2

p: page

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Categories to evaluate speaking abilities (Pineda, 2017, p15) 5

Table 2 The procedure of the shadowing technique 10

Table 3 Classification of shadowing (cited in Tamai, 2005) 11

Table 4 Murphey‟s types of shadowing (2001) (as cited in Hamada, 2012) 11

Table 5 The level of negativity of factors causing difficulties when students practice with shadowing technique 27

Table 6 Students‟ level of frequency encountering shadowing difficulties 31

Table 7 Students‟ self-evaluation of improvement after one-month practicing shadowing 32

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1 Students‟ self-evaluation their speaking skills 22

Figure 4.2 Students‟ common problems when communicating in English 23

Figure 4.3 Students‟ awareness of the shadowing technique 25

Figure 4.4 Students‟ attitude towards the effect of the shadowing technique in speaking 26

Figure 4.5 How often students practice the shadowing technique 29 Figure 4.6 Students‟ willingness to continue practice with shadowing technique 34

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1.Overview 1

1.2 Rationale of the study 1

1.3 Aims of the study 2

1.4 The research questions 2

1.5 Scope of the study 2

1.6 Organization of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Overview 4

2.2 Speaking skills 4

2.2.1 Definition of speaking 4

2.2.2 Aspects of speaking skills 4

2.2.3 Common problems in learning speaking skills 6

2.3 Shadowing technique 7

2.3.1 Definition of shadowing technique 7

2.3.2 Stages of shadowing task 8

2.3.3 Classification of shadowing 10

2.3.4 The importance of shadowing technique in developing speaking skills 12

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 14

3.1 Overview 14

3.2 Participants 14

3.3 Instruments 15

3.3.1 Questionnaire 15

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3.3.1.1 The first questionnaire 16

3.3.1.2 The second questionnaire 16

3.3.2 Interview 16

3.3.2.1 The first interview 17

3.3.2.2 The second interview 17

3.4 Procedure 18

3.4.1 Questionnaire procedure 18

3.4.2 Interview procedure 18

3.4.3 Shadowing procedure 18

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 21

4.1 Overview 21

4.2 The speaking problems encountered by the first-year English majors of HPU2 21

4.2.1 Students self-evaluation their speaking abilities 22

4.2.2 Students‟ common problems when communicating in English 23

4.2.3 The awareness of students of the shadowing technique 25

4.2.4 Level of the frequency of students practice shadowing technique 26

4.3 Students‟ perspectives in the effectiveness of the shadowing technique 27

4.3.1 Students‟ self-evaluation their improvement after one-month shadowing 27

4.3.2 Students‟ attitudes towards the effects of shadowing technique in practicing speaking 29

4.4 Some difficulties faced by students when practicing shadowing technique 30

4.4.1 The level of negativity of factors causing difficulties when students practice shadowing technique 31

4.4.2 Students‟ level of frequency encountering shadowing problems when practicing shadowing 32

4.4.3 Students‟ willingness to continue practice with shadowing technique 34

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 36

5.1 Overview 36

5.2 Conclusion 36

5.3 Limitations of the study 37

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5.4 Suggestions for further study 37

REFERENCES 38

APPENDICES 42

APPENDIX 1 42

APPENDIX 2 45

APPENDIX 3 48

APPENDIX 4 49

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1.Overview

This chapter reviews some overview information about this study Particularly, the first part is about statements of the problems, why this research was conducted The second part provides the aims of the study Then the next part gives information about the scopes as well as some significance of the study The last part

is the outline organization of this research paper

1.2 The rationale of the study

In the world in general and Vietnam in particular, in the past few years, it can not be denied that English is boosting, and much more attention has been paid to educate English (Luu, 2014) Due to its significance, people have taken great sufficient consideration into gaining the language in order to reach the international level Many institutes, centers, and university‟s departments have been in operation because of English bloom to meet learners‟ needs of mastering four skills, including speaking, the most difficult skill to master English (Zhang, 2000) Also, the first-year English majors at Hanoi Pedagogical University 2 often fall into confusion while speaking English because of the lack of practice, knowledge, and confidence However, another serious problem is the lack of self-study methods which are suitable with their level In order to improve their speaking skills, shadowing technique is in top choices as its effectiveness has been proved in many countries, especially Japan

