An Investigation of the Effectiveness of Dialogue Shadowing Technique (DST) on Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners’ Conversation Ability

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to investigate whether L2 dialogue shadowing practice would have an effect on Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ conversation ability. For this purpose, 30 Iranian intermediate EFL learners at Padideh language center participated in the experiment of the study. The participants were divided into two groups of 15 who were assigned to the experimental and control group of the study randomly. A pretest of conversation ability was administered to both groups, the experimental group received 10 sessions of teaching L2 conversation as well as dialogue shadowing technique (DST) while the control group received a placebo, in other words, teaching L2 conversation via existing method. After the treatment, the same test was administered as posttest to both groups of study. The data obtained from the tests in this study were analyzed via independent sample T-test between performance of the groups, and the paired-sample T-test was used between the pretest and posttest of each group to show the progress. The results revealed that Iranian EFL learners in the experimental group performed better and received higher score in conversation test after 10 sessions of treatment.