Effect of shadowing with reduced forms on ESL listening comprehension

Reduced forms, such as linking, reduction, and assimilation, are widely used in spoken English and are the main reasons that affect the listening comprehension of learners of English as a Second Language (ESL), as pointed out by many researchers (e.g. Wong et al., 2015; Field, 2003). Shadowing is a listening technique which requires learners to track the heard speech and vocalize it in real time (Tamai, 2002). It reinforces learners’ phonological coding and their speech perception, particularly by training the phonological loop in the working memory (Baddeley, 2007). The primary goal of this study is to investigate the perception of reduced forms through shadowing on improving ESL learners’ listening comprehension.