Utilizing Shadowing as a Project for Pronunciation Improvement: A Case Study of Korean Learners in the US

Although pronunciation plays a crucial role when communicating in a foreign language, explicit teaching on pronunciation has not been actively implemented in language classrooms. This study introduces the shadowing technique to enhance students' pronunciation skills in Korean language classrooms in the US. In particular, this paper implemented shadowing as a semester-long project and 17 intermediate Korean learners were recruited from two universities. They completed a pretest and a posttest to evaluate how shadowing influenced their overall pronunciation and participated in an end-of-the-semester survey. The findings strongly demonstrate that the shadowing project significantly improved students' pronunciation in terms of accuracy, fluency, comprehensibility, and strengthened their self-confidence. Thus, the present study suggests that shadowing is an effective method for improving pronunciation and communication skills for students who study Korean as a foreign language.