Abstract
In this study, we conducted an intensive 42-day Shadowing Marathon program in which learners shadowed unlearned materials in a bottom-up way to promote their perception and imitation skills. The learners shadowed a given model utterance three times, script-shadowed it, and read it aloud. Their utterances were analyzed automatically using advanced speech technologies to calculate separate scores for correct perception and imitation. Based on these scores and their TOEIC and Versant scores, we aimed to answer the following research questions: 1) How did the perception scores and imitation scores change during the 42 days? 2) What were the correlations between the two kinds of shadowing scores and the TOEIC and Versant scores? 3) To Language Education & Technology 59 (2022) 77 － 105 what extent did the frequency of participation in the marathon influence the TOEIC and Versant scores? Statistical analysis showed the following: 1) The perception scores tended to increase significantly, while the imitation scores remained unchanged. 2) The correlations between the perception scores and the TOEIC listening scores and between the imitation scores and the Versant speaking scores were significant, except for the pitch-based shadowing scores. 3) Frequent participation in the marathon was associated with significant improvements in the Versant scores for pronunciation and vocabulary.