Recently, the shadowing technique is attracting much attention of English educators and learners Originally, the shadowing technique was aimed to train simultaneous interpreters; however, its efficiency in developing foreign language learning has been appreciated and started to be used in the classroom or self-study The effectiveness of shadowing technique in particularly developing oral skills has been investigated and recognized through the field of teaching and learning foreign languages (Lambert, 1992; Murphey, 2001; Kuramoto & Matsuura, 2002; Tamai,

1997, 2002; Lin, 2009; Hamada, 2014, 2016.) For instance, Hamada (2014) examined some claims about shadowing technique, and the result showed that it is one of the most effective techniques for lower-proficiency learners Hence, it is believed that such a method can help learners to reduce the limit, and bring a different way to teach and learn speaking skills, in the effort to improve it

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Even though the shadowing technique is popular around the world, in Vietnam, there has been very little research accompany with this field In Hanoi Pedagogical University 2, this might be an untouched area, as no study in the same topic can be found Therefore, this research is hoped to provide a suitable way to self-study for first-year English majors, who experience the difficulties while speaking, and the awareness of them towards the effectiveness of the shadowing technique

1.3 Aims of the study

First and foremost, the study is hoped to help the first-year English majors at Hanoi Pedagogical University 2 find out their suitable ways to learn speaking skills, through introducing them shadowing technique Also, it introduces how to use it in self-studying, thereby having a deeper observation for how students perceive the shadowing technique and figuring out the difficulties when using it and solutions for better speaking skills

1.4 The research questions

As can be seen from the Introduction chapter, these study purposes are to investigate students‟ common speaking problems when speaking English, their perspective about the use of shadowing, and some difficulties they faced when applying it to practice speaking To cope with the aims of the study, the author raises some following questions:

+ What are some common difficulties faced by first-year English majors in

an attempt to master speaking skills?

+ What are the effects of shadowing on students‟ speaking skills (as perceived by students)?

+ What difficulties are encountered by students when practicing the shadowing technique?

1.5 Scope of the study

Because of time limitation, the study can only investigate the perspective of a small number of first-year English majors towards the use of the shadowing technique, and their difficulties when applying it to practice

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Despite the shortcoming of the study, its result could be a suggestion for any English learners whose purpose to improve their speaking abilities Besides, the shadowing technique is not only used for self-studying, but it is also employed in class by teachers as a recommended reference for their English speaking teaching methods

1.6 Organization of the study

The research paper consists of 5 chapters

Chapter 1 includes brief information about the reason for choosing the topic, together with the aims, the scopes as well as the design of the study

Chapter 2 reviews the previous researches about the definition of speaking skills, and its important role in language learning, as well as shadowing technique‟s definitions and how shadowing is appreciated in the field of teaching and learning speaking skills

In chapter 3, the methods and the procedures used in this study to find out the answers to its questions would be presented

Chapter 4 reveals the study‟s findings of students‟ comments toward shadowing technique

Chapter 5 is the conclusion of this research paper, and it also suggests some solutions to the preceding problems discussed in the previous chapter

2.2 Speaking skills

2.2.1 Definition of speaking

Among four skills, speaking, together with writing, is classified as a productive skill and described as a process of delivering information and sharing one‟s ideas and emotions in oral communication Moreover, speaking is said to be one of the first aspects of communication in which special orientation and training

is of paramount important (Afshar & Asakereh, 2016) Therefore, plenty of researches have been in-depth studying to figure out its definition along with its nature

According to Solcova (2012, p.17), speaking is defined as “interactive progress in which individuals alternate in their roles as speakers and listeners and employ both verbal and non-verbal means to reach their communicative goals” Byrne (1976) stated that speaking is as a way speakers express their ideas by arranging the words In another study, Burns and Joyce (2007) declared that speaking is an act of meaning formation through interaction among people in which information is produced, received, and processed

2.2.2 Aspects of speaking skills

Srivastava (2014) indicated that there are two deciding aspects reflect English learners‟ speaking abilities in the future, accuracy, and fluency, in which the former is the ability of speakers to make correct sentences grammatically and the latter the ability to speak English smoothly without hesitation and pauses Hence, Shen (2013) also stated that accuracy focuses on exactness, while fluency illustrates the proficiency level in communication

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Pineda (2017, p.15) carried out the categories to evaluate students‟ speaking skills which can be applied to teaching speaking

