摘要:The present study attempted to explore the effects of employing shadowing and
tracking on Iranian EFL learners’ speaking fluency. From among 112 intermediate
Iranian EFL learners at Jahad Danesheshgahi Language Institute in Isfahan, Iran,
60 were selected in the wake of administering the Preliminary English Test and
divided into four groups: shadowing group (SG), tracking group (TG), shadowing
and tracking group (STG), and control group (CG). The data elicitation techniques
employed as the pre-test and post-test were semi-structured interviews in which
learners answered several questions. Fluency scores were derived out of the
formula suggested by Yuan and Ellis (2003). One-way between-groups ANOVA
and paired samples t test were used to make between-groups and within-group
comparisons and to discern whether the participants in each group could gain an
advantage from their specific methods of instruction. The analysis of the obtained
data via SPSS indicated that (a) the successful performance of the participants in
the experimental groups was shown to be attributable to using shadowing and
tracking techniques as tools for improving oral fluency, and that (b) among these
experimental groups, STG was shown to be significantly better than the SG, which
in turn was significantly better than TG.