Improving Lexical Stress in Korean English Learners: Self-correction vs. Shadowing

This study investigates the effectiveness of self-correction in improving lexical stress placement among Korean English learners, a critical yet challenging feature for speakers of Korean, which lacks lexical stress contrasts. Grounded in Schmidt’s (1990) Noticing Hypothesis, the research compares the benefits of self-correction— where learners reflect on and correct their own pronunciation errors —with the shadowing technique. Forty-seven college students participated, with an experimental group practicing self-correction and a control group engaged in shadowing. Pre- and post-test analyses revealed that the self-correction group demonstrated significantly greater improvement, particularly with trisyllabic and tetrasyllabic words, while the shadowing group showed minimal change. These findings highlight self-correction’s role in promoting learner engagement, error awareness, and deeper cognitive processing, offering practical implications for pronunciation instruction that emphasizes learner autonomy and focused attention.