ACCURACY Ability to master a language as a

system

FLUENCY Ability to use language to communicate

PRONUNCIATION Students‟ ability to pronounce

sounds and follow intonation and stress

patterns in an acceptable and

comprehensible manner

MECHANICAL SKILLS The ability to use pauses, punctuation, speed, rhythm and

sentence length

VOCABULARY Students‟ ability to produce

words in response to an appropriate

stimulus determine whether the learner

has certain words available to him to

use in speaking situations

LANGUAGE USE The ability to talk in coherent, reasoned and “semantically dense” sentences, showing a mastery of the semantic and grammatical resources of

the language GRAMMAR

Students‟ ability to produce

appropriate morphological and

syntactical patterns in a given speech

situation

JUDGMENT SKILLS The ability to have appropriate things to say in a wide range of contexts and for a particular audience Ability to select, organize, order, create, and develop thoughts

Table 1 Categories to evaluate speaking abilities (Pineda, 2017, p15)

Grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation are considered to evaluate the speakers‟ abilities of accuracy Fluency is assessed by mechanical skills, language use, and judgment skills Crystal (1987, p421) defined fluency as a “smooth, rapid, effortless use of language” Fluency is measured in the narrower sense which focuses on automacity and speed of speech construction (Lennon 1990) Regarding accuracy, Brand and Gotz (2011) claimed that when it comes to accuracy measurement, the first thing that should be taken into consideration is the use of lexical and syntactic items, and then the next thing is focusing on deficiency rather than on proficiency

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It is undoubtedly stressed that accuracy and fluency have a close relation So, the notion that accuracy and fluency principally affect successful communication is raised

2.2.3 Common problems in learning speaking skills

Besides the speaking aspects mentioned above, there are bound to speaking problems faced by foreign language learners which are worth-mentioned

Arifin (2007) conducted a study to have a deeper insight into how psychological problems affect the students in the speaking classroom He pointed out that there are two major problems in speaking, which are low-confidence and anxiety Notably, the unconfident students are easily influenced by the feeling that they are “stupid”, “worthless” (Afirin, 2007) In relating to anxiety, he also claimed that when a student performed a presentation in front of the class or a group of people, anxiety usually strikes Sharing the same point of view, Ur (1996) defined commonly-encountered problems among English learners as follows:

 Inhibition: fear of making mistakes, afraid of criticism, and shyness

 Nothing to say: learners have problem with finding motives to speak, expressing opinions, and giving comments

 Low or uneven participation: often caused by the tendency of some learners to dominate in the group

 Mother-tongue use: particularly common in fewer disciplines or less motivated classes, learners find it easier to show off their ideas in their native language

In terms of inhibition, as many researches, fear of making mistakes is considered the main factor are bringing negatively feelings affect students‟ speaking abilities Nakhala (2016) illustrated that shyness is a source of the problem encountered by students during speaking He explained that when one feels shy, his mind goes blank and forget what to say According to Brown and Lee (1994, p269),

“one of the major obstacles learners have to overcome in learning to speak the anxiety generated over the risks of blurting things out that are wrong, stupid, or incomprehensible”

Secondly, learners feel hard to think of anything to express their ideas because their mind goes blank Rivers (1968) indicated that when being asked about the topic they know very little or have no idea, students tend to keep silent

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Thirdly, participants in speaking class are distributed unfairly As reported by

Ur (1996), this problem was described as the large numbers of students in the speaking group tended to dominate the group It can be explained that in a group, there are different kinds of students with specific characteristics and levels Those who are more proactive and talkative will speak more often than quiet students Nguyen and Tran (2015) had the same opinion when it comes to speaking skills – related problems They claimed that hardly did any classroom speaking activities seemingly receive even participation from students

Finally, undoubtedly that the overuse of mother-tongue in speaking class hinders students from improving their speaking abilities Harmer (1991) defined that there are some reasons for such a certain issue First, if the students have to say something unfamiliar with them, they tend to use their language to more naturally express ideas and thoughts Secondly, it is comfortable to speak in mother-tongue language It is also stated in Nguyen and Tran (2015) Moreover, Rababah (2002) also shared the same opinion; he summarized that there are some factors causing difficulties in speaking English, which is related to the learners themselves, the teaching strategies, the curriculum, and the environment

