The effects of shadowing on EFLstudents’ intelligibility, comprehensibility, fluency, and accentedness across speaking tasks

Kafes H.

International Journal of English Language and Literature Studies, vol.15, no.3, pp.254-269, 2026 (Scopus)

Abstract

Using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, this study investigated the influence of shadowing on EFL students' intelligibility, comprehensibility, fluency, and accentedness in oral discourse. The design consisted of a quantitative pre-experimental one-group pretest-posttest phase followed by a qualitative phase to explain the quantitative findings. The research was conducted with Azerbaijani university students, selected through convenience sampling. Quantitative information was collected from pre-and post-test scores of two tasks (a shadowing task and a picture narration task), while qualitative insights were gathered from semi-structured interviews. The pre-and post-tests were evaluated for intelligibility, comprehensibility, fluency, and accentedness by a linguistics expert who isnative speaker of American English. Qualitative data were thematically analyzed to explore participants’ perceptions of the practice. The findings indicated that the picture narration task significantly enhanced participants’ intelligibility, comprehensibility, and fluency, while reducing their foreign accent. Although the shadowing task contributed to speech improvement, the effect was not statistically significant. Participants reported increased fluency, better comprehension of native speakers’ pronunciation, and a diminished foreign accent, all supporting more natural and intelligible speech. This study contributes to pronunciation pedagogy by examining the impact of shadowing on multiple dimensions of oral performance