Effects of Repetition, Word Types and Material Difficulty on Reproduction Rate of Shadowing

Abstract

Shadowing has been effective in developing listening comprehension skills because it promotes bottom-up processes. Also, the reproduction rate of shadowing (the number of correctly shadowed words) measures a part of success in bottom-up processing in listening. However, what affects the reproduction rate of shadowing was poorly understood. The present study aims to explore the impact of repetitions, material difficulty, and word types on the reproduction rate of words during shadowing. Twenty-five Chinese English learners participated in the study. Two kinds of materials for shadowing were adopted from VOA (Voice of America) to analyze the impact of material difficulty on the reproduction rate of words. The participants shadowed both materials 6 times, and the reproduction rates were evaluated. The results of Generalized Linear Mixed Model (GLMM) showed that the participants could reproduce more words with the 6 times of repeated shadowing, irrespective of word types or material difficulty. Also, the reproduction rate of content words in the difficult material was lower than that of content words in the easy material and function words in both materials.