2.3 Shadowing technique

2.3.1 Definition of shadowing technique

According to Manseur (2015, p18), “shadowing can be defined as the imitation of a particular input as it is heard in a short period of time as possible” He said it is repeating activity of the exact words of an audio track or recorder input of target language Lambert (1992) argued that shadowing is a task we vocalize immediately the auditory such as word-by-word repetition, parrot-style, in the same language

Tamai‟s research is regarded as one of the leading studies on shadowing technique, and his definition of the shadowing technique was cited in numerous works of researchers He defined shadowing as a listening exercise in which the English learners mimic speech while listening attentively to the incoming information (Tamai, 2002) He believed that shadowing is cognitive and active activities, where the students can listen while trail the heard speech and try to verbalize it It was first cited in the study of Nakanishi & Ueda (2011, p4), as “an act or task of listening in which the learners track the target speech and repeat it

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immediately as exactly as possible without looking at a text” Hseih & Dong (2013) believed that shadowing technique draws the attention of some scholars in Asia in recent years; in particular, Japanese people viewed shadowing as a helpful exercise

to be integrated into the English language program

Teeter (2017) led an investigation about improving inspiration to learn English in Japan with a Self-study Shadowing Application From his perspective, he pointed out that Shadowing, in the field of second language acquisition, is a technique to repeat auditory material almost at the same time Jaramillo & Isaza (2016) describe shadowing as a method to train interpreters in Europe, and it is widely applied in Japan to improve English skills nowadays Seo & Takeuchi (n.d) and Nakanishi & Ueda (2011) shared the same opinion when it comes to the use of shadowing among the simultaneous interpreters They stated that shadowing was originally regarded as a technique for training concurrent interpreters, but it is adapted in language classrooms by high school students and teachers They believed that this practice enables learners to develop their mental resources and memorial abilities

As noted by Maseur (2015, p18), shadowing, as the word denoted, “is repeating exact words of an audio track recorded input of target language” He explained that shadowing as ít name, the shadow does everything one does, and the shadower says everything the speaker says

Northbrook (2013) made a video for sharing his opinion about the shadowing technique He defined it as training for English fluency He stated that shadowing is

a good way to improve learners‟ pronunciation, accent, intonation, as well as rhythm because when the mouth is moving, the ears are paying attention simultaneously

To recapitulate, the definition of shadowing technique has varied over time

In this study, the researcher agrees with the definition of Manseur (2015) about the shadowing technique as the shadower imitates all of what the speaker said in a short time However, the general trend is for the meaning of the term to continue to evolve with the development of shadowing studies

2.3.2 Stages of shadowing task

Beside the definition of shadowing, the shadowing process should be taken into consideration

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Manseurs (2015, p28) suggested specific steps to practice shadowing as follows: “First and foremost, the shadower should find a recorder material that belongs to the target language Second, s/he should listen to the input as many times

as possible using a pair of headphones or earphones” The previous stages are called blind shadowing, which is implemented without using a written transcript He also commented that this is a difficult task and the shadower sometimes resorts to the subtitles or transcripts to practice shadowing Jaramillo and Isaza (2016) also suggested how to implement speech shadowing in a classroom with the same opinion regarding the first two steps mentioned above They stated that “the learners should listen as many times as possible to the audio until they are satisfied with their pronunciation” (Jaramillo and Isaza, 2016, p17) Specifically, when implementing shadowing in a classroom, the students are required to select an audio text to analyze the vocabulary Then, the shadower will listen to the audio again and again to become familiar with the speakers‟ pronunciation The participants in practicing shadowing can take advantages of being instructed by the speakers As long as they feel satisfied with their pronunciation during the shadowing process, they are required to record their own voice or shadow in front of the class Agreeing with others‟ points of view when suggesting shadowing phases, Northbrook (2013) also suggested different steps to practice shadowing properly In his opinion, the first step is that the students can find the materials for shadowing from TV shows, radio programs, audio books, etc The materials should be at each learners‟ level because the exercise is not used to improve comprehension but pronunciation and speaking Then, the shadower can print a text out, speak along with an mp3 several times, and look up new words from the dictionary He advised that the shadower should copy the speaker so closely, become that speaker in every single little pause, rhythm Finally, the practitioners get rid of the text and shadow without the text Concerning the transcript in shadowing, Manseur (2015) argued that the shadower ought not to resort to the transcription because he thought that using transcript during shadowing is an optional step because it will be much more effective if the shadower gets accustomed to the practice without a transcript

