Repetition Fosters the Effect of Shadowing on L2 Listening Skills : Seeking an Enhanced Procedure

Recent studies have validated the effect of shadowing on the improvement of the second language (L2) listening skills, particularly regarding bottom-up processing.However, the optimal number of repetitions for successful shadowing training has not been revealed.The aim of the study was to reveal whether more than five repetitions could be the optimal number for shadowing.To achieve this, the present study conducted shadowing-based lessons and collected the following data: listening and sorting tests, records of shadowing repetitions inside and outside the classroom, and the shadowing strategy questionnaire.The participants were 72 Japanese university students majoring in nursing.Accordingly, learners who performed a higher number of repetitions achieved higher accuracy in the post listening test.Furthermore, as the number of lessons increased, learners with more repetitions gradually began to pay attention to meaning during shadowing.Pedagogically, the research findings suggest that increasing training volume may be necessary to effectively improve L2 listening skills through shadowing.