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Alexander Arguelles’ Shadowing technique

 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies Post Reply
37 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5  Next >>
Po-ru
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 Message 1 of 37
08 December 2009 at 11:49pm | IP Logged 
I found out about this method in April and since then I've been trying to get the concept
behind it or a shortened downed description of it. I am just wondering what this method
focuses on and whether or not anyone actually does this and its effectiveness.

Let me know what you guys have experienced with shadowing.


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jeff_lindqvist
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 Message 2 of 37
09 December 2009 at 12:57am | IP Logged 
I have found it a quite valuable exercise in combination with isolated pronunciation, chorusing (see the forum glossary for definitions), listening comprehension and many other activities.

Check the other threads about shadowing.
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Sprachprofi
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 Message 3 of 37
09 December 2009 at 9:30am | IP Logged 
I have my doubts about its effectiveness for learning to speak a language. The reason: Professor Arguelles shadowed both volumes of Assimil Chinese, yet we had to resort to writing in order to have the simplest conversation in Chinese.
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Po-ru
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 Message 4 of 37
09 December 2009 at 8:53pm | IP Logged 
Sprachprofi wrote:
I have my doubts about its effectiveness for learning to speak a
language. The reason: Professor Arguelles shadowed both volumes of Assimil Chinese, yet
we had to resort to writing in order to have the simplest conversation in
Chinese.


I am not sure what you mean...can you explain a little further in depth?

I am just not sure how this helps anyone in speaking the language. I think it would help
more with pronunciation and sounding like a native speaker but I am not positive as to
how it allows a person to think in the language and apply it to their speech.
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Hencke
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 Message 5 of 37
10 December 2009 at 2:11pm | IP Logged 
I have done quite a bit of shadowing in Mandarin and as I see it the main purpose is developing a good accent. At least for me it takes enormous amounts of time and effort before I start seeing any results, but the results do appear in the end, and I am not aware of a better method for accent development.

I agree that the primary purpose is not to develop conversational skills. It can help with those too, though only marginally imho and compared to the massive amount of time and effort put in it is quite ineffective for that.

Edited by Hencke on 10 December 2009 at 2:12pm

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numerodix
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 Message 6 of 37
10 December 2009 at 2:39pm | IP Logged 
Hencke wrote:
I have done quite a bit of shadowing in Mandarin and as I see it the main purpose is developing a good accent. At least for me it takes enormous amounts of time and effort before I start seeing any results, but the results do appear in the end, and I am not aware of a better method for accent development.

I agree that the primary purpose is not to develop conversational skills. It can help with those too, though only marginally imho and compared to the massive amount of time and effort put in it is quite ineffective for that.

When you say enormous amounts, could you quantify a bit?
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Walshy
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 Message 7 of 37
11 December 2009 at 9:48am | IP Logged 
I developed a problem in German after I had been focusing purely on "German input" (reading, watching, listening), and I only learned to pronounce words in isolation.

The result of this was that when I tried to speak whole sentences, it felt to me like it was all "stuck" in my mouth, and it would sort of blend together. Even by my own ear, thanks to all the input, my accent sounded way off. Shadowing helped me immensely to get over this, now it feels much more natural when I speak.

I've been shadowing Spanish too, so I can avoid this happening again.

Shadowing can be integrated into a listening-reading type activity (this was the original purpose, IIRC), but personally, I've only toyed with this thus far.

Edited by Walshy on 11 December 2009 at 9:48am

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schoenewaelder
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 Message 8 of 37
11 December 2009 at 3:00pm | IP Logged 
Funnily enough, the prof actually has a somewhat dismissive attitude to accent
acquisition. He has a series of 4 vids on the subject.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz7RB-QQFVw

Although they don't actually explain very much useful (as is the case with most of the
prof's vids)




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