“Reading the transcript enables the shadower to recognized the content of the material to be shadowed, and if any difficult words are encountered, the shadower can use a dictionary in order to check the meaning of for better understanding of the input” (Manseur, 2015, p.29) Among those steps mentioned in Manseur‟s study (2015), emulation is regarded as the most crucial step This step requires the

1 Listening to the passage

2 Mumbling twice (silently shadow while reading the text)

3 Parallel reading (shadow while reading the text)

4 Silently checking to understand with the text for three minutes

5 Shadowing three times

6 Reviewing the text for three minutes to clarify difficult sounds and

meanings

7 Contents shadowing once (concentrate on both shadowing and the

meaning)

8 Listening again

Table 2 The procedure of the shadowing technique

In conclusion, the shadowing process is required to follow several essential steps to improve the learners' language skills better As can be seen from table 2, some steps need to be followed; besides, the author changed several steps to fit the level of the participants

2.3.3 Classification of shadowing

A significant number of researchers introduce several types of shadowing Manseur (2015) classified shadowing types in terms of the studies of psychology and language learning contexts

Kurata (as cited in Manseur, 2015) and Tamai (1997) shared the same opinion when suggesting five types of shadowing including full shadowing, delayed shadowing, phrase shadowing, parallel reading, and speed reading

Specifically, regarding full shadowing, the shadower imitates the entire input word by word after understanding the content (Manseur, 2015)

Full shadowing Articulate the same sounds at almost the same time while

listening to sounds of a text Delayed

shadowing

Do the same thing as full shadowing explained above, but not at the same time, rather, after a second

Silent shadowing Do shadowing phrase by phrase In this activity, a teacher

has students listen to targeted text with CD or a teacher‟s model reading phrase by phrase

Parallel reading Read aloud looking at a text while listening to sounds

Speed reading Read aloud as quickly as possible looking at a text In this

activity, the degree of understading the text is not important, and the teacher has each student measure how long it tool for an individual to finish reading the text

Table 3 Classification of shadowing (cited in Tamai, 2005)

According to Manseur (2015), concerning Murphey‟s types of shadowing, there are three main types: complete shadowing, selective shadowing, and interactive shadowing

Complete shadowing Listener shadows everything the speaker says

Selective shadowing Listener selects only certain words and phrases to shadow Interactive shadowing Selective shadowing + listener add questions and

comments from the listener into the conversation to make

it more natural

Table 4 Murphey’s types of shadowing (2001) (as cited in Hamada, 2012)

Murphey (2001) defined complete shadowing as a process where “listeners shadow everything speakers say” (p129) In other words, it refers to the full imitation of speech While selective shadowing requires the listeners choose only certain words and phrases to imitate, when practicing interactive shadowing, the

As can be seen from table 3, delayed shadowing may fit the aim of this research in terms of improving students‟ speaking abilities Therefore, the author put this kind of shadowing into practice during the research

2.3.4 The importance of shadowing technique in developing speaking skills

Shadowing can be one of the top methods for developing speaking abilities According to Jaramillo & Isaza (2016, p17), “When learners shadow the audio, they imitate the sounds, stress, pronunciation, and intonation of the audio, it helps to raise awareness on the way they speak” Manseur (2015) stated that students could enhance their oral fluency because, with this technique, students can self-correct their pronunciation A research on shadowing technique in English intonation instruction, which was conducted on 14 students, showed that the scored they got in pronunciation, fluency, and intonation when speaking, after experimenting shadowing, is significantly improved (Hseih & Dong, 2013) Regarding Japanese researches, students also evaluated shadowing positively For instance, shadowing helps them to listen to various words and phrases so that they can improve listening comprehension as well as speaking efficiency, or they can use muscles required to pronounce English properly (Horiyama, 2012) He believed that students could improve their listening and speaking skills by practicing shadowing every day

Sumarish (2017) did experimental research on 60 students in each group of two It was proved that shadowing had positive effectiveness in developing students‟ speaking and listening proficiency Sharing the same idea with him, Nguyen (2016, p30) stated that “if the shadowers can repeat chunks of sounds, a whole sentence or a whole passage while listening, it might help them activate some related knowledge about the context”

