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Pre-publishing IdeasThis is an abbreviated article looking atthe methods of shadow reading withoutgoing into the details of theory. Thecomplete article has been accepted byLanguage Teaching Research forpublication sometime in 2013. The editorof that publication, Rod Ellis, has kindlyallowed us to published this shortdescription ahead of the full article so wemight use the ideas and experiement withthem ourselves.

Shadow-reading in

the ESL classroom: Abrief reportMillie Commander &

Mara C. M. de Guerrero

Inter American University of Puerto Rico,Metropolitan Campus

The aim of this brief report is to discussour experience with shadow-reading, bothas a technique we have successfullyapplied in the ESL classroom and as thefocus of a research study we recentlyconducted (author & autho, forthcoming).

Shadow-reading is an adaptation ofconversational shadowing (Murphey,

2001), a pedagogical technique in whichL2 learners shadow their interlocutors,that is, repeat what others say, eithercompletely or selectively, or engage inconversational interaction about what isbeing said. In shadow-reading, shadowingis combined with summarizing andretelling in order to encourage not onlymeaningful imitation of L2 models butalso reading comprehension and retentionof written English texts. What follows is a

brief description of the procedures forshadow-reading, as we have implementedit in basic ESL classes at a private

university in Puerto Rico.

Training for shadow-reading

To perform shadow-reading effectively,students first need to understand the

concept of shadowing and get somepractice in doing it. There are three areasof training that we think are important:

Chunking: Students need to develop theability to chunk, that is, learn how tosegment long utterances into meaningfulshorter units. Teachers can give learners afew tips as to how to preserve syntacticand semantic unity in short segments aswell as demonstrate correct chunking byreading aloud, slightly pausing afterappropriate word groups, and askingstudents to repeat.

Shadowing short sentences: To introducelearners to the notion of shadowing, wesuggest showing Murpheys (2000)Shadowing and Summarizing video. Eitherthrough the video or teacherdemonstration, students can be taughthow to shadow short sentences in variousways: in complete or selective form, outloud or in low-voice private speech, andinteractively (i.e. interjecting commentsor questions).

Shadowing longer passages: Studentsneed practice in shadowing longer piecesof discourse. They still chunk and shadowas above, and then summarize thepassage in their own words.This impliesthe ability to hold larger amounts ofinformation in short-term memory andthen verbalize (summarize) what hasbeen retained. In summarizing longerpassages, learners are not required toreproduce utterances exactly as they aremodeled (shadowed). Paraphrasing andsummarizing are actually encouraged. Topractice shadowing of longer passages,we suggest using short narrative textsorganized in paragraphs so that pairs of

learners can shadow, paragraph byparagraph, the story to each other in

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alternate fashion. In fact, some studentscan shadow very well but with littleretention of information. Thesummarizing makes them attend more tothe meaning making as they shadow(Murphey, personal communication).

Procedures for shadow-reading

The shadow-reading task per se, asimplemented in our classrooms andresearch study, consists of aninteractional phase and a non-interactional phase. In the interactionalphase, the students, working in pairs,read silently and aloud, shadow, andorally summarize a story. In the non-

interactional phase, the studentsindividually produce written retellings ofthe story on two occasions, immediatelyafter the activity and several days later.

For shadow-reading, teachers first needto select a story text that can be dividedinto two equally long parts. During theactivity, and for the first part of the text,one partner assumes the role of Reader(i.e., reads the text aloud) and the other

partner assumes the role of Shadower(i.e. repeats and/or summarizes what he/she hears, without looking at the text).Following are the main steps inconducting the shadow-reading session.

Interactional phase

1. Students, in pairs and facing eachother, are provided with Part I of thestory in print form. Both partners read

Part I silently. When finished, PartnerA (Reader) keeps the text and PartnerB (Shadower) returns the text to theteacher.

2. Students are reminded that they canmake interactive comments (clarifyideas, ask each other questions, and/or engage in conversation) during theshadow-reading session if that helpsthem derive meaning from the text.

3. Partner A reads Part I out loud andPartner B shadows. The following

sequence may be followed for eachparagraph, or for all of Part I if itconsists of only one paragraph.

4.

Partner A reads each sentence,

chunking as necessary Partner B shadows each sentencethree times: out loud, in low voice,and silently

Partner A reads each sentence again

Partner B shadows each sentenceselectively (i.e., repeating only keywords)

Partner A reads the entire paragraphagain

Partner B summarizes paragraph

If Part I is multi-paragraph, Partner Bsummarizes all of Part I

5. Roles are reversed for Part II (PartnerA becomes Shadower and Partner Bbecomes Reader). The same procedureas for Part I is followed with Part II ofthe story.

