SHADOWING AND INTERPRETING PERFORMANCES OF ENGLISH-MAJOR STUDENTS

Abstract

Shadowing has been widely utilized in English language teaching classes, especially in interpretation training courses for decades and has become a topic of avid interest to various researchers such as Lambert (1992), Murphey (1995, 2001), Shiota (2012), and Hamada (2014). However, there has been no research conducted on the effect of implementing shadowing on fluency improvement in English interpretation in Vietnam. In response to this gap in the literature, this study aims to investigate (1) the possible connection between shadowing practices and the interpreting performances of the third-year English-major students in the educational context at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI) and (2) the students’ perceptions of the application of shadowing in interpreting classes and its impacts on interpreting fluency. 54 third-year students at the Faculty of Foreign Languages (FFL), HaUI took part in a two-month experimental research, divided randomly into two groups including experimental and control groups. Data were gathered from (1) the pre- and post-tests with these two student cohorts, (2) interviews conducted with five students from the experimental group and (3) observations with this group. The research findings showed (1) a minimal influence of shadowing techniques on fluency improvement of the experimental group and (2) positive students’ beliefs and attitudes towards the application of shadowing in interpreting classes and its impacts on interpreting fluency. Based on these findings, a series of recommendations on the pedagogical procedure for applying shadowing to enhance English major students’ interpreting performances and further research on the application were offered. The paper, hopefully, provides useful information for teachers and researchers in the domain of interpretation, in general, and interpreting teaching activities at tertiary education, in particular.