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As analyzed, shadowing technique can be of paramount importance for improving students‟ speaking abilities in particular and language learning in general

Reviewing the previous researches, the researcher found out if shadowing was the appropriate way to practice speaking abilities The use of it has been noticed all around the world because of its convenience and effectiveness However, shadowing is still quite new in Vietnam; the researcher encountered some difficulties when accessing related information With the hope of finding the appropriate way to help students mastering speaking skills, the study might contribute small efforts to fulfill the picture of current learning speaking methods in Vietnam

is believed to figure out students‟ awareness of their common speaking mistakes, the use of the method in improving speaking skills, some difficulties when using it, and some suggested solutions On the other hand, the interview is engaged to gather detail information of each participant, to provide appropriate data for the research

3.2 Participants

There are two groups of participants in this study consisting of 50 first-year English majors and a focused group of ten students The former group joins in this study by doing the first questionnaire to investigate their problems in learning speaking skills as well as their knowledge about the shadowing technique Ten students in the latter group come from the first group; they apply shadowing to practice speaking This group is investigated by questionnaires and interviews

A total of 50 freshman English majors from four different classes have supported in the research Although the number of students selected accounts for only 30 percents of the first-year student's population, they are believed to ensure the representatives and the cogency of the research findings The reason for selecting freshman is that they are easily accessed with the new, especially they are all willing to try a new method to study

The ten participants of the focus group described above are chosen to get involved in this research for several reasons Firstly, most of them are at the pre-intermediate level, which is based on their university entry points Hamada (2014)‟s study showed that the shadowing technique is one of the most effective techniques for lower-proficiency learners Moreover, in the context of Vietnam, high school students do not have much time to speak in an English lesson (Lan Anh Nguyen,

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2014) So, the majority of participants, who have just graduated, hardly find a suitable method for self-study speaking skills Getting them to participate in this research is the correct choice not only tests the effects of shadowing technique on their speaking skills but also provides them a method for self-study because some of them still cannot decide their way of studying proficiency yet

Secondly, they are now studying in FFL; they will be guided on how to practiced four English skills during their lessons Therefore, they aware of the importance of practicing to improve their English proficiency Because of more time practicing, they need to experience more methods of studying English in general and studying speaking skills in particular

Last but not least, they all know about the shadowing technique, but hardly they apply it to practice Because of their awareness of shadowing, they can easily access to the method than others This research helps the participants to practice shadowing more often and tries to figure out the result for better English speaking abilities

3.3 Instruments

To reach the primary objectives of the study, there are several approaches to collect the information in concerning common mistakes in speaking skills, students‟ understanding about shadowing technique, and some difficulties and developments

of the participants who practice with shadowing

3.3.1 Questionnaire

The survey questionnaires have been constructed for data collection for this research In order to design them, the author has referred the questionnaire from the study of Manseur (2015) about the role of shadowing technique in speaking skills as

it is suitable with this study‟s objectives; furthermore, it also provides detail questions for easily collecting data His questionnaire has been modified to fit with the Vietnamese context, and the aims of this research paper

The questionnaires consisted of both open and closed questionnaire, containing the title, instructions, questionnaire items, additional information, and a final “thank you” Notably, open questionnaire asks for students‟ opinion and information in their own words Therefore open-ended questions are beneficial to discovery or subjective reactions The closed questionnaire includes multiple choices questions or direct short answer responses The questionnaires are written in

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simple English, and translated into Vietnamese so that the participants can understand and avoid misunderstanding of the questions They may enhance the reliability and validity of the gathered data The researcher designs two questionnaires; the first questionnaire investigates the familiar students‟ speaking mistakes and the awareness of them of shadowing technique before the experiment; whereas the next one explores their ideas about some improvements and difficulties after one-month practice with shadowing technique

3.3.1.1 The first questionnaire

The first questionnaire consists of both open and closed questions These questions include different forms, such as multiple choice, short answer, and the semantic differential The questionnaire comprises of 7 questions that required the participants to give their opinions about their common speaking problems when speaking English, and to what extent they know about shadowing technique In particular, the first questions aims to investigate students self-evaluation their speaking level Question 2 and 3 focus on identifying students‟ general mistakes-related speaking skills and the methods they use to overcome them The next two questions are about students‟ awareness of the shadowing technique Finally, question 7 surveys participants‟ willingness to practice shadowing All of 50

students have done this questionnaire (For further information, see Appendix 1)

