The Effect of Conversational Shadowing on Enhancing Iranian EFL Learners’ Oral Performance Based on Accuracy

Abstract

The present study is an investigation of the extent to which conversational shadowing improve the level of accuracy of EFL learners during their oral performance. Participants in this study were consisted of 60 students studying English in an English institute at intermediate level in Tehran as an EFL context. The participants received conversational shadowing practice during their interaction with the instructor and peers. A general English proficiency test, pre-test and post-test of simple past tense were administered to them. Two intact classes were selected as a control and experimental group in this study. Experimental group were taught simple past tense based on conversational shadowing while the control group were taught as it had been demonstrated in their books. The results of the quantitative and qualitative studies, when integrated, supported this assumption by showing that oral repetition served as a scaffolding device that helped learners use correct form of simple past tense. Conversational shadowing was not perceived as enjoyable or useful in itself, but a few highly proficient students, who had utilized the pertinent technique in the service of more interesting activities, acknowledged that they had learned useful sentences and make fewer errors during their conversation. Therefore, conversational shadowing can be best utilized to help intermediate EFL students to perfect their correct use of grammar when they are interacting with their peers.