Adopting an acoustic framework, this experimental study elucidates the effect of the shadowing technique on the prosodic competence of learners of English whose L1 (Arabic) and English have quite dissimilar phonetic and phonological systems. It appertains to prosodic aspects such as pauses, stress, and sound length that cause challenges to non-English native speakers. Two individuals of heterogeneous linguistic background participated in a pre-test and a post-test before and after five weeks of shadowing sessions. The data was analyzed acoustically using Praat. Findings showed that the participant with the elementary level outperformed the other participant whose level was intermediate, partially because the former was highly motivated to improve her English. The study concluded that shadowing per se is in no way a panacea for improving prosodic features unless it is coupled with a motivation to do so, regardless of the level of proficiency.
د. ميادة نجيب المقطري | Mayada Nageeb Al-Maktary | 7135