The Effectiveness of Using Shadowing Technique on Improving Students’ Pronunciation at SMA Negeri 10 Pekanbaru

This study examined the effectiveness of the shadowing technique in improving the pronunciation of tenth-grade students at SMA Negeri 10 Pekanbaru, where students' pronunciation is often influenced by Indonesian phonology. A non-randomized pretest-posttest two-group design was applied to 84 students from two intact classes, 42 in the experimental class and 42 in the control class. The experimental class received five shadowing sessions of about 90 minutes, whereas the control class received conventional pronunciation instruction. Oral reading-aloud tests were scored by three raters on intelligibility, fluency, accuracy, intonation, and stress. The mean score of the experimental class increased from 51.55 to 65.95 (gain 14.40), while that of the control class increased from 52.14 to 60.36 (gain 8.21). Independent samples t-tests showed a significant difference in posttest scores, t(82) = 4.42, p < .001, and in gain scores, t(82) = 4.42, p < .001. Shadowing was more effective than conventional instruction, although weak agreement among raters on the posttest, the single school, and the short treatment limit the findings.