Shadowing Step by Step

Alexander Arguelles presents a discussion and commentary of his technique of "shadowing" foreign languages. For more information, please refer to http://www.foreignlanguageexpertise.com

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  Education

[ProfASAr]

My own results, in terms of both segemental and suprasegmental reproduction, are much more accurate than when I "listen and then repeat." Upon first trying it, some students are stymied by the novelty of the technique, but thereafter my observations match my experience. So again I ask: have you tried it? It seems that you have not, but are basing your critique upon theory alone.

[ProfASAr]

Is that your experience? I emphatically discourage multi-tasking when it comes to trying to do two different mental activities at once. However, when it comes to combining a mental activity (such as studying) with a physical activity (such as walking) into an exercise such as shadowing, my experience, offered here, is that it is both possible and highly profitable to do so. Have you actually tried it?

[RolandOnTheRoad]

Thank you, you have saved me so much study time with these videos. One question, should I edit out all the exercise content from the Assimil audio dialogs or should I also shadow the exercise content? 

[Chris Sketch]

@chc981012 It's more of an overlapping technique. If you're blind shadowing lesson 14-15, you are shadowing + reading teaching language 9-13, reading + shadowing both 5-8, reading + shadowing new language 2-4, and rewriting lesson 1. I'm starting to shadow Mandarin. It worked well for German.

[chc981012]

So is it like that I have to apply all stages on a lesson then start the next lesson after that????

Your video is absolutely fantastic and useful, too bad I didn't see it earlier.

I'm a Chinese student in California, English is my third language. I learned Taiwanese by hearing people and observing people's motion, which is kind of similar to you method.

Thank you for this amazing video.

[Lack042]

I think it is against YouTube rules to be that polite to someone who's criticizing you. Take care.

[ice9tgn]

So just a simple question, I am nearing the end of the first stage of the process but soon I will need to type out the lesson. Is the idea here to translate the L2 into L1?

[ScoopManLuke]

What do you think about using the Bible for this analysis? Mandarin on the left, English on the right

[azorultkutya]

Try slowing the speed of the recording down and keep going, it gets easier. In time, you'll be able to anticipate the text, thus focusing on the text as a whole. Good luck.

[GamblingDementor]

J'ai commencé cette technique récemment après avoir regardé vos vidéos d'explication à son sujet et je suis enchantée ! Je trouve que c'est un excellent exercice, je sens déjà des progrès et c'est devenu un de mes exercices quotidiens. Merci beaucoup pour votre présentation !

[greenham13]

continuing my last post. 10 lessons tends to be about 10 minutes. I'll go through it 3 times a day. Step one (no book), I do for 3 days. Right page, for 2 days, dual pages for 1 day (progressive switching from right to left on each of the 3 run-throughs), left page for 2 days, reading w/o audio 1 day, writing for 1 day.

[ValerieG56]

Thank you so much for sharing your method. After only a few days of practice in my training to learn english (I'm french), I already see improvements. I understand much better the radio or the films. How great this is ! My listenning skills have improved so much ! Let alone my speaking skills ! You're a great guy to share all this free !