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My demo of Prof Arguelles’ Shadowing tech | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| RagsToRich Newbie United Kingdom therealmind.com Joined 5394 days ago 11 posts - 18 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 9 28 October 2010 at 6:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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I recently recorded myself shadowing Harry Potter and posted it on my blog.
You can see the video and details here. Rich demos shadowing I am a shadowing "newb"... so if I'm getting anything obviously wrong let me know. I would like to find something a little more "down to earth" than Harry Potter - ie: with more "street/day-to-day" language, but I've found Spanish audiobooks quite difficult to come accross. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5660 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes  Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 2 of 9 28 October 2010 at 8:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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Great stuff. The difference between your version and that recommended by the professor
is, of course, that you are sitting down. He recommends vigorous walking, since he believes that the physical activity somehow helps improves the effect. Like you, I used to shadow for long periods, such as 30 minutes at a stretch. It worked well, but there were three problems: I had to set aside a 30 minute chunk of time, and some days I let this slip (so it was 30 minutes, or nothing); secondly, I found my concentration wandered at times during the sessions and often I was almost begging for the session to be over; thirdly, the pleasant effect of the language flying around in my head faded within a few hours of the session. I decided to attack all of these problems in one go. Nowadays, then, I shadow in 5 minutes chunks - 12 times per pay. So, a total of an hour spread out over all my waking hours. These bite sized chunks have proven to be ideal, since I can always find five minutes no matter what else I am doing, plus the next 5 minute session is never more than 90 minutes away, which means that the language remains in my head all day long. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| hypersport Senior Member United States Joined 5872 days ago 216 posts - 307 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 9 29 October 2010 at 6:26am | IP Logged | ||
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You need to work on your pronunciation.
Slow down and listen to the audio a few more times before trying to repeat. Amplia stresses the first syllable. Words in the preterite have the accent at the end and really need to be stressed as such. Iluminó, se quedó. If you don’t stress these correctly it’s really confusing. Also, hacia stresses the first syllable when used like you did in “hacia la casa“. Hacía is different, this can refer to a moment in the past or can be the imperfect form for hacer “to make or do“. You don’t want to say for example “se dirigió hacía la casa“. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chill Diglot Groupie Japan Joined 5156 days ago 68 posts - 77 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French | Message 4 of 9 29 October 2010 at 10:24am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Rich,
Nice blog! May I ask you a question? What exactly to you hope to get from shadowing? If your shadowing goes perfectly, what do you expect the result to be? Thanks, Charles 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| RagsToRich Newbie United Kingdom therealmind.com Joined 5394 days ago 11 posts - 18 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 5 of 9 30 October 2010 at 9:53am | IP Logged | ||
Hi Hyper, Thanks for pointing this out. I was aware that shadowing can breed pronunciation problems. But one reason for that is the exposure to a lot of speaking and listening in a relatively short space of time. Listening for stress is not yet my strong point. However if you have any recommendations of products etc for pronunciation I'd be interested. I've been told michael thomas is good for that. It's worth noting that as well as shadowing I also meet up with Spanish natives for Intercambio de Idiomas and I also have been living in Spain since August so massive pronunciation problems should get ironed out over time. Chill, What I've gained - a lot of vocab, better pronunciation (the above given), and probably mainly I've gained the ability to say certain words in quick succession and speed which I could not at all before. Such as "Doce vezes hizo fucionar...", rolling rs quickly, etc. What I'm hopeing to gain is to "think" in Spanish. Splog, Actually I like the longer sessions. I find that after 20 minutes or so I start to become very focused and shadowing becomes a lot easier and more accurate. I'm not sure in 5 minutes that I could reach that level of concentration. Cheers, Rich 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6900 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 9 30 October 2010 at 11:05am | IP Logged | ||
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Five minutes here and there is better than nothing, and comparable to playing a few scales/riffs/tunes on the guitar several times throughout the day. But, longer practice also has its merits. While it's easier to find these five minute "sessions", it takes time to "get into" the exercise. Five minutes of shadowing is hardly even a warm-up (unless you're already somewhat fluent in the language).
I pick up my fiddle and play a tune or two now and then. But it doesn't feel OK until I've played for some 30-45 minutes (and after 1h 15 minutes it starts feeling "heavy" again). 15 minutes is the absolute minimum when I shadow (which however doesn't happen that often nowadays). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5660 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 7 of 9 30 October 2010 at 12:07pm | IP Logged | ||
I used to think exactly the same. Five minutes of shadowing, or most other activities, are pretty useless if the gaps between the sessions are long. The reason you need 15 minutes to "warm up" is because the gaps between sessions have allowed things to "go cold". By having a five minute session every hour, everything is still floating in your head since the last session, so there is no need to warm up. You are sprinting from the first second. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6573 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 8 of 9 30 October 2010 at 3:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Wow, I really use shadowing differently from you guys. I have an audio sample of no more than two minutes. I first make sure I understand it perfectly, then I listen to it a few times whilst reading the text and only then do I follow along with my voice. Usually the first ten times or so my shadowing will be pretty bad, but as I start getting used to the piece it gets better and better. Of course the more I shadow in a language the better I get at tackling new pieces. At the end of my period of shadowing Mandarin I usually got it pretty good on the first try. I'm doing clips from Cantonese movies now, often spoken really quickly and with lots of slurring, and they take forever to get anywhere with. But the results in my own spoken fluency has been very encouraging. I like these kinds of pieces because I want to be able to speak quickly and slur just like the natives. I don't want to sound like an audiobook.
The advantage I see with this method is that you can easier identify problem areas and work on them, since you do the same part all over again. I think the repetition also helps getting the patterns stuck in your head. But I can see advantages with the way you guys do it, too. I might try it in my next language. Canto has no literature, let alone audiobooks, so I cant really do it now. 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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