Non-interactional phase

Immediately after shadowing andsummarizing the story orally, the studentsare asked to write individually, in English,as much as they can remember from thestory. Several days later, they arerequired to produce in writing a second(delayed) recall of the story in English.Optionally, and in order to obtain anothermeasure of comprehension and retention,students may be invited to do a thirdwritten retelling of the story, this time in

their L1

Shadow-reading and imitation

As researchers and practitioners inspiredby Vygotskyan sociocultural theory (SCT),we are interested in shadow-readingbecause we find in it multiple affordancesfor imitation. Within the SCT framework,imitation is viewed as the chiefmechanism of internalization and a major

component of developmental activity inthe zone of proximal development (ZPD)(Vygotsky, 1986). Imitation is not, within


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this framework, mere rote or mechanicalrepetition of models; rather, imitationinvolves conscious understanding of whatis imitated, the intention to reproduce itin meaningful ways, and the ability toextend the reproduction creatively to

new contexts. In our research study weobserved the process of imitation as itunfolded in the shadow-reading activity.Specifically, we focused on those aspectsof shadow-reading which helped learnersinternalize and creatively reconstruct astory text through imitation. A qualitativeanalysis of shadow-reading indeedrevealed a rich gamut of imitativebehaviors which seemed to contribute tolanguage development as well as storycomprehension and retention. Aquantitative analysis of the retellings inwhich we compared the scores obtainedby a group of learners that had engagedin shadow-reading to the scores ofanother group which had simply read thestory silently yielded significantly higherscores for the students who had engagedin shadow-reading (see forthcomingarticle for the details). Both the

qualitative and the quantitative results ofthe study suggest that shadow-readingeffectively promotes meaningful imitationand internalization of L2 exemplars,aiding story comprehension andretention.

Shadowing, chunking, and interaction

A crucial skill involved in shadow-readingis chunking. The partner who reads the

text orally has to chunk the sentencesin the text into manageable meaningfulword groups with adequate pauses toallow enough time for the Shadower tograsp the content and repeat it. Thisphonological encoding of the Reader andsubsequently of the Shadower providesthe opportunity to go beyond mererepetition in order to facilitateinterpretation and storage of a message.As Murphey (1996) suggested, chunking

facilitates adjustment in the ZPD. Ourlearners took advantage of the chunkingstrategy and explicitly requested it (Can

you please chunking?) or offered it (Youwant chunk?). ZPD adjustment inshadow-reading is also facilitated by thepossibility of interaction betweenpartners. As learners interact forclarification purposes, request for

assistance, and topic engagement,meaning can be jointly constructed andlanguage becomes the focus of attention.Interaction between learners is, in fact,one of the essential components for thesuccess of shadow-reading because ithelps learners to make sense of the textand reproduce it with understanding.

Reasons for implementing shadow-reading

Results of our research study and ourpractical experience with the techniquelead us to believe shadow-reading may beusefully and effectively applied in secondor foreign language classrooms. Some ofthe most salient reasons we find shadow-reading to be useful are the following:

It offers repeated opportunities for

hearing, articulating, understanding,and internalizing L2 segments.

It provides affordances for mutualassistance in the ZPD, as partners havethe opportunity to monitor eachothers production, make corrections ifnecessary, and help each otherunderstand and produce text.

It promotes intelligent, transformativeimitation of L2 material andtranscendence (transferring learnedsegments to new contexts), especiallyas students summarize in theinteractional phase and in the writtenretellings.

It allows the students to engage inimitation in private speech(particularly during low voice and

silent repetition), a process whichmight contribute to internalization.


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It can be applied at any proficiencylevel, depending on the complexity ofthe text selected. Shadow-reading isactually an excellent way to developparaphrasing and summarizing skillsamong advanced L2/FL learners.

Millie Commander [email protected]

Mara C. M. de Guerrero -

[email protected]

References

Commander, M & de Guerrero, M.(Forthcoming 2013). Shadow-reading:

Affordances for imitation in the languageclassroom. Language Teaching Research.

Murphey, T. (1996, September). Proactiveadjusting to the zone of proximaldevelopment: Learner and teacherstrategies. Paper presented at the 2ndConference for Socio-cultural ResearchVygotsky-Piaget, Geneva, 1-4.

Murphey, T. (2000). Shadowing and

summarizing. Paper presented atSecond Language Teaching & CurriculumCenter. University of Hawaii, Honolulu.

Murphey, T. (2001).Exploringconversational shadowing. LanguageTeaching Research, 5(2), 128-155.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought andlanguage. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.


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