This study investigates the effectiveness of conversational shadowing and washback in a TOEFL iBT preparation course for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. An experimental design was proposed with 52 EFL learners from a TOEFL iBT preparation course at an educational institute in Taiwan who were further divided into the control and experimental groups for 12 weeks based on the learning of conversational shadowing through the teaching-to-the-test approach. During this time, the experimental group received the intervention of conversational shadowing while the control group did not. To further assess learners’ progress, the pre- and post-tests based on the institutional TOEFL iBT listening and speaking assessments were administered and analyzed quantitatively along with the pre- and post-questionnaires before and after this study, followed by a series of semi-structured interviews along with the researcher’s field notes for more qualitative data that added more depth to this investigation pertaining to learners’ confidence, learning motivation, and attitudes based on the instruction of conversational shadowing. This study concludes with several essential pedagogical implications from the data collected and analyzed. The results indicated that conversational shadowing not merely improved EFL learners’ English listening and speaking competence, but also strengthened their confidence, learning motivation, and attitudes based on the pre- and post-tests as well as pre- and post-questionnaires. Several salient reasons were further identified by the participants that facilitated their English learning based on such a learning approach. While learners’ valued the instruction of conversational shadowing, the teaching-to-the-test approach used in this study was deemed ineffective with regard to their English learning nowadays. The existence of a negative washback effect in class was also found to undermine students’ L2 development with a few reasons identified at the same time that highlighted the needs for more communicative language learning in an EFL context.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:707806 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Kung, Fan-Wei |
| Publisher | Queen's University Belfast |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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