3.3.1.2 The second questionnaire

This questionnaire primary focuses on students‟ perspective about the use of the shadowing technique in speaking practice, and some difficulties they have encountered after a one-month trial It included seven questions The first two questions investigate the improvements which students gained after the trial process and their evaluation of the effect of the shadowing technique The next four questions examine the difficulties of participants when shadowing, and the factors affected shadowing products The last question is to know whether participants continue using it in the future Only the focus group of ten participants have to do

this questionnaire (For further information, see Appendix 2)

3.3.2 Interview

The interview is defined as a qualitative research method The advantages of interview are its possibilities to gather detail information to provide appropriate data

3.3.2.1 The first interview

This interview has seven questions This interview examines students‟ speaking mistakes and their opinions about the shadowing technique before applying it to practice speaking In particular, question 1 and 2 examine participants‟ problems faced when speaking English Question 1 asks when and where they practice speaking English Question 2 focuses on students‟ common issues in speaking Question 3 questions if they had ever tried out any solution to solve their drawbacks The next five questions mention students‟ awareness of the shadowing technique By part, question 4, 5 and 6 invest if they have known about the shadowing technique, and examine whether they have ever practiced with it, and their understanding while trying to use it Finally, question 7 focuses on

participants‟ attitudes towards the use of shadowing technique (For further information, see Appendix 3)

3.3.2.2 The second interview

In this time, the researcher attends to figure out the experience that the participants have transferred from shadowing In particular, question 1 asks their speaking improvement after shadowing Question 2 focuses on the suitable level of shadowing given materials with students‟ speaking level Question 3 and 4 examine

3.4.2 Interview procedure

Regarding the second instrument, after finishing the first questionnaire two days, the researcher made an appointment with all the students in the focused group and progressed individual interview The next meeting came after the participants completed their second questionnaire a day Each interview took about 15 to 20 minutes After gathering information, students are thanked again for their support They are guaranteed that their answers would be used only for this research purposes

3.4.3 Shadowing procedure

The materials are taken from TED Talks, VOA Special English, and Youtube There are five videos have been used in this project All these videos are

at the pre-intermediate level

The first three videos are chosen from VOA Special English Because in these videos, the speakers speak slowly, they all have standard American accents and pronunciation, and they use simple vocabulary in their speech Moreover, these videos also spend a short time to finish (about two to three minutes) So, they are

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suitable for the participants, who are at a low level, to imitate it more easily The first video called “Tips for Writing: „They Say, I Say‟” The second one is “How Facebook Can Affect Your Sense of Happiness” And the third one is “A Fountain

of Chocolate, a Rush of Joy”

The next two videos are taken from TED Talks and Youtube These two videos are harder because the researcher believes that the shadowers have improved their shadow abilities after practicing with the three first videos In these two videos, the speakers‟ speed is a little bit faster, and the vocabulary they used is more complicated However, the speakers still speak in standard pronunciation, and the time of the videos are controlled in around three to four minutes The fourth practice video, called “The genius of Marie Curie”, is taken from TED Talks And the last video is chosen from youtube, called “Why You‟ve Been Eating Burgers Wrong Your Entire Life”

The process of the one-month trial shadowing technique is as follows:

Day1: Watching a short video without subtitle for three to fives times to get familiar with the speaker‟s accent, intonation, rhythm, and speed

Day 2: Watching the video again with subtitle

Day 3: Watching the video and read along with the subtitle for three to five times

Day 4 and day 5: Shadowing when listening to the speaker with subtitle for three to five times

Day 6 and day 7: Shadowing when listening to the speaker without subtitle Day 8: Watching another short video without subtitle for three to five times Day 9: Watching video with subtitle, and read it along for three to fives times

Day 10: Shadowing when watching the video with subtitle

Day 11: Shadowing when watching the video without subtitle

Day 12: Watching another video without subtitle for two to three times, then watching it again with subtitle, and read it along for three to five times

Day 13: Shadowing when watching the video with subtitle

Day 14: Shadowing when watching the video without subtitle

In the next 15 days, the participants repeat the process with a shorter time and tried to shadow completely three more materials