The Semantic Processing Encouragement in Passage Shadowing

Abstract

This study aims to measure the differences in the shadowing performance of Japanese university students with differing English abilities in the absence of or with encouragement to remember content for a recall task. In order to determine how Japanese EFL learners' shadowing performance is affected by the purpose of shadowing and speed of speech, the shadowing reproduction rate (RR) was calculated by transcribing all the recorded shadowing tasks at three different speeds and two purposes. An error analysis was also conducted both quantitatively and qualitatively. Results show a significant effect of semantic processing encouragement on shadowing performance for both ability levels in participants. Especially, upper-intermediate levels took more advantage of semantic processing encouragement in shadowing and demonstrated more semantically-related errors than lower-intermediate levels. In contrast, lower-intermediate levels produced more phonologically-related errors. Findings of this study show the different tendencies in working memory (WM) allocation to meaning and sound by shadowing condition and English proficiency.